What does the word kaizen mean?
It is a Japanese word made up of two other words, one KAI that means "change" and the other ZEN that means "good", which implies that KAIZEN means "change to improve" and, as said change to improve is something that must continually looking for and realizing the meaning ends up being “continuous improvement”.
What is, or what does the kaizen system consist of?
Kaizen starts from the premise that people are the most important asset of an organization. It is carried out through teamwork and a series of techniques or systems are used for this, among which are:
- Total Quality ManagementJust-in-Time SystemTotal Productive MaintenanceSmall Group ActivitySuggestions SystemPolicy Deployment5 "S" Statistical Process Control and ManagementDeming Continuous Improvement CycleWaste detection, prevention and eliminationThe Experience CurveValue AnalysisValue EngineeringQuality Function Deployment Tree Analysis Failure SMED Autonomy Production cells Flexibility and versatility of workers
What country does it come from and when did it begin to be implemented?
Kaizen is a philosophy and at the same time a system that has its origins in Japan, and is considered a fundamental factor for the competitiveness of that country worldwide.
In its modern and current essence, it began to be seen and applied to productive activities after the Second World War as a result of the imperative need to rebuild its devastated economy. It also took a strong boost with the advice and advice of the important American quality consultants: Deming - Juran and Feigenbaum.
The 1973 oil crisis, which was followed by a major recession, affected governments, businesses, and society in general around the world. In 1974, the Japanese economy collapsed to a state of zero growth and many companies suffered from this situation. However, in the Toyota Motor company, although its profits were reduced, it was possible to maintain the income during the years 1975, 1976 and 1977, higher than those of other companies.
The wide spread between it and the other companies made people wonder what was happening at Toyota. Before the oil crisis, when talking about the Toyota Production System, people seemed not to pay much attention to it.
But after the high growth rates were reduced, it became really obvious that a business could no longer be profitable by running it through the conventional American-style mass production system that had been useful for so long. This led Mazda and Isuzu first, and later the other companies to implement the Just in Time system in their own way in their own factories.
Although many Japanese companies practiced continuous improvement, they did not do so by fully following the steps of Just in Time, but rather applied to Statistical Process Control, Quality Circles, Management Tools and the Fourteen Principles set forth by Deming.
Who are your main theorists and what were your main contributions?
Shigeo Shingo contributed the SMED method whose main objective is to minimize the amount of time necessary to prepare the machines and tools, and has Poka-Yoke as another of its important contributions.
The poka-yoke system consists of the creation of elements that detect production defects and report it immediately to go to the cause of the problem and prevent it from happening again. This author is oriented towards the idea that quality can be obtained only if the manufacturing process is designed and operated with ideal standards. Masaaki Imai was the first to link to the original ideas of the Japanese philosophy of kaizen the tools and instruments formulated by the various consultants, authors and companies.
He is the founder and CEO of the Kaizen Institute. Kaoru Ishikawa was the first author to highlight the difference between Japanese and Western styles of management.
Among the important contributions of Ishikawa are developing Deming's ideas in Japan, developing Quality Control Circles, training and implementing quality management tools in companies, and especially Statistical Process Control. He is also the creator of one of these management tools currently known as the Ishikawa Diagram. Taiichi Ohno is the great creator of the Toyota Production System, also known as “Just in Time”.
Among its important contributions is the development concerning the types of waste, ideas regarding work cells, autonomy, the use of kanban, visual management and the andon. Shigeru Mizuno underscored management's work to promote quality by establishing and deploying quality policies, as well as ensuring that policies are put into practice.
Genichi Taguchi bases its conception on generating attractive products for the customer and offering better products than the competition. The loss function is its best known tool and is based on the idea that quality should be defined in monetary form by means of said function, where the greater variation of a specification with respect to the optimal (or nominal) value, the greater (exponentially) is the monetary loss transferred to the consumer.
Defines in their work the need to improve production processes continuously and reduce variability in order to continue to be competitive. It also gives the "Product Design" phase a fundamental significance since it is in it that quality is generated and the final cost of the product is determined.
Hajime Karatsu developed Total Quality Control in depth and breadth, receiving the Deming Prize for this reason. Takeshi Kawase developed important studies and research on the gemba (workplace), customer / consumer satisfaction, and the levels of productivity and waste in production processes and activities.
