Kaizen implies the continuous search for organizational harmony and balance. Balance and harmony in its internal processes and, in its relationships with the environment.
In the same way that the human body becomes ill due to the unbalanced growth of some cells, in the same way the unbalanced growth of sectors or production and their inventories ends up generating serious problems in the company.
It is a philosophical question, but also a technical one. Although the imbalance can be analyzed using mathematical formulas, for the person imbued with the philosophy and spirit of kaizen, the imbalance and disharmony are evident just by visiting the plant and the offices. That is why Masaaki Imai advises visiting the workplace (gemba) to make direct contact with reality.
There is imbalance and disharmony when a company produces more than the market demands, there is imbalance and disharmony when the objectives of the different sectors of the organization are opposite or contradictory. There is no organizational harmony when there is no harmony among its members. There is no harmony when expenses exceed income.
We have no balance if what is produced is not sold, when what is sold is not collected, or when what is collected is not properly reinvested.
Financial imbalances are nothing more than symptoms in the internal imbalances of the organization and of it with its environment.
Ki (chi) as vital energy that must run through the organization encounters walls, restrictions, obstructions or bottlenecks that must be removed to allow that vital energy to flow freely.
There are restrictions when the communication is not understood or understood by the people to whom they are directed, there are restrictions when the middle levels stop or distort said communication.
There are restrictions when the design of the processes does not allow a continuous and harmonious flow of inputs and materials. We have restrictions due to lack of quality, different production speeds between the different stages of the process, when breakdowns occur or preparation times are too long, when the reception of inputs and parts sent by suppliers is delayed, or they are not. they respect compliance in terms of quantities and qualities.
These restrictions cause a lack of balance or harmony in the movement of the flows of inputs, products, communication, information. This ends up generating a waste or waste of energy. The mudas (waste in Japanese) are therefore nothing more than the product of the imbalances of the organization and of this with its environment.
While the walls (variabilities or irregularities) describe both the lack of compliance with standards, and the imbalance in the speeds of interrelated processes or activities. With the expression died, the Japanese refer to tension. Tension that is the cause and effect of waste and irregularities.
It is that disharmony that generates the financial problems, demotivation, stress and nervous breakdown of its members.
When an organism or machine is demanded more than it can generate in a certain amount of time, this ends up causing fatigue and exhaustion caused by that imbalance. When more smog is produced than nature can absorb, we end up with pollution, climate change and pollution.
It is the lack of balance or rather the ecological imbalance that causes the problems. In the same way, a human being that consumes more calories than necessary ends up generating fat accumulation, obesity, excess blood sugar, and heart problems.
Similarly, a company that grows in size, in the number of lines and in the number of personnel beyond what it can have under control and exploit in a useful way ends up generating serious financial problems. The structural imbalance, the productive imbalance and the bureaucratic imbalance ends up degenerating into an organizational cancer. A company that produces more than it can sell ends up generating large stocks that generate higher costs, higher financial expenses and a waste of space, monetary resources and personnel.
In a company, these disharmonies are economically reflected when the company begins to operate in loss zones by not taking into account diminishing marginal returns and diseconomies of scale. Not properly keeping the proportions between the different inputs, and of these with the productive and administrative structures reduce profits and / or increase losses.
Something similar happens in the economy of a country and in state spending. When the unproductive activities of the latter grow beyond what is necessary, they end up drowning private activity due to the increase in taxes, the interest rate and / or inflation caused for its financing.
The economic history of a country is nothing more than the sequential development of balances and imbalances. In the same way that to restore health in the human body it is necessary to restore its harmony and balance, in the same way solving the social and economic problems of a country implies analyzing and understanding the reason for its imbalances and disharmonies, to return to restore them.
Thus, the most developed countries are nothing more than the product of greater balance and harmony generated over long periods of time. Political, institutional, economic and financial, cultural and productive balance and harmony were and are the bases of the achievements obtained and to be obtained in the most developed nations. Thus, the imbalances between global supply and demand, between saving and investment, in the trade balance and in the balance of payments end up generating inflation or deflation, recessions, depressions and unemployment, all of them expressions of diseased societies and economies.
Every system suffers the attack of forces tending to destabilize it. The human being, the company, the State, and society as a whole must fight to protect themselves from such forces and preserve and restore the balance in their operation and development.
The economic and social policies at the country level, and the plans and strategies at the corporate level must be evaluated in terms of the balances or imbalances that they end up generating.
It is in this continuous, almost perpetual struggle in the search for harmony that we must find the reason, cause and meaning of kaizen. Kaizen as a system designed to conserve and restore vital energy in the organization.
An organization must seek harmony in the simplicity and simplicity of its processes, in the size and flexibility of its structures, in the strength and energy of its activities, and in the discipline and happiness of its staff.
