The Toyota Production System (TPS) combines management philosophy and practices to form an integrated socio-technical system at Toyota. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers. The system is a major precursor of the more generic "Lean manufacturing." Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo and Eiji Toyoda developed the system between 1948 and 1975.[1] Originally called "Just In Time Production," it builds on the approach created by the founder of Toyota, Sakichi Toyoda, his son Kiichiro Toyoda, and the engineer Taiichi Ohno. The founders of Toyota drew heavily on the work of W. Edwards Deming and the writings of Henry Ford. When these men came to the United States to observe the assembly line and mass production that had made Ford rich, they were unimpressed. While shopping in a supermarket they observed the simple idea of an automatic drink resupplier; when the customer wants a drink, he takes one, and another replaces it.
The main goals of the TPS are to design out overburden (muri), inconsistency (mura) and eliminate waste (muda). The biggest effects on process value delivery are achieved by designing a process to be capable of delivering the required results smoothly; by designing out 'mura'. Next in line is to ensure that the process can flex as much as required without stress or 'muri' since this generates 'muda'. Finally the tactical improvements of waste reduction or the elimination of 'muda' are very valuable.
There are 7 kinds of muda targeted in the TPS:
over-production
motion (of operator or machine)
waiting (of operator or machine)
conveyance
processing itself
inventory (raw material)
correction (rework and scrap)
more
Toyota Motor Corporation's vehicle production system is a way of "making things" that is sometimes referred to as a "lean manufacturing system" or a "Just-in-Time (JIT) system," and has come to be well known and studied worldwide.This production control system has been established based on many years of continuous improvements, with the objective of "making the vehicles ordered by customers in the quickest and most efficient way, in order to deliver the vehicles as quickly as possible." The Toyota Production System (TPS) was established based on two concepts: The first is called "jidoka"(which can be loosely translated as "automation with a human touch") which means that when a problem occurs, the equipment stops immediately, preventing defective products from being produced; The second is the concept of "Just-in-Time," in which each process produces only what is needed by the next process in a continuous flow.Based on the basic philosophies of jidoka and Just-in-Time, the TPS can efficiently and quickly produce vehicles of sound quality, one at a time, that fully satisfy customer requirements.
more
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Tips to Tackle The Seven Deadly Wastes
How to prevent running over budget, over time and deliver value to your customers.
Waste is the enemy of any process. By identifying and eliminating it, you can transform your company into a Leaner, and ultimately, a more profitable organisation.
Many activities which are routinely performed in production facilities add no value in the eyes of the customer. If these wasteful activities can be identified and reduced, or eliminated, then workflow and production capacity increases without an increase in costs for the business. This combination of improved customer service and cost competitiveness can significantly increase the profitability of the business.
Without wasteful activities, you add value to products and services by delivering to customers in the shortest possible timeframe, at a high quality and at minimum cost. World class companies profit from the knowledge that customers recognise and pay for value every time.
The Seven Wastes were first developed into a clear set of principles and rules nearly 50 years ago by Toyota Chief Engineer, Taiichi Ohno. The concepts recognise that waste drives high manufacturing cost and that waste elimination is one of the most effective ways to increase profitability in manufacturing.
To eliminate waste, it is important to look beyond the obvious examples of rejected components or full waste bins. The Seven Wastes recognise lost time, effort, cash flow and opportunity.
The Seven Wastes of Production:
Over production
Waiting
Transportation
Inventory
Motion
Over processing
Defective Units
1. Over production
Over production involves producing goods over and above the amount required by the market at a given time. This consumes extra raw materials, labour and storage space, increasing the chance of damage to goods, excess handling and builds production queues which extends the lead time of goods on order. By limiting over production we can reduce lead times significantly and improve production flexibility and costs.
TIP: Over production can be avoided by using smaller batch sizes.
2. Waiting
Waiting involves periods of inactivity for people and product. Production lead time is tied up in waiting and queueing for the next sequence in the operation, typically when the flow of material, and information, people or equipment is poor. In a ‘batch and queue’ style process much of the time is attributed to waiting.
TIP: By improving material and information flow, optimising setups and changeovers and reducing the distance between work centres, productivity increases as the manufacturing cost decreases.
