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Kaizen (Japanese: 改善, "improvement") is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. [1]
A kaizen process. Some successful implementations use the approach known as kaizen (the translation of kai ('change') zen ('good') is 'improvement'). This method became famous from Imai's 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. [7] Key features of kaizen include:
Kaizen is based on the involvement of all employees, wherein singular changes typically do not improve major production metrics above a 20% threshold. A cross between Kaikaku and Kaizen is Kaizen Blitz (or Kaizen Events), which targets a radical improvement in a limited area, such as a production cell, typically during an intense week.
Tony Kippenberger (2002) elaborates on the leadership values that are deeply rooted in the Japanese business culture. These values were created by the late Konosuke Matsushita, the prominent entrepreneur of Matsushita's Electric Company, who cared deeply for the employees of his company as if they were family.
Quality circles were at their most popular during the 1980s, but continue to exist in the form of Kaizen groups and similar worker participation schemes. [2] Typical topics for the attention of quality circles are improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and improvement in the workplace and manufacturing processes.
Sample Ishikawa diagram shows the causes contributing to problem. The defect, or the problem to be solved, [1] is shown as the fish's head, facing to the right, with the causes extending to the left as fishbones; the ribs branch off the backbone for major causes, with sub-branches for root-causes, to as many levels as required.
[2] The tool has seen use beyond Toyota, and is now used within Kaizen, lean manufacturing, lean construction and Six Sigma. The five whys were initially developed to understand why new product features or manufacturing techniques were needed, and was not developed for root cause analysis. In other companies, it appears in other forms.
Before any BPR project can be implemented successfully, there must be a commitment to the project by the management of the organization, and strong leadership must be provided. [20] Re engineering efforts can by no means be exercised without a company-wide commitment to the goals. However, top management commitment is imperative for success.