What are the main books in Spanish that deal with Kaizen?
The most important to be the object of study and analysis are:
- How to implement Kaizen in the workplace - Masaaki Imai - Editorial McGraw Hill.Kaizen. The key to Japanese competitive advantage - Masaaki Imai - Editorial CECSA. How to implant Japanese management methods in the West - Kazuo Murata and Alan Harrison - Editorial Legis. CTC: Japanese wisdom - Hajime Karatsu - Editorial Gestión 2000. Toyota - Taiichi Ohno - Editorial Gestión 2000. What is Total Quality Control? - Kaoru Ishikawa - Editorial Norma. The Just in Time. Revolution in the factory - H. Hirano - Editorial Technology of Management and Production The book of Ideas, to produce better - Japanese Association of Human Relations - Editorial Management 2000 Production without Stocks.The Shingo System for Continuous Improvement - Shigeo Shingo - Production and Management Technology Publishing Japanese Manufacturing Techniques - Schonberger - Limusa Publishing Z Theory - W. Ouchi - Orbis Publishing Toyota Production System - Y. Monden - Macchi Publishing
What benefits can be expected from its application and how long does it take to see its first results?
The implementation of Kaizen in companies has led to significant increases in productivity levels, accompanied by cost reductions, improvements in quality levels and customer service, higher levels of satisfaction, significantly reduced machine and tool preparation times, significant increases in turnover levels, low inventory levels of inputs - products in process and finished, improvement in the level of employee satisfaction and as a consequence lower levels of employee turnover. All this is reflected in higher prices for shareholders, given the increase in the income stream.
The increase in quality accompanied by the best delivery times, the best services and the reduction in prices allow companies to gain a greater market share. Having established a good strategy and a correct implementation plan, the correct training and training accompanied by the immediate implementation of what has been learned allows, in a very short period of time, to begin to see the results.
Of course, depending on the size of the company, and therefore on its number of staff, it is the time it takes to bring training to all of them.
As for the amount of training time, it depends on how intensive it is and on the very characteristics of the company in terms of its productive nature. An optimal number of hours would take us to a minimum of 40 hours of training, which could be less or more depending on the type of activities of the company.
Is its application feasible in the West?
Yes, it is totally doable. It is clear that in each case the rearrangements and adaptations should be made according to the cultural characteristics of each organization.
Not only the organizational culture, but also the respective profile of the organizational behavior, the policies, strategies and branch of activity, and on the other hand the characteristics and changes of the environment in the political, social, technological, economic, cultural and legal aspects must be perfectly taken into account..
It should also be said that Continuous Improvement is an obligation, and this has been understood and understood by a large number of large US and European firms and from other continents or countries, which have proceeded to implement kaizen, focusing to a greater or lesser extent in the various systems that compose it.
Some companies have focused on the "Toyota Production System" or "just in time", which implies also adopting work in small groups (quality control circles), Total Productive Maintenance, SMED, TQM, and as an obvious result Kaizen. JIT (just in time) and Kaizen are two sides of the same coin, complementing each other at all times. Kaizen is not possible without JIT, nor JIT without Kaizen.
The pioneer in Latin America in terms of quality and participation circles, Volkswagen of Brazil, took many years to understand that it was not a matter of literally copying what the Japanese had done, but of adapting it to the particular culture of the country and the business.
Just as the Japanese learned from the North Americans the techniques of quality control and organization and were also able to add the human and group component that resulted in the “quality control circles”, so the Latin Americans should also experiment by adding their particular touch to the process.
In this, companies have the initiative. Experience teaches that advances in administrative theory do not depend so much on researchers or professors who "invent" the theory, as on men of action who "discover" the best ways.
Is it expensive to implement?
It is not costly, in addition to the fact that what is invested in it will not only result in results in the short term, but also in a continuous improvement of the processes, which must translate into a significant increase in future flows.
It must be taken into account that part of the costs correspond to training and the other to changes in the processes. In this regard and in relation to the changes in the processes, it must be taken into account that large investments are not required as is usually the case in the case of process reengineering. On the other hand, the relationship between cost and future results is several times positive.
How long does it take to implement it?