3. Inventory
There are many costs associated with holding excess amounts of inventory. This includes the direct costs of raw materials, work in progress (WIP) and finished goods stores, as well as extra handling costs, increased space requirements, more paperwork and possible product obsolescence.
TIP: To reduce inventory levels we can manufacture in small batches and introduce ‘pull systems’ to link production to consumption rates.
4. Transportation/Materials handling
Transporting product between processes is often viewed as “just part of the job”, however it adds no value from the customers’ perspective. Rather than improve the method of transportation the focus should be on the minimising or eliminating it from the process. Significantly, the number of material handling operations is directly proportional to the likelihood of damage to a product. Factory layouts are often the fundamental cause of excess transportation.
TIP: When a factory layout is carefully planned, through the use of mapping product flows and process relationship charts, it not only reduces transportation waste but can also reduce WIP and time.
5. Motion
The waste of Motion refers to any excessive movement by people or machines. For example, walking to and from tool boxes to retrieve items that could be stored at the point of usage, or bending to retrieve commonly used tools from an uncomfortable location. In CNC equipment cycles, sloppy programming can lead to the machine making unnecessary returns to maximum elevation during traverses or slow traverses even when not in contact with the work part.
TIP: Awareness of ergonomics (eg. bending, stretching) within the process has direct economic benefits. Analyse and redesign jobs with excessive motion with the involvement of plant personnel.
6. Over processing
Many organisations fail to ask what the customer actually values. As a result they perform work deemed unnecessary or even detrimental. The most common examples of this is unnecessary packaging, over-finishing parts, or specifying unnecessarily accurate tolerances.
TIP: By determining what it is that the customer is seeking and communicating this to staff with clear standards, inappropriate processing can be eliminated.
7. Defective Units
Processes not capable of producing the required specifications or quality are an obvious source of waste. The idea is to focus on preventing the occurrence of defects instead of finding and repairing defects.
TIP: Quality is improved through the use of standard work, training, 5S and continuous improvement tools.
Every organisation can benefit from a ‘Waste Hunt’. This involves creating awareness and understanding of the Seven Wastes within a Blitz team who identify and categorise wasteful activities that occur in the workplace. Once identified, they develop an action plan to address the most significant wastes and reduce or eliminate them altogether. Until you take the time to stop and objectively analyse the operations, you will never truly know how much opportunity exists.
more information or advice go here more
Waste is the enemy of any process. By identifying and eliminating it, you can transform your company into a Leaner, and ultimately, a more profitable organisation.
Many activities which are routinely performed in production facilities add no value in the eyes of the customer. If these wasteful activities can be identified and reduced, or eliminated, then workflow and production capacity increases without an increase in costs for the business. This combination of improved customer service and cost competitiveness can significantly increase the profitability of the business.
Without wasteful activities, you add value to products and services by delivering to customers in the shortest possible timeframe, at a high quality and at minimum cost. World class companies profit from the knowledge that customers recognise and pay for value every time.
The Seven Wastes were first developed into a clear set of principles and rules nearly 50 years ago by Toyota Chief Engineer, Taiichi Ohno. The concepts recognise that waste drives high manufacturing cost and that waste elimination is one of the most effective ways to increase profitability in manufacturing.
To eliminate waste, it is important to look beyond the obvious examples of rejected components or full waste bins. The Seven Wastes recognise lost time, effort, cash flow and opportunity.
The Seven Wastes of Production:
Over production
Waiting
Transportation
Inventory
Motion
Over processing
Defective Units
1. Over production
Over production involves producing goods over and above the amount required by the market at a given time. This consumes extra raw materials, labour and storage space, increasing the chance of damage to goods, excess handling and builds production queues which extends the lead time of goods on order. By limiting over production we can reduce lead times significantly and improve production flexibility and costs.
TIP: Over production can be avoided by using smaller batch sizes.
2. Waiting
Waiting involves periods of inactivity for people and product. Production lead time is tied up in waiting and queueing for the next sequence in the operation, typically when the flow of material, and information, people or equipment is poor. In a ‘batch and queue’ style process much of the time is attributed to waiting.
