What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a team work exercise designed to empower operational teams to autonomously solve problems on a daily basis.
Impact
The Kaizen toolkit has a tremendous impact on a workforce that has had limited exposure to empowerment. It is the first real chance that many employees have had to use their experience and talent to improve their process and their work environment. They are able to influence the way in which they do their work. The exercise needs to be carefully prepared to make sure that the team has all the expertise and data available that they need to make the correct decisions and implement impactful changes. It has to be a fast process – typically in blocks of 2-3 days where the changes are brainstormed, discussed, planned, implemented and validated in one Kaizen session.
Results
- The results are always surprising for a number of reasons. They are simple changes that are enthusiastically implemented. They are always successful. They have huge acceptance by the operations staff.
- The difference can be seen in a day – it’s not necessary to wait for the monthly KPI values. The most surprising (or maybe not) is that the team always wants to come back and do another Kaizen on a different problem that has been a thorn in their side.