Praise For Gemba Kaizen - Engineering
Praise for Gemba KaizenIt’s exciting to see an updated version of a classic book, Gemba Kaizen, whichshares a wealth of new healthcare examples and case studies from aroundthe world. A true sensei and master of kaizen, Mr. Imai shares sage andtimeless advice on engaging all team members in process improvementsand radical redesigns which are deeply meaningful to all stakeholders. Themethods in this book will help you improve quality and safety, reducewaiting times, and improve the long-term financial position of yourorganization. Highly recommended!—Mark Graban, author of Lean Hospitalsand co-author of Healthcare KaizenEvery business faces the iron triangle of quality, cost, and delivery.Conventional thinking claims you cannot have all three. Not only does Mr.Imai turn that thinking on its head, but he shows you in Gemba Kaizenexactly how to do it.—Matthew E. May, author of The Elegant Solutionand The Laws of SubtractionMasaaki Imai has done it again. The second edition of his famous bookGemba Kaizen not only describes all the tools necessary for any type ofbusiness to implement a lean strategy but also includes a large number ofexcellent case studies. These show how kaizen can be used to improvehospitals, supermarkets, airport management, a bus line, and even softwaredevelopment. This is a must-read for the leadership of any business.My first exposure to lean [the term hadn’t been invented yet, we calledit Just-in-Time or the Toyota Production System] was at the beginning of1982, during my first General Manager job at the General Electric Company.We created a simple kanban system between one of my plants and one of mysuppliers. We dropped raw material inventory from 40 days to 3 days andgot a lot of unexpected side benefits in the areas of productivity, quality,freed up space, 5S improvements, etc. Professor Schoenburger later did astory on this where he said that this was the first real lean activity at TheGeneral Electric Company. In late 1985 I joined the Danaher Company asone of two Group Executives. One of my company presidents, GeorgeKoenigsaecker, and I began introducing lean to Danaher in 1986. One of
the things that really helped us improve our knowledge of lean at the timewas Masaaki Imai’s first book, Kaizen. This was the most definitive work onthe subject and was a great help. Imai helped us even more in early 1987when he ran a seminar in the Hartford, CT area [just down the street fromJake Brake]. Imai used a Japanese consulting firm, Shingijutsu, to help runhis seminar and be responsible for the hands-on factory kaizen part of theweek. The three principals of Shingijutsu all had spent years working forTaiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota production system. Koenigsaeckerand I agreed that getting Shingijutsu to help us at Danaher would be a homerun for us and George worked diligently the rest of the week convincingthem. We became their first, and for four years, only American client and ourlean knowledge increased dramatically.In 1991, I left Danaher to become CEO of The Wiremold Company,also in the area. I, of course, brought Shingijutsu along with me and by 1996Masaaki Imai was back in my life as he included a chapter on Wiremoldand what we had done in his new book, Gemba Kaizen. We have stayed intouch over the years and Imai has become a true leader in the leanmovement throughout the world through his Kaizen institute. He clearlyunderstands that lean is a strategy, not just “some manufacturing thing”and that it can apply to any business. He and I have discussed why is it sodifficult for most business leaders to understand this and to embrace lean.Unfortunately there is no simple answer to this other than the fact that mostpeople just don’t like to change and implementing lean is massive change(everything has to change) if you are to be successful. This latest edition ofGemba Kaizen goes a long way to helping to solve this problem. First of all,it lays out the lean philosophy and tools in a very simple way so thatexecutives should not only understand them but more importantly, not beafraid to try them. More importantly however, Imai makes the case thatlean is a strategy and that it can be applied to any business. His case studiesof non-manufacturing companies where lean has had a dramatic impactreally help to make the point. Every leader of any type of organizationshould read this book and follow what it says.—Art Byrne, Operating Partner at J W Childs Associates, LPand author of The Lean Turnaround
Gemba Kaizen
About the AuthorMore than any other business authority in the world, Masaaki Imai haschampioned the concept of kaizen over the past three decades in thought,word, and action. Mr. Imai is considered one of the leaders of the qualitymovement and a pioneer of modern business operational excellence. Mr.Imai is an international lecturer, consultant, and founder of the KaizenInstitute, a leading continuous improvement consultancy with officesworldwide. Mr. Imai’s first book, Kaizen—translated into 14 languages—isthe reference on the subject. Gemba Kaizen picks up where Kaizen left off,introducing real-world application of continuous process improvementmethods in production and service businesses. The second edition is fullyrevised with brand-new case studies, updated chapters, and currentreferences. In 2010 Mr. Imai was honored for his lifetime of achievementwith the first ever Fellowship of the Quality Council of India, the apexquality body of the government of India.