TIP: By improving material and information flow, optimising setups and changeovers and reducing the distance between work centres, productivity increases as the manufacturing cost decreases.
3. Inventory
There are many costs associated with holding excess amounts of inventory. This includes the direct costs of raw materials, work in progress (WIP) and finished goods stores, as well as extra handling costs, increased space requirements, more paperwork and possible product obsolescence.
TIP: To reduce inventory levels we can manufacture in small batches and introduce ‘pull systems’ to link production to consumption rates.
4. Transportation/Materials handling
Transporting product between processes is often viewed as “just part of the job”, however it adds no value from the customers’ perspective. Rather than improve the method of transportation the focus should be on the minimising or eliminating it from the process. Significantly, the number of material handling operations is directly proportional to the likelihood of damage to a product. Factory layouts are often the fundamental cause of excess transportation.
TIP: When a factory layout is carefully planned, through the use of mapping product flows and process relationship charts, it not only reduces transportation waste but can also reduce WIP and time.
5. Motion
The waste of Motion refers to any excessive movement by people or machines. For example, walking to and from tool boxes to retrieve items that could be stored at the point of usage, or bending to retrieve commonly used tools from an uncomfortable location. In CNC equipment cycles, sloppy programming can lead to the machine making unnecessary returns to maximum elevation during traverses or slow traverses even when not in contact with the work part.
TIP: Awareness of ergonomics (eg. bending, stretching) within the process has direct economic benefits. Analyse and redesign jobs with excessive motion with the involvement of plant personnel.
6. Over processing
Many organisations fail to ask what the customer actually values. As a result they perform work deemed unnecessary or even detrimental. The most common examples of this is unnecessary packaging, over-finishing parts, or specifying unnecessarily accurate tolerances.
TIP: By determining what it is that the customer is seeking and communicating this to staff with clear standards, inappropriate processing can be eliminated.
7. Defective Units
Processes not capable of producing the required specifications or quality are an obvious source of waste. The idea is to focus on preventing the occurrence of defects instead of finding and repairing defects.
TIP: Quality is improved through the use of standard work, training, 5S and continuous improvement tools.
Every organisation can benefit from a ‘Waste Hunt’. This involves creating awareness and understanding of the Seven Wastes within a Blitz team who identify and categorise wasteful activities that occur in the workplace. Once identified, they develop an action plan to address the most significant wastes and reduce or eliminate them altogether. Until you take the time to stop and objectively analyse the operations, you will never truly know how much opportunity exists.
more information or advice go here more
The Seven Wastes
The Seven Wastes Defined
The Seven Wates in Lean Thinking are:
Unnecessary Transport of materials
In moving products between factories, between work centres, between desks, between machines, all that is added is lead-time – no value is created.
Inventories beyond the absolute minimum
Caused by overproduction, inventories take up floor space – something that is always at a premium in factories and offices. There's always a dendancy to use inventories to mask other problems. Remember, if you've got pleanty of spares, there's no incentive to fix problems with quality!
Motions of employees
Looking for parts, bending / reaching for materials, searching for tools, etc.
Waiting for the next process step.
While waiting, the product is just soaking up ‘overheads’ – the last thing that the customer actually wants to pay for!
Overproduction ahead of demand.
This exposes the organisation to risks in changing demands from customers, and is a disincentive to the firm to reduce the other wastes, since there’s always plenty of extra material to use in case of problems.
Overprocessing of parts
Running parts on machines that are too fast / too slow, or even too accurate to achieve the customer’s definition of Value. What's the problem with doing too good a job? Well generally it means too expensive a job for the market's expectations.
Producing Defective parts
If processes produce defects, then extra staff are needed to inspect, and extra materials needed to take account of potential losses. Worse than this, INSPECTION DOES NOT WORK. Eventually you'll miss a problem, and then send a defective product to a customer. And they WILL notice, at which point, all hell will break loose!
Next: An Overview of Waste Reduction Techniques
[Or go to the sevenrings web site]
Reducing The Seven Wastes - An Over View
In the most efficient operations, the wastes are all minimised. All that remains is a flow of value – the VALUE STREAM. This is the sequence of operations that add the customer-perceived value to the organisation’s goods or services.