The great secret both for the time it takes to implement it, and for the full success of its implementation, depends both on the knowledge and experience of the consultant, as well as on his creative capacity, and above all on the diagnosis and application system. that it owns. The survey, evaluation and diagnosis of the company and its processes constitutes a fundamental point.
The amount of time will depend as before on the size, nature of the company, type of activities, number of employees, and as before clarification of the special characteristics of the diagnostic system and application plan.
Can it be implemented in any company, no matter what its size and / or activity is?
Kaizen can and should be implemented in any type of company, whatever its size and nature of activities.
Any company that wants to be competitive and be able to provide better products and services every day, generating greater added value for customers and consumers, must implement a process of continuous improvement, of which Kaizen is the most harmonious and systematic.
Japanese manufacturers work hard to improve their companies, because they fear that if they do not do well their company will go bankrupt or "lose the race."
Anyone with experience in almost any sector of Japanese industry knows of the fierce competitiveness to which it was exposed to create a fully competitive economy.
Companies have the freedom to commit to quality, productivity, and continuous improvement.
It is a decision of its managers. In our capitalist economy there is also the freedom to fail in the face of competition and the freedom to go bankrupt. A company that is beaten on cost and quality is not likely to arouse great sympathy.
What difference is there between kaizen and other systems of continuous improvement originating in the West?
In the West many good systems have undoubtedly been generated, even more so the modern roots of Kaizen must be sought in the lessons taught by Western gurus such as Deming and Juran among others.
It was these two consultants who imparted the fundamental ideas to Japanese engineers, industrialists and scientists, who assimilated them with speed and fervor, something that did not happen in their own country until it was the object of the invasion of Japanese products. The Japanese do not have a tendency to reject "what is not invented here."
The Japanese willingness to accept that others may have a better way of doing things appears as a determining force not only in applying the techniques taught by Western gurus, but also in accepting the technologies acquired from the West. Now it is the turn of the other countries to learn the lesson provided by the Japanese and accept the techniques created and developed in other countries, otherwise and given the globalization of the economy, these countries or companies will be out of the race.
Returning to the original question, it should be said that among the best-level continuous improvement systems is the one devised by Tompkins, it should be clarified that it has very similar or similar foundations to the ideas developed by Imai.
As for the other systems, although they are of quality, they do not reach the level of harmony, systematicity and development that are typical of Kaizen. Undoubtedly, when it comes to seeing other high-level developments in the West, Deming and his main disciples, including Joiner, should be pointed out.
What aspects should be taken into consideration more to avoid the failure of its implementation?
In order for the implementation not to result in failure, it must first of all have the awareness and full support of the company's Senior Management, have a correct implementation plan, be aware not only of the need for continuous improvement, but also of the discipline that this implies. The implementation of kaizen never ends, there is always something to improve.
Correct cultural auditing, knowledge of organizational behavior, motivation and incentive policy, and strong leadership are key issues and factors. A last aspect concerns training and training, making it clear that for companies that apply Kaizen training and improvement of personnel is something continuous.
What are the 3Ks?
They respond to three Japanese words that are "kiken" which means dangerous, "kitanai" which means dirty and "kitsui" which means stressful. There are three factors contrary to the idea of a workplace that should be targeted, which is a safe, clean and stress-free place. A place that has the 3 K is a workplace with low productivity, a poor quality generator, high costs and as a consequence a high level of waste.
What are the six systems that make up the operation of the Kaizen System? The six systems are: Total Quality Control, Just in Time, Total Productive Maintenance, the deployment of policies, the suggestion system and small group activities.
What are the main kaizen concepts?
Among the concepts and systems that every management, interested in profitably applying kaizen, must learn and execute are:
- Kaizen and management.
Management must be concerned both with maintaining established standards, as well as systematically achieving improvement in levels of quality, productivity, costs, services and delivery. The permanent search for the Seven Zeros must be a primary objective: Zero Inventories, Zero Failures, Zero Breakdowns, Zero Waiting Times, Zero Accidents, Zero Stationery and Zero Contamination.