Gemba KaizenA Commonsense Approach to aContinuous Improvement StrategyMasaaki ImaiSecond EditionNew York Chicago San FranciscoLisbon London Madrid Mexico CityMilan New Delhi San JuanSeoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
Copyright 2012, 1997 by the Kaizen Institute, Ltd. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under theUnited States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed inany form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.ISBN: 978-0-07-179036-9MHID: 0-07-179036-5The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-179035-2,MHID: 0-07-179035-7.All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol afterevery occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefitof the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designationsappear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and salespromotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please e-mail us atbulksales@mcgraw-hill.com.KAIZEN and GEMBA KAIZEN are trademarks of Kaizen Institute, Ltd.Information contained in this work has been obtained by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.(“McGraw-Hill”) from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither McGraw-Hill nor its authorsguarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither McGraw-Hillnor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of thisinformation. This work is published with the understanding that McGraw-Hill and its authors aresupplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. Ifsuch services are required, the assistance of an appropriate professional should be sought.TERMS OF USEThis is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (“McGraw-Hill”) and itslicensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except aspermitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, youmay not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works basedupon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it withoutMcGraw-Hill’s prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use;any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you failto comply with these terms.THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NOGUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY ORCOMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK,INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORKVIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY,EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OFMERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and itslicensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet yourrequirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor itslicensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause,in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the contentof any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/orits licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damagesthat result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of thepossibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoeverwhether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.
CONTENTSPreface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiiAcknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviiAbout Kaizen Institute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xixCHAPTER 1An Introduction to Kaizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Major Kaizen Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Kaizen and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Process versus Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Following the PDCA/SDCA Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Putting Quality First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Speak with Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7The Next Process Is the Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Major Kaizen Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Total Quality Control/Total Quality Management. . 8The Just-in-Time Production System . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Total Productive Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Policy Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9The Suggestion System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Small-Group Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10The Ultimate Goal of Kaizen Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11CHAPTER 2Gemba Kaizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Gemba and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14The House of Gemba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19The Five S (5S) of Good Housekeeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Muda Elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21The Golden Rules of Gemba Management . . . . . . . . . . 23Go to the Gemba First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Check the Gembutsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Take Temporary Countermeasures on the Spot . . . 29vii
viii ContentsFind the Root Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Standardize to Prevent Recurrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Application of the Golden Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33CHAPTER 3Quality, Cost, and Delivery at the Gemba. . . . . . . 37Quality: More Than Just a Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Quality Management at the Gemba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Cost Reduction at the Gemba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Improve Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Improving Productivity to Lower Costs . . . . . . . . . . 45Reduce Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Shorten the Production Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Reduce Machine Downtime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Reduce Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Reduce Lead Time (Throughput Time) . . . . . . . . . 47Role of the Gemba in Overall Cost Reduction . . . . 48Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Quality Improvement and Cost ReductionAre Compatible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49CHAPTER 4Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Maintain and Improve Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Operational Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Key Features of Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Toyoda Machine Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57The Kaizen Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57The Toyota Business Practice: The StandardProblem-Solving Story at Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Kaizen and International Quality Standards . . . . . . . . . 61CHAPTER 5The 5S: The Five Steps of WorkplaceOrganization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Good Housekeeping in Five Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665S for the City: Civic Pride in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67A Detailed Look at the Five Steps of 5S . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Seiri (Sort) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Contents ixSeiton (Straighten) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Seiso (Scrub) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Seiketsu (Systematize) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Shitsuke (Standardize) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Introducing 5S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76CHAPTER 6Muda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Muda of Overproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Muda of Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Muda of Defects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Muda of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Muda of Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Muda of Waiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Muda of Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Muda of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Categorizing Muda in the Service Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Muda, Mura, Muri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Mura (Variation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Muri (Overburden) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Removing Muda from Public-Sector Organizations . . . 91CHAPTER 7The Foundation of the House of Gemba . . . . . . . . 95A Learning Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Suggestion System and Quality Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Building Self-Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100CHAPTER 8Visual Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Making Problems Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Staying in Touch with Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Visual Management in the Five Ms (5M) . . . . . . . . . . . 106Manpower (Operators) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Visual Management to Manage Complexity . . . . . . . . 108
x ContentsVisual Management with 5S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Posting Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Setting Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111CHAPTER 9The Supervisors’ Roles in the Gemba . . . . . . . . . . 113Training Within Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Managing Input (Manpower, Materials,and Machines) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117A Day in the Life of a Supervisor at ToyotaMotor Manufacturing Kentucky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Morning Market (Asaichi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Best-Line Quality-Assurance Certification . . . . . . . . . 130Defining Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Pseudomanagerial Functions of Supervisorsin the Gemba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132CHAPTER 10Gemba Managers’ Roles and Accountability . . . 135Kaizen at Toyota Astra Motor CompanyRole Manuals at TAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136TAM Group Leaders’ Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139TAM Foremen’s Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140TAM Supervisors’ Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Items That Need to Be Managed in the Gemba . . . . . . 141Group Leaders’ Daily Schedule of Activities:Examples from the TAM Manual . . . . . . . . . . . 142Group Leaders’ Activities: Production, Cost, andQuality Examples from the TAM Manual . . . . 143Foremen’s Activities: Cost-Reduction Examplesfrom the TAM Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Supervisors’ Activities: Personnel and TrainingExamples from the TAM Manual . . . . . . . . . . . 146Section Managers’ Roles and Accountabilities:Examples from the TAM Manual . . . . . . . . . . . 148The Conditions Necessary for Successfully DefiningRoles and Accountability at TAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Staff Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149On-the-Job Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Contents xiFormal Classroom Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Voluntary Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150The Identification of Potential Problems . . . . . . . . . . . 150Hiyari Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Training in the Anticipation of Problems . . . . . . . 151The Benefits of Kaizen at Toyota AstraMotor Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151CHAPTER 11From Just-In-Time to Total Flow Management . 153Just-In-Time at Aisin Seiki’s Anjo Plant . . . . . . . . . . . 154Takt Time versus Cycle Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156Push Production versus Pull Production . . . . . . . . . . . 157Establishing Production Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158The Introduction of JIT at Aisin Seiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160The First Step of Kaizen at Aisin Seiki . . . . . . . . . 161The Second Step of Kaizen at Aisin Seiki . . . . . . . 162Spreading the Benefits of JIT to Other Industries . . . 163Total Flow Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164TFM Transformation in Company A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167CHAPTER 12Just-In-Time at Wiremold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183CHAPTER 13The CEO’s Role in Kaizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195CHAPTER 14Going to the Gemba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205Gemba Kaizen and Overall Corporate KaizenTwo-Day Kaizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207Checklists as a Kaizen Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210Gemba Kaizen Workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217Lessons from a 20-Year Kaizen Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . 219Changing the IT Culture at Achmea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225Daily Kaizen at Tork Ledervin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Kaizen in Public Spaces: TransformingRome’s Airports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
