"Kaizen" translated means
"good change." Many companies
use kaizen as a tool to
promote rapid, team-based
positive change. It is a
plant manager's dream come
true.
As past plant manager, I can
tell you firsthand. I walked
through my operation daily.
In doing so I tried to
remain open to those things
that could increase our
effectiveness as an
organization. Often I would
see an
operation or process that I
knew could be improved.
The recognition of
improvement opportunities is
the easy part.
Follow-through is the
difficult part. Regardless
of our personal titles and
the roles we play in manufacturing,
we all generally have a full
plate. Let's assume
for a minute that you have
identified an area in your
operation that is ripe for
improvement. Now let's pretend
that you have been able to
retain your thoughts
long enough to make it back
to the office to write down
your thoughts.
Where do we begin to improve
that area of the operation?
Perhaps we call in the
engineering manager and
explain our observations to
her. We instruct her to collect
some critical data. These
might include actual run
times, travel distances,
current throughput, current
lead
times, space, or square
footage currently consumed
by
this process. We further
request additional data such
as current levels of WIP and
standard hours of queue. Before
we go any further, we are
gently reminded that this
data could be better
provided by production
control.
By the way, you may also
want to get planning and
marketing involved
to supply information
pertaining to
customer demand, she says in
a helpful way.
We agree that other
departments are required to
get
this thing started. Next I
put out a memo to all
department
heads. "We will meet in the
conference room next
Thursday to discuss plans to
improve the process in
machining cell X." We have
our first meeting, which, as
usual, takes several hours
of dialogue. At the conclusion
of this meeting, every
department head has the
objective of going back to
their departments and
reviewing
current projects and
assignments. We will meet
again
next Thursday so that each
department can report on
their availability to
support this undertaking.
Are you beginning to get the
idea? This is the way we
have always done things. By
the time all the meetings
have taken place—by the time
all the schedules have been
arranged—by the time all the
data has been collected—
by the time arrangements
have been made with outside
concerns (electricians,
plumbers, machine
technicians, etc.)—we are
now ready to start taking
action. I forgot to mention
that several weeks ago we
took one of our best support
people off their job to
become temporary
project manager. After four
to six months, we have probably
completed the work.
Now we start up production.
It goes without saying
that the operators in the
machining cell were never
asked
for their input. Not only do
they have some wonderful
ideas that we never thought
of, but we find there is no
feeling of ownership or
buy-in from them. So we
backpedal
and implement some of their
ideas. We can't
implement all of them
because it would require a
complete redo of the entire
project. We have improved
the process, but not to the
level we could have. The
operators
never do embrace the change
as their own.
What I have described to you
is the best case. All too
often our plans for
improvement never get
implemented
at all. The daily battle and
fire fighting often get in
the
way. We tend to dread the
thought of establishing another
committee. We don't look
forward to another six
months of extra meetings and
project management. So
while good intentioned, it's
business as usual.
What if I told you that most
opportunities for improvement
could be accomplished in one
four-day cycle?
Bigger projects, maybe two
or three four-day events.
The
truth is, improvement never
ends. Therefore, a cell or
department may have a kaizen
event every six months,
constantly improving the
process. Before too long the
environment has been
transformed into one of
constant change and
improvement. The employees
not only buy
in to the change, they lead
it.