- Prioritize Processes over Results. Kaizen encourages process-oriented thinking, as processes need to be refined to improve results. Failure to achieve planned results indicates a failure in the process. Follow the PREA - EREA cycles (plan-perform-evaluate-act and standardize-perform-evaluate-act). The first step is the kaizen process that establishes the PREA cycle as a vehicle that ensures the continuity of kaizen in following a policy aimed at maintaining and improving standards. This process is the next step after maintenance, because before trying to improve existing processes, they must be stabilized, putting quality first. Of the primary and strategic goals of quality - cost - delivery, quality always occupies the highest priority.The company will not be able to compete if the product or service lacks quality. Speak through the data. Kaizen is a problem solving process.
In order to solve these problems, they must be previously recognized, gathering the relevant data for the purposes of subsequent analysis.
- The next process is the customer, be it internal or external. All work is a series of processes, and each process has its supplier and its customer.
Within this trend, the following process must always be considered as a client, whether they are internal (within the company) or external (outside of it). Most of the people who work in an organization deal with internal customers.
This understanding should lead to the commitment never to give faulty parts or inaccurate information to the people in the next process. When everyone in the organization practices this axiom, the external customer will always receive a high-quality product or service.
What is the ultimate goal in focusing on shedding (waste) disposal?
Efficiency in modern industry and in business in general means cost reduction. In companies that embrace Kaizen the benefit can only be obtained with the reduction of costs.
When companies apply the principle of: "sale price = profit + real cost", each consumer is held responsible for the costs incurred by the companies. This principle has no place in today's industrial competitiveness.
Products are selected by unflappable consumers in free and competitive markets, where the cost of manufacturing a product is of no importance. The question is whether or not the product has any value to the buyer.
If you set a high price commensurate with the cost of manufacture, consumers will simply reject it. Cost reduction is the current goal of manufacturers of industrial or consumer products trying to survive in today's market.
During a period of high economic growth rates, any manufacturer can lower its costs by increasing its production. But in the current period of low growth rates, it is difficult to establish any form of cost reduction.
There is no magic formula. Rather, a comprehensive management system is needed that develops human ability to its full capacity in order to enhance creativity and prosperity, use tooling and machines correctly, and eliminate any unproductive costs.
The Toyota production system with its commitment to the absolute elimination of unproductive costs, was implemented in Japan as a necessity. Today, in an era of low rates of economic growth worldwide, this production system represents a concept in management that can work in any type of business.
How should the fight for waste elimination be approached?
When thinking about the absolute elimination of unproductive costs, we must especially take into account the following points:
Performance improvement will only make sense when it is linked to cost reduction. To achieve this, we must start by producing only what is necessary with minimal labor.
Let's look at the performance of each operator and each line. Then let's look at the operators as a group, and the performance of the plant as a whole (all lines). This performance will need to be improved at each step and, at the same time, for the entire plant as a unit.
If we consider the necessary work as actual work and define the rest as “loss”, the following equation will be true, whether we consider the workers individually or the line as a whole:
The real improvement in performance is achieved when the level of unproductive costs is equal to zero and a percentage of work of 100% is reached.
What are the classic categories in which we can classify the different types of unproductiveness?
Unproductiveness in production can be divided into the following categories:
- Excess production Waiting time Transportation Too much mechanization (over processing) Stocks Movements Manufacturing defective parts and products.
What is the Multi-Process Operating System?
If we consider as an example, that in the machining process we align five lathes, five milling machines and five drilling machines in three parallel rows.
If one worker controls all five lathes, we call this system a multi-unit system. The same is true if you operate five drilling machines or five milling machines.
However, if an operator uses a lathe, milling machine, and drilling machine (i.e. multiple processes), the system becomes multi-process. For kaizen it is of vital importance to establish a multi-process operation system that directly reduces the number of workers. For the worker on the production line, this means shifting from one-thing specialist to multi-specialist.
What does it mean to work for kaizen?
Whatever the number of active workers, it does not mean that the work has been done. Working within the Kaizen philosophy means that some progress has been made, that work is done with little unproductiveness and high performance. The supervisor must make an effort so that the movement of workers becomes work.
What is baka-yoke?
In the kaizen system, to produce 100% quality products, the equipment and tools are adapted in order to generate defect prevention mechanisms.
What is autonomization?
Autonomization means stopping the production line or the machine, whenever an abnormal situation arises.
It also allows stopping the process once the number of parts or supplies specified has been fulfilled. Autonomization means transferring human intelligence to the machine. In the Kaizen system, this concept applies not only to machinery but also to the production line and workers.