xii ContentsSonae MC: The Silent Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Surpassing Expectations through Kaizen at Embraco . . 249Kaizen at Oporto Hospital Centre:Making Patient-Centric Care A Reality . . . . . . . . . . 261Kaizen Enables Innovation and CustomerIntimacy at Densho Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269Kaizen Enables Innovation and Customer Intimacy . . 273Cutting Red Tape at a Public Utility: Enexis. . . . . . . . . 275People Power: Participation Makes the Differencefor Electrical Manufacturer in China . . . . . . . . . . . . 279Rossimoda: Kaizen and Creative ProductDevelopment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283Finsa Uses Kaizen to Emerge Stronger from a Crisis . . 293Innovating with Kaizen at Group Health . . . . . . . . . . . 301Kaizen Helps Caetano Bus Deliver on Schedule. . . . . . 307Kenyan Flour Producer Uses Kaizen to IncreaseCapacity, Improve Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313Kaizen as the Foundation for Innovation at Medlog . . 317Growing with Kaizen at Supremia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Exceeding Customer Expectations atWalt Disney World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329Kaizen Experience at Alpargatas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335Transforming a Corporate Culture: Excel’sOrganization for Employee Empowerment . . . . . . 345Quality in a Medical Context: Inoue Hospital . . . . . . 353The Journey to Kaizen at Leyland Trucks . . . . . . . . . . 359Tightening Logistics at Matarazzo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369Stamping Out Muda at Sunclipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373Housekeeping, Self-Discipline, and Standards:Tokai Shinei Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381Solving Quality Problems in the Gemba:Safety at Tres Cruces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407Worldwide Contact Information forKaizen Institute Consulting Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
PREFACEMy two books, Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success (McGrawHill, 1986) and Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach toManagement (McGraw-Hill, 1997) laid the foundation for exploration ofkaizen as both a personal philosophy and business improvement system forpeople outside of Japan. Initially grasped as a set of methods such as totalquality control, total productive maintenance, just-in-time management,quality circles, and suggestion systems, the West is ever closer to understanding kaizen for what it truly is: a strategy to win by developing peopleinto problem solvers.The second edition of Gemba Kaizen reveals how kaizen has spread toevery continent and culture, met with various unique challenges anddemonstrated its success. Gemba means “actual place” or “workplace” inJapanese, and this book gives you a look into more than thirty actual placeswhere kaizen was successfully made a part of the culture. The book explainshow to use a commonsense, low-cost approach to managing the workplace—the place where value is added—whether that place be the production line, hospital, government department, shopping center, airport, orengineering firm. This is not a book of theory, but a book of action. Itsultimate message is that no matter how much knowledge the reader maygain, it is of no use if it is not put into practice daily. Gemba Kaizen providesnot more theoretical knowledge, but a simple frame of reference to use insolving problems. To that purpose, it provides many checklists, examples,and case studies.The Commonsense, Low-Cost Approachto a Continuous Improvement StrategyToday’s managers often try to apply sophisticated tools and technologies todeal with problems that can be solved with a commonsense, low-costapproach. They need to unlearn the habit of trying ever more sophisticatedtechnologies to solve everyday problems. Furthermore, leaders mustxiii
xiv Prefaceembrace kaizen and business excellence not as a tool or technique but as anever-finished pillar of their strategy.Putting common sense into practice is the subject of this book. It is foreverybody: managers, engineers, supervisors, and rank and file employees.Along with putting common sense into practice, Gemba Kaizen deals withthe roles of managers and the need to develop a learning organization. Ibelieve that one of the roles of top management should be to challenge allmanagers to attain ever higher goals. In turn, first-line supervisors need tochallenge workers to do a better job all the time. Unfortunately, manymanagers today have long ceased to play such a role.Another problem besetting most companies today is the tendency toplace too much emphasis on teaching knowledge, while disregarding grouplearning of fundamental values derived from common sense, self-discipline,order, and economy. Good management should strive to lead the companyto learn these values while achieving “lean management.”There are two approaches to problem solving. The first involvesinnovation—applying the latest high-cost technology, such as state-of-theart computers and other tools, and investing a great deal of money. Thesecond uses commonsense tools, checklists, and techniques that do not costmuch money. This approach is called kaizen. Kaizen involves everybody—starting with the CEO in the organization—planning and working togetherfor success. This book will show how kaizen can achieve significant improvement as an essential building block that prepares the company for trulyrewarding accomplishments.Back to Basics: Housekeeping,Muda Elimination, and StandardizationDuring the past 27 years since Kaizen was first published, many have lookedfor and asked “what is next?” but many times they are overlooking what isdirectly in front of them. We must go back to the basics and ask how wellwe have kept a steady, long-term focus on kaizen. Everyone in the companymust work together to follow three ground rules for practicing kaizen inthe gemba: HousekeepingMuda elimination