There are three basic techniques to minimising the Wastes:
Since many of the wastes are related to trying to operate an efficient system, in spite of customer unpredictability, it makes sense to run the operation in a manner that minimises forecasting. This is achieved through either making, or customising to order.
A pre-requisite of this is the ability to switch production from one product to another as quickly and painlessly as possible. This is achieved through the SMED system, which systematically streamlines the processes by which machines and processes are set up.
If this is done, then production can be level scheduled, so that each day’s output requirement is the same – the firm makes smaller and smaller batches at no cost penalty, and so increases its ability to respond to customer demands.
Significant amounts of Type Two Waste exist in almost all processes. These can usually be significantly reduced through a concerted, short-term project. In this, a team including those who actually run the process, technical experts, lay-persons, and a facilitator-expert plan and implement changes within a week. This is often called a “Kaizen Blitz”, or “kaikaku” from the Japanese terms for such shop floor-led improvements.
Type One Waste is only eliminated through removing its sources. In general, these are in fact Type Two Wastes, which due to their pervasive nature, are hard to see or eliminate. In general, these are tackled through a slower-burn version of kaizen, often lasting a few months.
The nature of Type One Waste is such that it often crosses departmental boundaries (following the value stream). To eliminate its sources therefore requires cross-departmental teams.
Next: Costs and Benefits of Lean Manufacturing
more
The mission of a Lean company is to eliminate waste to improve productivity. You can remember the Seven Wastes by using the acronym
"TIM WOOD"
When you're trying to figure out if you're looking at Type One Waste, or Type Two Waste, it's useful to remember that there are only three basic reasons for waste being unavoidable:
The laws of physics. It would be great to speed things up by using magic, but that's sadly not possible!
The laws of the land. You could reduce machine set-up time by removing all the safety guards, but killing your staff is illegal.
Outright cost. Got a 20,000 ton press in the wrong location? You're probably going to have to live with that kind of problem.
The Seven Wastes Defined
The Seven Wates in Lean Thinking are:
Unnecessary Transport of materials
In moving products between factories, between work centres, between desks, between machines, all that is added is lead-time – no value is created.
Inventories beyond the absolute minimum
Caused by overproduction, inventories take up floor space – something that is always at a premium in factories and offices. There's always a dendancy to use inventories to mask other problems. Remember, if you've got pleanty of spares, there's no incentive to fix problems with quality!
Motions of employees
Looking for parts, bending / reaching for materials, searching for tools, etc.
Waiting for the next process step.
While waiting, the product is just soaking up ‘overheads’ – the last thing that the customer actually wants to pay for!
Overproduction ahead of demand.
This exposes the organisation to risks in changing demands from customers, and is a disincentive to the firm to reduce the other wastes, since there’s always plenty of extra material to use in case of problems.
Overprocessing of parts
Running parts on machines that are too fast / too slow, or even too accurate to achieve the customer’s definition of Value. What's the problem with doing too good a job? Well generally it means too expensive a job for the market's expectations.
Producing Defective parts
If processes produce defects, then extra staff are needed to inspect, and extra materials needed to take account of potential losses. Worse than this, INSPECTION DOES NOT WORK. Eventually you'll miss a problem, and then send a defective product to a customer. And they WILL notice, at which point, all hell will break loose!
Next: An Overview of Waste Reduction Techniques
[Or go to the sevenrings web site]
The Seven Wates in Lean Thinking are:
Unnecessary Transport of materials
In moving products between factories, between work centres, between desks, between machines, all that is added is lead-time – no value is created.
Inventories beyond the absolute minimum
Caused by overproduction, inventories take up floor space – something that is always at a premium in factories and offices. There's always a dendancy to use inventories to mask other problems. Remember, if you've got pleanty of spares, there's no incentive to fix problems with quality!
Motions of employees
Looking for parts, bending / reaching for materials, searching for tools, etc.
Waiting for the next process step.
While waiting, the product is just soaking up ‘overheads’ – the last thing that the customer actually wants to pay for!
Overproduction ahead of demand.
This exposes the organisation to risks in changing demands from customers, and is a disincentive to the firm to reduce the other wastes, since there’s always plenty of extra material to use in case of problems.
