Kaizen, the effort for continuous improvement

Kaizen represents the continuous and comprehensive effort of the members of an organization because every day some kind of improvement is made in the processes.

Until a long time ago, the quality understood in companies was only to meet the demands in terms of use that the client had on the product or service provided by a company. However, the great growth that has been observed not only in the labor field, but in all aspects of life, has caused the standards formerly considered as excellence to now be considered mediocre or simply out of the competition's game.

It is not unknown to anyone that these changes in attitudes have been transmitted from a country that if we went back a few years and established conclusions about the competitive level that its products or services offered to the client, the first thing that would be mentioned is low quality, disposable, obsolete and outdated. However, there are still people involved in business who wonder what was the magic formula that transformed a limited country in many aspects, to be the pivot that sets the standard to be followed by all companies considered as first level, and that now presents us with an endless number of characteristics in its products that can be included in: quality, efficiency, utility and innovation.

The answer that has been sought in stagnant companies in the past can be summed up in one word: attitude. Attitude to recognize and accept that there are imperfections in all areas that make up a company; attitude to recognize responsibilities for them; attitude to face the challenge of starting from scratch in almost all aspects; attitude to make mistakes and know that they do not have to be repeated to achieve a competitive level.

There will always be company administrators who turn this reality around, hiding behind the stubbornness that Japanese culture is very different from that of their own countries, and prefer to retain their competence at the national, regional and even local levels., which, although it leaves them economic returns, gives them very little satisfaction both as a company and as people themselves. This is the true starting point, starting from nothing, having reached a semi-goal to start the race to the second, to the third or whatever it is in order to feel the pleasure of really competing, not just participating.

Perhaps the philosophy or ideology that Japan has as a country recently baptized it with a single word that encompasses its way of living and looking to the future: Kaizen.

"The message of the kaizen strategy is that not a day should pass without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company…"

However, I believe that the translation of this word is contained in many philosophical and religious currents that in any country involved in the kaizen “revolution” it has handled in their own cultures. Every religious trend has proclaimed in one way or another the need to be better as people every day and avoid making the same mistakes. So the excuse used in many places is not valid.

Perhaps the mistake that is made when trying to understand the kaizen concept is that those in charge of involving their companies in said ideology think that it will solve all their problems when they do not even know what they are doing wrong, or what they are doing. Needs improvement.

“The starting point for improvement is to recognize the need. This comes from the recognition of the problem. If no problem is recognized, the need for improvement is not recognized… "

Administrators must fully understand and accept that no matter how much they themselves and their workers think that their work is at the highest point of excellence, there will always be a new proposal, a new method, a new process, a new machine, a different one. way of doing things that can make this excellence see as imperfect.

How many cases have not been known of companies in which their administrators are dedicated to maintaining and not developing the areas of the same, or simply think that by buying the latest fashion trend in terms of machinery or having the best worker in their field, their competitive level will continue in force without the slightest effort and perseverance on the part of themselves and their subordinates. The results are in sight, not only in Queretaro, nor in Mexico, but in countries where supposedly their "culture" does not allow them a license for this attitude, the businesses that at the time were pivots, have now been bought or disappeared by competition that was previously at the expense of his movements.

The author of the supporting text mentions that the competitiveness race is like an endless ladder, in which going up one step means temporary and partial improvement, going up to the second implies improvement of the improvements made previously, and so on, observing that the No one knows the end of said ladder since it is infinite, the total improvement term is subjective since we do not have the possibility of predicting how far we are going to go.

"Kaizen strategists believe that, by nature, standards are tentative, perishable, with one standard leading to another as improvement efforts are made…"

However, if you want to continue in the career, there is only one element that should be essential to continue with these improvements: the continuous and comprehensive effort of all the members that make up a company, call themselves managers, supervisors, engineers, workers, mayors, clients and suppliers, which sooner or later will give you your entry ticket to the competition: quality.

To this continuous effort (kaizen), innovation can also be added, call it technology and / or equipment. Investing a large amount of money in it does not ensure quality, it goes beyond these aspects.

"Quality is associated not only with products and services but with the way people work, the way machines are operated and the way systems and procedures are dealt with…"

These aspects should be considered by every person involved in the administration of a company, since it is erroneously thought that with the fact of having available economic resources, of implementing modern quality control systems, or because it is thought that their own Since it controls this quality in all aspects, they “throw themselves into the hammock” thinking that the standards will be maintained and even more that they will develop themselves.

“Total quality control goes through perpetual change and improvement, and it's never completely the same from one day to the next. The term quality control has been used to mean both quality control and tools for general improvement in administrative performance… "

Continuous improvement is supported, as mentioned, in everyone's effort to achieve it. Therefore, it is very important that the objective is achieved that the different points of view of each of the people are known by those in charge of translating and carrying out the improvements. This process is known as the Suggestion System. Its importance within the kaizen concept is invaluable.

Usually we as graduates of a school think that having spent nine semesters glued to books, conferences and other engineers who are in work activity, gives us the right or obligation to know everything that involves the right and vice versa the resolution of problems in the company in which we are hired and we place ourselves "on top" of the people in our charge. We establish, as the author mentions, a barrier in which there is no room for the opinion of people who do not have a piece of paper hanging on the wall that endorses their knowledge, or who have a ballot in which they say that they have accredited matters related to the processes of production, manufacturing systems, mathematics or research methodology.