Preface xv StandardizationHousekeeping is an indispensable ingredient of good management.Through good housekeeping, employees acquire and practice self-discipline.Employees without self-discipline make it impossible to provide productsor services of good quality to the customer.In Japanese, the word muda means waste. Any activity that does notadd value is muda. People in the gemba either add value or do not add value.This is also true for other resources, such as machines and materials.Suppose a company’s employees are adding nine parts muda for every onepart value. Their productivity can be doubled by reducing muda to eightparts and increasing the added value to two parts. Muda elimination canbe the most cost-effective way to improve productivity and reduce operatingcosts. Kaizen emphasizes the elimination of muda in the gemba rather thanthe increasing of investment in the hope of adding value.A simple example illustrates the cost benefits of kaizen. Suppose thatoperators assembling a household appliance are standing in front of theirworkstations to put certain parts into the main unit. The parts for assemblyare kept in a large container behind the operators. The action of turningaround to pick up a part takes an operator five seconds, while actualassembly time is only two seconds.Now let’s assume the parts are placed in front of the operator. Theoperator simply extends his or her arms forward to pick up a part—anaction that takes only a second. The operators can use the time saved toconcentrate on the (value-adding) assembly. A simple change in the locationof the parts—eliminating the muda involved in the action of reachingbehind—has yielded a four-second time gain that translates into a threefoldincrease in productivity!Such small improvements in many processes gradually accumulate,leading to significant quality improvement, cost benefits, and productivityimprovements. Applying such an approach throughout all managementactivities, especially at top management levels, gradually achieves a just-intime, lean management system by teaching people the skills to see their workin a new way and by teaching them the skills to change how they work. Bycontrast, management primarily focused on innovation and breakthroughsmight be inclined to buy software, equipment or capabilities that wouldenable the organization to perform their work much faster. But this wouldnot eliminate the muda inherent in the current system. Furthermore,
xvi Prefaceinvesting in the new device or capability costs money, while eliminatingmuda costs nothing. We must innovate, but on a foundation of kaizen. Thecase study from Densho Engineering and others in this book reveal howthis is done.The third ground rule of kaizen practices in the gemba is standardization. Standards may be defined as the best way to do the job. Forproducts or services created as a result of a series of processes, a certainstandard must be maintained at each process in order to assure quality.Maintaining standards is a way of assuring quality at each process andpreventing the recurrence of errors.As a general rule of thumb, introducing good housekeeping in thegemba reduces the failure rate by 50 percent, and stand
Imai is an international lecturer, consultant, and founder of the Kaizen Institute, a leading continuous improvement consultancy with offices worldwide. Mr. Imai’s first book, Kaizen —translated into 14 languages—is the reference on the subj
Gemba walks. For level 2 management, a Gemba Walk should be performed twice per day. For a standard schedule example, have a look at page 5. 5. Effective Gemba walk training Shadow every team leaders' Gemba walk individually at least once a week to make sure they carry it out in the right way. (See How to conduct a Gemba Walk for details) 6.
2017 Shingijutsu Kaizen Training Kaizen Principles can be applied in all areas! Quality Kaizen Safety Kaizen Flow Kaizen Business Process Kaizen X. The program begins with a lecture by Mr. Chihiro Nakao, FOM (Father of Moonshine), Shingijutsu, on the basic concept of Kaizen. The participants learn about the Just-In-Time
Introduction to Gemba creativesafetysupply.com 5 The Gemba Walk The Objective of a Gemba Walk In businesses, managers often look to company leaders for direction. The value created by a business, though, exists out on the work floor. By taking gemba walks, managers can get ideas for im
Gemba walk. PREPARATIONS FOR GEMBA WORK Bringing ten managers to work in the Gemba requires much preparation both of the participants themselves and of the workers and the managers who will host them. The preparation of the participants included Gemba Kata class and technical classes e
POINT Kaizen MINI Kaizen Kaizen BLITZ FLOW Kaizen SUPPLY CHAIN Kaizen IDEA RADIATOR “Kaizen Kanban” or “improvement project board” A “Kaizen Kanban” or “improvement board” is a visual prioritize project pipeline
JICA and MOTI agreed the study on Kaizen KU (Kaizen Unit) formed under MOTI Kaizen Project launched In 2010 Lessons from African countries that implemented Kaizen Training and Seminars were conducted Kaizen implementation commenced in 1 st batch companies Kaizen high level forum carried out Performance evaluation of implementers’carried out.
pejoratives like Kaizen in a box, kamikaze Kaizen, Kaizen paint by numbers, popcorn Kaizen. And it's true that Kaizen events many times have been misapplied by people who miss the big picture from a lean perspective or even continuous recruitment. So what I wanted to do was bring people back to the context that Kaizen event should be within,
The recipient of the 1st place Global KAIZEN Award 3rd Edition will be awarded with two vouchers to participate in any KAIZEN learning program, KAIZEN Insight Tour or KAIZEN Benchmark Tour3. Learn more To find out more about the KAIZEN Awards visit https://awards.kaizen.com or contact your local business partner.
