Kaizen is A Japanese term that is used to refer to continuous incremental improvement. The originally Japanese term consists of two words "kai," which means change, and "zen," which means good. Using Kaizen, an organisation can realise continuous small improvements continually, as it improves its systems and processes.
The key to understanding Kaizen is to understand that it is a long-term organisational philosophy, more than a one time improvement initiative. With Kaizen, everyone in the organisation, starting from top management to every employee in the organisation, learn that by contributing ideas, to make small improvements to the business, the business will become better by the day, thus reflecting positively on them and their work environment.
That is why Kaizen starts with upper management reaching out to employees asking for their help by offering suggestions for improvement. Upper management must have trust in their employees' abilities to think of improvements and to care enough to suggest them to the management.
An important aspect of Kaizen is for management to carry through the improvements suggested. This will give a moral boost to employees that their suggestions are being implemented and not being ignored. Therefore, it is important to build a system that will encourage employees to suggest improvements on regular basis, and for these to get reviewed and implemented, almost on the spot, if possible. If the implementation of improvements requires a lot of time, it is advisable that management keeps employees in the loop on the status of the implementation of their suggested improvements. Toyota is known for its successful implementation of Kaizen. At Toyota, it is reported that every employee contributes an average of sixty or more suggestions per year.
Some think of Kaizen as a process that works at a manufacturing environment only, but that is not the case. Kaizen is applicable to any business environment. It can even be implemented at the personal level. If someone wishes to implement Kaizen personally, then he can simply bring a piece of paper and think about changes that he or she can do to improve their quality of life. These improvements do not have to be dramatic. Small continuous improvements that last are better than radical changes that may fade away at the first obstacle of implementation.
Kaizen principles have started to be applied in Japan since World War II, when the Japanese industry was trying to get back into business on the right foot. Many of the Kaizen principles find their origins in the Shewart and Deming quality principles. Kaizen can improve many aspects of an organisation including culture and leadership, quality, productivity, processes, tools and technology, and safety.
Kaizen is not after drastic and radical sudden changes. Instead, it favours smaller but continuous improvement. Some unfortunately misunderstand that part of Kaizen, and try to implement it as a monthlong or a yearlong improvement initiative.
Not only is Kaizen used to solve problems, but it is also used by companies who are doing well to continuously improve their business. This will keep the company always ahead of competition, improve customer satisfaction, and boost employee morale. Also, processes that are working without problems can be improved to produce even better results using small incremental but continuous improvements.
Kaizen is built on many quality improvement philosophies of the Japanese manufacturing industries, like quality circles, just-in-time, kanban, and the 5S.
An advantage of Kaizen over other radical improvement initiatives is that improvements do not have to wait for a management radical initiative. Improvements happen daily and all stakeholders see the effect of these improvements immediately.
Implementing Kaizen requires a corporate culture shift, especially in the attitudes of upper management towards employees. The well being of the employees must become an important goal for the organisation, and thus bring in the Kaizen as a tool that will provide for an improved work environment, in addition to its business benefits.
For Kaizen to work, it should focus on both results and processes, and not get too focused on results alone. It also requires looking at things from a big picture perspective rather than the narrow focus on procedural level. Finally, using Kaizen will help focus on improvement rather than finger pointing and blaming others for mistakes.
Kaizen is a continuous cycle of seeing an improvement opportunity, implementing it, observing the results, then making another improvement, and so on, in an infinite loop of continuous improvement. The idea is that small swift improvements can be implemented first, and employees and organisations can learn from them, and then move on to apply more improvements. It is also a good idea to start with easy to achieve, simple, and quickly implementable improvements. Once benefits are realised, this will give confidence to employees and management to continue the process, implement more improvements, and realise more benefits. This is in contrast to the idea of doing a big change that will take a long time and cause a sudden and big improvement at the organisational level.
By Ammar W. Mango
© Jordan Times 2006