In other words, if an abnormal situation arises, a worker is needed to stop the line. Autonomy prevents the production of defective products, eliminates excess production and automatically stops abnormalities in the production line allowing the situation to be investigated.
What place does the worker have in the new organization of the company?
In modern business everyone must undertake creative activities. This applies to both blue-collar workers and accountants or general managers.
Routine work should be done by the automated machine, the robot, or the computer. The question is then, what will be left for the human being in the business of the future? Only improvements.
Once an aspect of the business is computerized, better systems can always be found, and computerization becomes more widespread. It is an infinite process. If people work like a machine, they will be replaced by a machine once the engineers have developed the technology.
In this circumstance, the company that counts among its members with the highest number and quality of thinking personnel will win.
If the employee has well-developed sensitivities and can detect small problems (such as noise, vibration or distortion), before a serious failure occurs and preventing it from occurring, he is well equipped to work with automatic machines, however complex they may be. A highly automated machine is still a machine that requires proper maintenance and improvements. So when there is enough money, any company can invest in modern automatic machines.
But the company will not be able to operate the machines efficiently without a similar investment in human capital, that is, in people who have sufficient sensitivity, capacity and interest in these machines.
People cannot train in these things in a short time, as they are the result of the accumulation of daily improvement activities.
Why is discipline so important?
If a company manages to maintain discipline, it can achieve uniform and constant levels of quality and productivity. If you can't maintain discipline, you won't be able to sustain the manufacturing or service business long-term. The key point of discipline is that people follow the rules. If we apply this to the shops, the workers have to follow the manufacturing standards and set daily procedures, every time.
In this way it is possible to permanently maintain levels of quality and productivity. On the other hand, discipline implies assuming every day the obligation to improve processes and eliminate the different types of waste that are detected.
Discipline in the kaizen environment also means the continuous improvement of our workplace, order, cleanliness and, above all, the continuous improvement of the human being. Only through the continuous improvement of the human being can processes, services, products and profitability levels be improved day by day.
How should the study of Kaizen be approached?
There are a number of fundamental books (those mentioned in question no. 5) that must be studied and analyzed in depth, but before studying these books, administration, industrial engineering, operations management, logistics, quality, productivity and organizational behavior must be studied.
This is necessary to have a better understanding of the content of these works. After reading the books on kaizen, you should delve into those books that deal with each particular aspect in greater depth, we are talking about the books on Quality Circles, Total Productive Maintenance, TQM, among many others.
On the basis of the deepening and broadening of knowledge, added to the work experiences, it will be necessary to return to the fundamental books on kaizen, which will be understood and understood in a new and rich way in the light of the new knowledge acquired. And so the process begins again, and will continue in such a way as to continually improve our understanding and ability to generate new alternatives for improvement and applied innovation.
What new alternatives can be expected in the future around Kaizen?
Kaizen has the ability to absorb new techniques and methods, thereby enriching itself and making it possible to achieve more satisfactory results. Now we must think in terms of "KESS", which comes from adding to Kaizen the EVA (Economic Value Added) and the Six Sigma system.
To the continuous improvement system (kaizen) a method must be added to measure the added value that said improvements generate, and in such a way to be able to effectively motivate and incentivize the directors and staff of the company, and on the other hand the philosophy and system Six Sigma provides us with a mechanism to measure quality levels, also setting as a goal a level equivalent to 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO).
In such a way, kaizen has a clear objective that is the search for those 3,4 DPMO, making use of its tools, instruments, systems and methods.
How important is kaizen within the strategies of companies?
Kaizen was combined by Japanese companies to dominate various markets, because by combining continuous improvement within the framework of the experience curve, and focused within a clear competitive strategy that pursued and pursues cost reduction accompanied by the constant increase in Its quality levels have allowed it and allows it to deliver greater added value to customers and consumers, thereby increasing its participation in the various markets.
Clear examples are the automobile industries, machine tools, road machines, motorcycles, audio equipment, photographic machines, calculators, robots, video equipment, DVD, among many more.
In the same way, kaizen should and must be the center of attention within Western business strategies to match Japanese and Korean competitive advantages, but also to continue surviving in a world in which Asian giants such as China and India are.
