Even though it’s 2021 the most basic principle of Kaizen is not being done: for managers to just go and ask people for ideas to make their workplace lives better. Conversely, people should be volunteering ideas to the company and be respectfully listened to.
This article doesn’t go in to the required detail Kaizen deserves and why Standardisation is the foundation it’s built upon, but you can research further and include these associated subjects, Namawashi, PDCA, Kaizen Events, Root Cause and the 5 Why’s.
Let’s start. Kaizen means ‘change for the better’. This summarises one of the basic philosophies made real by Toyota, which has helped them continuously improve for over 100 years now. This and some of their other methods are encapsulated within what is known as The Toyota Production System (TPS), commonly referred to as Lean.
Kaizen is just one of the factors contributing to Toyota’s success who have spent decades experimenting and learning from how best it helps their employees. This is a key point.
In ‘some’ companies’ people are not being asked for ideas to solve a problem. This is a shame as the essence of Kaizen is: those that do the work are best placed to make improvements and give solutions to problems.
Kaizen in it’s simplicity asks you to look at where you are now, the current condition. Go and find a problem and measure it against the current standards. Solve the problem and update the standards and start again. If you don’t find a problem, look again.
When you find the problem, the ideas need to start flowing like a dripping tap that you just can’t turn off.
The aim is to gather as many ideas as possible, good or bad, but of course not implement the evidently bad ideas! Rather, implement the good ideas and if they turn out to be bad then change them quickly. Implement the straight-forward ideas there and then – speed is the goal – or as soon as possible following further discussions on the more complex ones.
The Scrum framework is an excellent example of how it embodies inspect & adapt. Popular Kanban and I’m talking Kanban boards with signalling cards are brilliant way for making problems visible. Both, like the Agile principles & values have their roots in Lean. Yay! Toyota did good again!
Turn on the tap of ideas.