Overprocessing of parts
Running parts on machines that are too fast / too slow, or even too accurate to achieve the customer’s definition of Value. What's the problem with doing too good a job? Well generally it means too expensive a job for the market's expectations.
Producing Defective parts
If processes produce defects, then extra staff are needed to inspect, and extra materials needed to take account of potential losses. Worse than this, INSPECTION DOES NOT WORK. Eventually you'll miss a problem, and then send a defective product to a customer. And they WILL notice, at which point, all hell will break loose!
Next: An Overview of Waste Reduction Techniques
[Or go to the sevenrings web site]
Reducing The Seven Wastes - An Over View
In the most efficient operations, the wastes are all minimised. All that remains is a flow of value – the VALUE STREAM. This is the sequence of operations that add the customer-perceived value to the organisation’s goods or services.
There are three basic techniques to minimising the Wastes:
Since many of the wastes are related to trying to operate an efficient system, in spite of customer unpredictability, it makes sense to run the operation in a manner that minimises forecasting. This is achieved through either making, or customising to order.
A pre-requisite of this is the ability to switch production from one product to another as quickly and painlessly as possible. This is achieved through the SMED system, which systematically streamlines the processes by which machines and processes are set up.
If this is done, then production can be level scheduled, so that each day’s output requirement is the same – the firm makes smaller and smaller batches at no cost penalty, and so increases its ability to respond to customer demands.
Significant amounts of Type Two Waste exist in almost all processes. These can usually be significantly reduced through a concerted, short-term project. In this, a team including those who actually run the process, technical experts, lay-persons, and a facilitator-expert plan and implement changes within a week. This is often called a “Kaizen Blitz”, or “kaikaku” from the Japanese terms for such shop floor-led improvements.
Type One Waste is only eliminated through removing its sources. In general, these are in fact Type Two Wastes, which due to their pervasive nature, are hard to see or eliminate. In general, these are tackled through a slower-burn version of kaizen, often lasting a few months.
The nature of Type One Waste is such that it often crosses departmental boundaries (following the value stream). To eliminate its sources therefore requires cross-departmental teams.
Next: Costs and Benefits of Lean Manufacturing
more
The mission of a Lean company is to eliminate waste to improve productivity. You can remember the Seven Wastes by using the acronym
"TIM WOOD"
acronym created by Michael Moran
email: mmoran@cascadegasket.com
email: mmoran@cascadegasket.com
When you're trying to figure out if you're looking at Type One Waste, or Type Two Waste, it's useful to remember that there are only three basic reasons for waste being unavoidable:
The laws of physics. It would be great to speed things up by using magic, but that's sadly not possible!
The laws of the land. You could reduce machine set-up time by removing all the safety guards, but killing your staff is illegal.
Outright cost. Got a 20,000 ton press in the wrong location? You're probably going to have to live with that kind of problem.
The Seven Wastes Defined
The Seven Wates in Lean Thinking are:
Unnecessary Transport of materials
In moving products between factories, between work centres, between desks, between machines, all that is added is lead-time – no value is created.
Inventories beyond the absolute minimum
Caused by overproduction, inventories take up floor space – something that is always at a premium in factories and offices. There's always a dendancy to use inventories to mask other problems. Remember, if you've got pleanty of spares, there's no incentive to fix problems with quality!
Motions of employees
Looking for parts, bending / reaching for materials, searching for tools, etc.
Waiting for the next process step.
While waiting, the product is just soaking up ‘overheads’ – the last thing that the customer actually wants to pay for!
Overproduction ahead of demand.
This exposes the organisation to risks in changing demands from customers, and is a disincentive to the firm to reduce the other wastes, since there’s always plenty of extra material to use in case of problems.
Overprocessing of parts
Running parts on machines that are too fast / too slow, or even too accurate to achieve the customer’s definition of Value. What's the problem with doing too good a job? Well generally it means too expensive a job for the market's expectations.
Producing Defective parts
If processes produce defects, then extra staff are needed to inspect, and extra materials needed to take account of potential losses. Worse than this, INSPECTION DOES NOT WORK. Eventually you'll miss a problem, and then send a defective product to a customer. And they WILL notice, at which point, all hell will break loose!
