Kaizen

How does "change" happen in your organization?
Is it through major initiatives, or is it part of the ongoing
way you work?
Some types of change inevitably need a major project;
meaning months of hard work, big budgets and upheaval.
But, often
undervalued, an alternative or complementary approach to improving
systems, processes and so on, is through more subtle, ongoing
changes and continuous improvements.
Once a new major change has happened, perhaps a new system or
structure put in place, is everything perfect? Will the new
processes stay set in stone until the next major change in a few
years' time? Almost certainly not. In fact, if this attitude were
taken, you would probably see a gradual decline in benefits after
the initial step improvement, as inefficiencies and bad practice
crept in.
There is always room to make small improvements,
challenge the status quo, and tune processes and practice on an
everyday basis. In fact, you and your colleagues probably do this
week in, week out without calling it "change" or even "continuous
improvement". You're already getting real benefits from the intuitive
approach to continuous improvement. And over time, all of these
incremental changes add up, and make a significant positive impact
on your team and organization.
One approach to continuous, incremental improvement
is called kaizen . It originated in Japan and
the word translates to mean change ( kai ) for the good ( zen ).
Kaizen is based on the philosophical belief that everything can be
improved: Some organizations look at a process and see that it's
running fine; Organizations that follow the principle of Kaizen
see a process that can be improved. This means that nothing is
ever seen as a status quo – there are continuous efforts to
improve which result in small, often imperceptible, changes over
time. These incremental changes add up to substantial changes over
the longer term, without having to go through any radical
innovation. It can be a much gentler and employee-friendly way to
institute the changes that must occur as a business grows and
adapts to its changing environment.
Understanding the Approach
Because Kaizen is more a philosophy than a specific
tool, its approach is found in many different process improvement
methods ranging from Total Quality Management (TQM), to the use
of employee suggestion boxes. Under kaizen, all employees are
responsible for identifying the gaps and inefficiencies and everyone,
at every level in the organization, suggests where improvement
can take place.
Kaizen aims for improvements in productivity, effectiveness,
safety, and waste reduction, and those who follow the approach
often find a whole lot more in return:

Less waste – inventory is used more efficiently
as are employee skills.
People are more satisfied – they have a direct
impact on the way things are done.
Improved commitment – team members have more
of a stake in their job and are more inclined to commit to doing
a good job.
Improved retention – satisfied and engaged
people are more likely to stay.
Improved competitiveness – increases in efficiency
tend to contribute to lower costs and higher quality products.
Improved consumer satisfaction – coming from
higher quality products with fewer faults.
Improved problem solving – looking at processes
from a solutions perspective allows employees to solve problems
continuously.
Improved teams – working together to solve
problems helps build and strengthen existing teams.


Another Japanese term associated with kaizen is muda , which
means waste. Kaizen is aimed at decreasing waste through
eliminating overproduction, improving quality, being more
efficient, having less idle time, and reducing unnecessary
activities. All these translate to money savings and turn
potential losses into profits.

The kaizen philosophy was developed to improve
manufacturing processes, and it is one of the elements which led
to the success of Japanese manufacturing through high quality
and low costs. However, you can gain the benefits of the kaizen
approach in many other working environments too, and at both a
personal level or for your whole team or organization.
Much of the focus in kaizen is on reducing "waste" and this
waste takes several forms:

Movement – moving materials around before further value can be
added to them
Time – spent waiting (no value is being added during this
time)
Defects – which require re-work or have to be thrown away
Over-processing – doing
more to the product than is necessary to give the "customer"
maximum value for money
Variations – producing bespoke solutions where a standard one
will work just as well.

The table below shows some examples of these forms of waste in
an office environment.



Form of Waste
Examples



Movement

People moving between buildings for meetings when a
teleconference could add the same value. "Mental" movement can be a type of waste too, where
people are distracted into switching from one job to another,
before the first job is complete. Try to concentrate on
one type of task for a block of time such as planning,
thinking work, e-mail and phone calls. Use an Activity
Log or an Interrupter's
Log to identify how often you are currently switching
between types of work.

Having to open a file or database to look for key phone
numbers you use day in day out when it might be quicker to
print these out and pin them on the wall.



Time


Waiting for latecomers in meetings – always start
meetings on time out of courtesy to those who are prompt, and
to encourage good time keeping.
Searching for documents in your e-mail or file system
because you have not created a set of folders that enables
you to find things quickly. In manufacturing workshops,
kaizen led to boards for hanging tools on that had outlines
of the tool around each hook, making it really quick to
identify where to put a tool when you have finished with it.




Defects


A manager re-writing a report because he or she had not
briefed or trained a junior member of staff fully on how to
prepare it.

Re-doing or discarding work because you'd done it without
adequate research or before key decisions had been made that
affected the basis of your work.



Over-processing


Spending time adding color to a document or report if
it is going to be printed in black and white for distribution
at a meeting.

Reading material in more detail than is necessary. See
our article on Reading
Strategies for more on this.

Inviting more people to meetings than is necessary.
Limit meetings to those who should be involved in making
decisions. Others can be informed about what was decided
by sending them the meeting notes afterwards.



Variations



Producing a report specially for one group when a report
you prepare regularly for another audience would serve their
needs if another field was added.

Creating new documents when you could set up and use a
standard template.




Using Kaizen
Here's our suggested approach for using kaizen thinking on your
own, or with your team:

Keep a ideas log of things that seem inefficient
or that you'd like to improve. It's often easier to spot these
in the heat of the moment than in cold reflection.
Once a month, spend some time identifying areas where there
is "waste" in the way you or your team is working. Use your
ideas log as input, but also think about the wider picture and
your overall ways of working. Go through each of the types of
waste listed above as a checklist. How could "waste" be
eliminated? How could things be improved?
Plan out when you're going to make these changes. You need to
strike a balance between getting on with making the improvements
immediately (so that the area of waste doesn't become a bigger
problem), and avoiding "change overload".
It is especially important to take into account the impact or
confusion that it could cause for other, which in turn, could
cause them to avoid adopting the change. And a great way to
assess the impact of changes you are considering is to use the
Impact Analysis Tool
.

If the changes affect others, be sure to
consult them about the new arrangements, and listen to their
comments!


Kaizen is something that you can benefit from quickly as an
individual but, embracing the ideas and approach with your team
will take a concerted effort. Here are some suggestions to help
make kaizen work with your team:

Learn, with your team, more about the philosophy
of kaizen – this will help you embrace the ideas and develop
a participative, team-based approach
Develop a suggestion process – how will the
ideas be gathered and evaluated?
Establish your overall kaizen approach and
controls – rather than have people implement changes at will,
have a clear system to follow
Reward ideas – the more ideas, the more kaizen
is at work in the day-to-day attitudes of employees.


Key Points
Kaizen is a philosophy that supports continuous, incremental
process changes that sustain a high level of efficiency. A one
level kaizen can help you personally improve the way you work by
eliminating "waste". At the organizational level, kaizen can be
a powerful team-approach that harnesses suggestions and
involvement from people at every level. Wide participation can
serve to improve moral and satisfaction as much as it improves
production, costs, and other hard measures. If you choose to
bring kaizen into your workplace, you'll be surprised at how big
an impact small changes can make, and how the culture of
continuous improvement can thrive.