business strategy
AN ORGANISATION’S ‘KAIZEN’ DETERMINES CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
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hat is it that we are being taught through the continuing stagnation of the economy? That to survive, we need to adapt. Adaption does not always refer to major changes, but rather small incremental adjustments required for a greater impact to take place as these minor tweaks start to take effect. Key to this is that the whole organisation must be part of the process and striving towards common goals together. The concept of small changes leading to major effects is not new. This approach was developed in the USA under the Training Within Industry program during World War II when there was neither time nor resources for large and innovative changes in the production of war equipment. It was again used, following the war, when American occupation forces brought in experts to help with the rebuilding of the Japanese industry.
the small-step work improvement approach. Instead of encouraging large, radical changes to achieve desired goals, these methods recommended that organisations introduce small improvements, preferably ones that could be implemented on the same day. The essence of the approach came down to improving the use of the existing workforce and technologies. This process was later refined and made popular by Toyota and is referred to as Kaizen. The Japanese word kaizen
Plan
Do
means “change for better”. Lean production is founded on the idea of kaizen – or continual improvement. This philosophy implies that small, incremental changes routinely applied and sustained over a long period result in significant improvements. The kaizen strategy aims to involve workers from multiple functions and levels in the organisation in working together to address a problem or improve a process. The cycle of kaizen activity can be defined as:
Check
Act
SMALL STEPS BIG IMPROVEMENT The core of this methodology is
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