Next: An Overview of Waste Reduction Techniques
[Or go to the sevenrings web site]
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
KAIZEN Institute
The KAIZEN Institute - India occupies a key position in the Growth strategy of K.I Global. Our history goes back to 1985, when promotion of KAIZEN services within the Asia Pacific region started with the opening of our first office in Japan.
More recently inorder to serve our clients better KAIZEN INSTITUTE- ASIA-PACIFIC has been formed with its central office being located at Hong Kong (and with the Global head office being in Switzerland) with the India country offices being located at Delhi and additional offices in Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. KAIZEN Institute (KI) accomplishes sustainable implementation of change through the development of an internal Kaizen structure within the clients organizations. Kaizen deployment is supported with training of the workforce, at all levels, so as to maintain the continual improvement initiatives.
Our goal is to help clients
Achieve competitive and operational superiority in their chosen markets
Respond to strategic challenges by using people as the primary change resource
Become expert and autonomous in the management of their improvement strategies
Create repeatability, capability, sustainability and self-reliance
Our focus is in the fields of KAIZEN Enterprise Development, Organizational Culture Change, People Development.
Our People
Our team consists of seasoned continuous improvement experts and project managers:The team consists of over 22 consultants, each carrying rich years of previous work experience. Before coming on board as consultants some of our team members have been at senior managerial levels in leading industries within India. Upon joining the Kaizen team most of us have been trained in KAIZEN practices by Guru Masaki Imai in Japan. Each consultant has a focus on his area of specialization, and as a team we bring synergistic effect to our clients.
Typical result witnessed across various KAIZEN applications:
Through put time
12 days to 5 hrs
WIP/Inventory
Reduced by 97%
Total Inventory
Reduce by 72%
Manpower Productivity
Gone up by 280%
Value added per Employee
Up 17 times!!
Floor Space used
Reduction to less than 50%
Quality (rejection rate)
From approx 12% to below 1%
OEE
Up from around 40% to peak of 85%
Changeover time
Reduction of over 75%
Monday, November 26, 2007
FAQs
Kaizen
This article is about a continual improvement philosophy. For Kaizen ($K), a fantasy currency invented by Kaizen Games, see Priston Tale.
"Red tag" redirects here. For designation of damaged structures, see Red-tagged structure.
Kaizen (改善, Japanese for "change for the better" or "improvement"; the common English usage is "continuous improvement" or "continual improvement").
In the context of this article, Kaizen refers to a workplace 'quality' strategy and is often associated with the Toyota Production System and related to various quality-control systems, including methods of W. Edwards Deming.
Kaizen aims to eliminate waste (as defined by Joshua Isaac Walters "activities that add cost but do not add value"). It is often the case that this means "to take it apart and put back together in a better way." This is then followed by standardization of this 'better way' with others, through standardized work.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Translation
3 History
4 Implementation
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
//
more
Kaizen is a system of continuous improvement in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety and leadership.
We'll look at Kaizen by answering three questions: What is Kaizen? What are the benefits of Kaizen? What do you need to do to get started using Kaizen principles?
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen was created in Japan following World War II. The word Kaizen means "continuous improvement". It comes from the Japanese words "Kai" meaning school and "Zen" meaning wisdom.Kaizen is a system that involves every employee - from upper management to the cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. Japanese companies, such as Toyota and Canon, a total of 60 to 70 suggestions per employee per year are written down, shared and implemented.
In most cases these are not ideas for major changes. Kaizen is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.
Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production or marketing. Kaizen is based on making changes anywhere that improvements can be made. Western philosophy may be summarized as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, improve it even if it isn't broken, because if we don't, we can't compete with those who do."
Kaizen in Japan is a system of improvement that includes both home and business life. Kaizen even includes social activities. It is a concept that is applied in every aspect of a person's life.
In business Kaizen encompasses many of the components of Japanese businesses that have been seen as a part of their success. Quality circles, automation, suggestion systems, just-in-time delivery, Kanban and 5S are all included within the Kaizen system of running a business.
Kaizen involves setting standards and then continually improving those standards. To support the higher standards Kaizen also involves providing the training, materials and supervision that is needed for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis.
More information about Kaizen:
Kaizen - What it means?