"Unless a conscious and permanent effort is made to neutralize status differences in the company, class antagonism will poison the atmosphere and derail the most rational plans…"

Therefore, if a constant review of the quality standards of a company is intended, the opinion of EVERYONE is essential to achieve it. But it is not alone in it; the thread that moves the world of competitiveness is undoubtedly the same competition, "in Japan they are already competing not only in quality, price or service, but now they are competing in the introduction of better and faster kaizen programs…".

In one of the visits made in the course, we were told about the marks imposed by the company's workers in terms of model change times; They told us that the people in charge of it are in constant competition against themselves to reduce these times, that is, their primary goal is to feel competitive, to feel useful in their work.

“Today's workers do not appear to be satisfied with repetitive conventional jobs despite the monetary compensation they receive. They want their jobs to cover areas such as thinking and deciding for themselves how the job should be done… ”

Another important aspect to consider so that the implementation of kaizen obtains the expected results, is the change of mentality of the people managing the company in reference to the points to attack when a problem occurs. Currently, immediate economic results are the tactic of the strategies to be followed by these people in their companies. Perhaps for this reason the fear of lower-level personnel is due to the fear of presenting suggestions or opinions that, due to a lack of knowledge or experience, they cannot evaluate in monetary returns.

"Kaizen generates process-oriented thinking, since processes must be improved before improved results are obtained…"

If management believes that kaizen is going to have immediate effects in its economic evaluations, it is unlikely to bother trying to apply it to your business. The results will take a certain period and the place where its implementation will first be noticed is in the productive areas. When this is achieved, it will be time to take out the calculators and distribute profits that, if the kaizen ideology continues to develop in the organization, will begin a constant and effective growth.

The way in which the administration is going to carry out the evaluations of achievements or improvements is another point to consider in the implementation of kaizen. Earlier it was mentioned that almost everyone demands results in numbers and they forget about efforts; they translate kaizen into achievements in the last stage: quantity of finished products-quantity of products sold. And they forget that there are endless aspects that, although they are not directly felt by them (almost always 100% by the workers), are hampering a better performance of the company.

“Productivity is a measure, not a reality. It is just a description of the current state of things and the past efforts of people, the efforts made to improve both productivity and quality are the reality… "

If there is an evaluation of work performance that indicates a comprehensive effort of all the personnel who collaborate in the company, it is the best indicator of the proper functioning of kaizen and its prompt results, now reflected in numbers and graphs.

One of the points that has led Japan to be what it is in the business field is the way it intertwines innovation and kaizen. Just as they are interested in creating new machinery and equipment to increase the efficiency of their processes, they are also concerned about developing the capacity and reliability in the performance of their operators.

Many companies in Mexico and other parts of the world, which did not have great economic resources to modernize their facilities and equipment, opted for kaizen and its tools (kanban, poka-yoke, SMED, etc.) to achieve competitiveness. Which leads us to the opinion that money does not always produce more money

"Kaizen is people-oriented, while innovation is technology and money oriented…"

However, kaizen also involves the organization's facilities. Kaizen requires staff to pay full attention to learning and improving their use. If people share this ideology, they will try to take advantage of the material aspects that they have to handle in their position. There will always be something to improve a super machine, and only the application of all the ingenuity of the worker will be able to fully exploit the investment made by the administration.

With the point mentioned above, we can underline the importance that groups and the individuals that compose them are invited to participate in kaizen. It is not enough to motivate people to participate in quality circles, mixed commissions, etc., but it is necessary to provoke in them the need to share a kind of “circle of responsibility”.

Responsibility for achieving 200% quality and effectiveness in each movement that you make in your position, in each operation, in each piece, in each batch. That each of the components of this group know that the quality involved in their position is more important than that of the others, but that they in turn understand that the quality of the company is more important than that of their own performance.

The most important task of the administration when the kaizen ideology is desired in the company, is to know how to involve all of it in this movement. You must obtain the means to correct possible failures (which will exist many) in its development, such as: lack of integration of the areas, lack of responsibility of people in the role they play, poor communication, etc.

The people who attended us in the industrial visits always highlighted the difficulty for people to accept the change in attitude at work; But they also pointed out that once acceptance and elimination of people's fear of the new is achieved, everything is facilitated and surprising results are achieved. In ARELA, for example, there was a case in which a production line had achieved the lowest productivity of the entire company in one period, but such was the impact of this event on the group that formed that line, that for the next period reached one of the most outstanding marks in the history of it. With this we can realize that people's attitude only needs a motivating factor to achieve improvements,without this leading us to think that it necessarily has to be a negative one as in this case.

Kaizen seeks to find the corner of improvement that each worker has saved, regardless of the nationality or culture they have

"Individual-oriented kaizen is often viewed as a morale booster and management does not always seek immediate financial results from every suggestion…"

This "measles" by overcoming and improving workers is the basis for kaizen to achieve its establishment and definitive operation in any company. If this is not achieved the first time, the administration has to do it again with other motivational and comprehensive instruments, so that absolutely no one is left out of this movement. Although an attempt is made to obtain continuous improvement through innovation or other means, the results that are expected to be obtained in the future will hardly be achieved without the support of all the members of the organization.

"No matter what management can do, physical productivity will not improve unless the people who work for the company are willing to work and have the feeling that they are doing important work…"