Just in Time (JiT) inventory management and continuous improvement (Kaizen) were at the heart of the Toyota Production System. Toyota put into practice lean thinking and developed a system to make it work in their plants. Total Quality Management (TQM) and continuous improvement enabled the company to develop highly efficient manufacturing. Lessons learned from Deming, Imai, Ohno and others were popularised and exported to other industries across the world during the 1970’s, 1980’s and beyond. These principles are central to developing lean practices. Continuous improvement became the mantra for organizations wanting to change for the better. Kaizen was the new philosophy underpinning change.
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese word for change for the better or continuous improvement. Small steps lead to continued improvements.
Deming’s (1986) fourth point of his fourteen points on quality advocates that organizations’ work more closely with fewer suppliers. This practice was adopted by many automobile and retailing organizations.The idea behind it was to improve communication and co-ordination within supply chains so they flowed more smoothly from the point of supply through to the customer. Delays and waste would be minimized as a result of this too.
The operational management literature started to take customers seriously during the late1980s influenced by the Kaizen philosophy for continuous improvement. I recall working with Sharp Manufacturing in the 1990’s and it became a common mantra to hear teams talk about internal customers. Terms like ‘your next factory operation is your next customer’ and ‘the next department/section is your customer’.
Kaizen approaches require the identification of unevenness in production or process flows (mura), difficulty in conducting operations (muri) and waste (muda). The objective being to remove obstacles or blockages that cause the unevenness, improve process design for smoother operations and eliminate waste. In other words Kaizen is a means of striving to achieve continuous improvement (CI) with the aim of lowering or eliminating non- value added costs. Process Mapping Tools are used to identify non-value added (NVA).
The purpose of Kaizen is continuous improvement. Small steps lead to big change for the better. The way this is achieved is by removing waste, difficulties and unevenness. There will be changes to configeration of people, materials, machines and methods to add value for customers. Continuous improvement may require trade-offs between resources (people, machinery, materials and methods of working) to achieve these aims.
The Big JiT
Lean production is sometimes called the ‘Big JiT’ and was pioneered by Toyota. It focuses upon Kaizen and in particular the elimination of waste. Lean production systems are flexible and responsive to customer needs. Organizations implementing these LP systems can lower costs in production (Hines, 2014:257). LP is useful for supplier development helping the suppliers to understand customer needs. Often supplier development programmes are built around Kaizen and LP. These two tools are very powerful for understanding cost and quality within the supply network. The practical outcome being to lower cost and continuosly improve processes.
Japanese automobile manufacturers working closely with suppliers and their supplier’s supplier to identify problems and lower total product cost through quality improvements followed a number of steps to change for the better. The acronym ‘WISDOM TO’ is useful to recall the steps in lean thinking following a Kaizen TQM approach.
These steps are:
• W aiting times (eliminate);
• I nventory levels (low without affecting service level);
• S ources of waste and issues (identify and remove);
• D efects (zero, six sigma);
• O verproduction (build to order not for inventory buffers);
• M ovement that is not necessary (no double handling, re-design processes as
necessary);
• T ransportation routings (efficient, save the environment);
• O ver processing (do not over process).
Each improvement is secured by making the improvement level a standard rather like a mountaineer anchors a position before climbing onwards and upwards to reach new heights of achievement. Kaizen is for long- term, long lasting improvements resulting from team efforts focusing upon process improvements. Because it uses internal teams it requires less initial investment (Imai 1986). Kaizen is the foundation of lean thinking.
Kaizen an idea that captured mind space
Kaizen was an idea that changed the world of automobile manufacturing and quickly migrated to other sectors. Today it is central to process improvements in all industries and service sectors. It enabled the ‘Learning Organization’ to become a reality.
References and Further Reading:
Deming, W.E. (1986) Out of the Crisis, Boston : MIT Press
Hines, T. (2014) Supply Chain Strategies, London/New York : Routledge
Imai , M. ( 1986 ) Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success . New York : Random House .
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