KAIZEN is a Japanese word meaning gradual and orderly, continuous improvement. The KAIZEN business strategy involves everyone in an organization working together to make improvements 'without large capital investments'.
KAIZEN is a culture of sustained continuous improvement focusing on eliminating waste in all systems and processes of an organization.
The KAIZEN strategy begins and ends with people.
With KAIZEN, an involved leadership guides people to continuously improve their ability to meet expectations of high quality, low cost, and on-time delivery. KAIZEN transforms companies into 'Superior Global Competitors'.
Two Elements of KAIZEN
There are two elements that construct KAIZEN, improvement/change for the better and ongoing/continuity. Lacking one of those elements would not be considered KAIZEN. For instance, the expression of "business as usual" contains the element of continuity without improvement. On the other hand, the expression of "breakthrough" contains the element of change or improvement without continuity. KAIZEN should contain both elements.
KAIZEN Concept in Our Individual Life
KAIZEN, as you could learn from the definition, is a common word and very natural to individual, continuous improvement in personal life, home life, social life and working life. Everybody deserves to and should be willing to improve himself/herself for the better continually. "If a man has not been seen for three days, his friends should take a good look at him to see what changes have befallen him" quoted from the old Japanese saying, describes how natural KAIZEN is.
Maintenance, Innovation, and KAIZEN
In our concepts, three functions should happen simultaneously within any organizations: Maintenance, Innovation, and KAIZEN. By maintenance, we refer to maintaining the current status, the procedures are set and the standards are implemented. People in the lower level of organization mostly do that, they maintain their standards.
By Innovation, we refer to breakthrough activities initiated by top management, buying new machines, new equipment, developing new markets, directing R&D, change of strategy etc.In the middle there is KAIZEN, small steps but continuing improvement. KAIZEN should be implemented by the lower/middle management and the workers, with the encouragement and direction of the top.
The top management responsibility is to cultivate a KAIZEN working climates and cultures in the organization.KAIZEN AttitudeThe kaizen attitude makes our firm so adept at exploiting new technology, even when we are not its originator. Kaizen-driven firms do not suffer from "not invented here" syndrome. Ideas are not the exclusive preserve of R&D, corporate planning, or market research; every new idea is welcomed and "channels" are forsaken.
Kaizen Technologies, Inc is built on the above concept and “Kaizen” is part of our name, heart, work and is clearly reflected in our solution deliverables.
more
tqmcintl Industry: Consulting Location: Mumbai : Maharashtra : India ISO 9001 QMS ISO 13485 ENGINEERING NEWS UP-DATE ISO 22000 Explosion protected not Flame proof WTO CRO ISO TQM Information Security Management and ISO 27001 Software QA ISO 17025 CE Marking ISO 14000 GMP requirements SA 8000 ISO 20000 COBIT COPC STANDARD Lean Six Siqma ISO 17021 5 S Energy Manager boiler and pressure vessels eSCM useful Reference tables ERP Management Consultant hotels and restaurants Fami QS Food borne diseases and infections storing food grains Halal and Kosher wet tissues ready made garmets marking Inspection, measuring and testing equipment
This article is about a continual improvement philosophy. For Kaizen ($K), a fantasy currency invented by Kaizen Games, see Priston Tale.
"Red tag" redirects here. For designation of damaged structures, see Red-tagged structure.
Kaizen (改善, Japanese for "change for the better" or "improvement"; the common English usage is "continuous improvement" or "continual improvement").
In the context of this article, Kaizen refers to a workplace 'quality' strategy and is often associated with the Toyota Production System and related to various quality-control systems, including methods of W. Edwards Deming.
Kaizen aims to eliminate waste (as defined by Joshua Isaac Walters "activities that add cost but do not add value"). It is often the case that this means "to take it apart and put back together in a better way." This is then followed by standardization of this 'better way' with others, through standardized work.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Translation
3 History
4 Implementation
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
//
more
Kaizen is a system of continuous improvement in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety and leadership.
We'll look at Kaizen by answering three questions: What is Kaizen? What are the benefits of Kaizen? What do you need to do to get started using Kaizen principles?
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen was created in Japan following World War II. The word Kaizen means "continuous improvement". It comes from the Japanese words "Kai" meaning school and "Zen" meaning wisdom.Kaizen is a system that involves every employee - from upper management to the cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. Japanese companies, such as Toyota and Canon, a total of 60 to 70 suggestions per employee per year are written down, shared and implemented.
In most cases these are not ideas for major changes. Kaizen is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.
Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production or marketing. Kaizen is based on making changes anywhere that improvements can be made. Western philosophy may be summarized as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, improve it even if it isn't broken, because if we don't, we can't compete with those who do."
Kaizen in Japan is a system of improvement that includes both home and business life. Kaizen even includes social activities. It is a concept that is applied in every aspect of a person's life.
In business Kaizen encompasses many of the components of Japanese businesses that have been seen as a part of their success. Quality circles, automation, suggestion systems, just-in-time delivery, Kanban and 5S are all included within the Kaizen system of running a business.
Kaizen involves setting standards and then continually improving those standards. To support the higher standards Kaizen also involves providing the training, materials and supervision that is needed for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis.
More information about Kaizen:
Kaizen - What it means?
KAIZEN is a Japanese word meaning gradual and orderly, continuous improvement. The KAIZEN business strategy involves everyone in an organization working together to make improvements 'without large capital investments'.
KAIZEN is a culture of sustained continuous improvement focusing on eliminating waste in all systems and processes of an organization.
The KAIZEN strategy begins and ends with people.
With KAIZEN, an involved leadership guides people to continuously improve their ability to meet expectations of high quality, low cost, and on-time delivery. KAIZEN transforms companies into 'Superior Global Competitors'.
Two Elements of KAIZEN
There are two elements that construct KAIZEN, improvement/change for the better and ongoing/continuity. Lacking one of those elements would not be considered KAIZEN. For instance, the expression of "business as usual" contains the element of continuity without improvement. On the other hand, the expression of "breakthrough" contains the element of change or improvement without continuity. KAIZEN should contain both elements.
KAIZEN Concept in Our Individual Life
KAIZEN, as you could learn from the definition, is a common word and very natural to individual, continuous improvement in personal life, home life, social life and working life. Everybody deserves to and should be willing to improve himself/herself for the better continually. "If a man has not been seen for three days, his friends should take a good look at him to see what changes have befallen him" quoted from the old Japanese saying, describes how natural KAIZEN is.
Maintenance, Innovation, and KAIZEN
In our concepts, three functions should happen simultaneously within any organizations: Maintenance, Innovation, and KAIZEN. By maintenance, we refer to maintaining the current status, the procedures are set and the standards are implemented. People in the lower level of organization mostly do that, they maintain their standards.
By Innovation, we refer to breakthrough activities initiated by top management, buying new machines, new equipment, developing new markets, directing R&D, change of strategy etc.In the middle there is KAIZEN, small steps but continuing improvement. KAIZEN should be implemented by the lower/middle management and the workers, with the encouragement and direction of the top.
The top management responsibility is to cultivate a KAIZEN working climates and cultures in the organization.KAIZEN AttitudeThe kaizen attitude makes our firm so adept at exploiting new technology, even when we are not its originator. Kaizen-driven firms do not suffer from "not invented here" syndrome. Ideas are not the exclusive preserve of R&D, corporate planning, or market research; every new idea is welcomed and "channels" are forsaken.
Kaizen Technologies, Inc is built on the above concept and “Kaizen” is part of our name, heart, work and is clearly reflected in our solution deliverables.
more
tqmcintl Industry: Consulting Location: Mumbai : Maharashtra : India ISO 9001 QMS ISO 13485 ENGINEERING NEWS UP-DATE ISO 22000 Explosion protected not Flame proof WTO CRO ISO TQM Information Security Management and ISO 27001 Software QA ISO 17025 CE Marking ISO 14000 GMP requirements SA 8000 ISO 20000 COBIT COPC STANDARD Lean Six Siqma ISO 17021 5 S Energy Manager boiler and pressure vessels eSCM useful Reference tables ERP Management Consultant hotels and restaurants Fami QS Food borne diseases and infections storing food grains Halal and Kosher wet tissues ready made garmets marking Inspection, measuring and testing equipment
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
