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Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement. It has been adopted as the name of a continuous imrpovement process that relies on focused meetings ofa cross-functional team that is empowered to take action to address a problem. There are many variations to the process, however the focus is always to take action to improve the problem or situation.

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Quick reference

Kaizen

Kaizen is the philosophy of continuous improvement. Kaizen events are conducted to create a focused activity around the improvement of a business KPI.

When to use

Kaizen can be used at any time to focus a team on improvement. A Kaizen will often lead to a Lean Six Sigma event as the Kaizen team improves what it can at the event and the remainder of a problem is used to charter a Lean Six Sigma team.

Instructions

Kaizen events are typically a 2-3 day focused event by a cross-functional team that is seeking to improve a business KPI.  The team is full-time on the event for the 2-3 day meeting. The event is often held at the point of process execution that creates the KPI performance. This is to be able to include operators and to quickly answer questions about the process steps and any challenges the operators face.

The event has a bias to action. The event is expected to identify specific actions that will improve the KPI and to the extent possible, implement those actions. The Kaizen event team will often have one or more senior managers participating so that they can break down any internal or bureaucratic barriers to implementation.

The team uses data from the process to identify and fix problems. They will normally attempt to measure the actual magnitude of the problems and then apply basic problem-solving tools to isolate the root cause and create solutions. Often the problem will have aspects that cannot be easily measured and analyzed within 2-3 days. Those portions of the problem are frequently captured in a project charter for a Lean Six Sigma project that then continues the improvement effort.  

Hints & tips

  • The team needs to clear their calendar for those 2-3 days so that they can be full-time during the event.
  • The team should be cross-functional so that there is someone on the team who can speak for each function and ensure that the function supports the improvement.
  • The team should have process operators who work in the process every day and can identify the problems they experience. Also, they can ensure the solution is practicable.
  • The team should have one or more senior managers who can break through organizational barriers that may impede the team’s ability to implement an improvement immediately.
  • When possible, hold the Kaizen event in the area where the process is performed. Hidden factors are exposed when the team is watching the process in operation.
  • In preparation for the event, gather data from several weeks or months so the team can immediately start working with data from the process.
  • If the organization does not normally operate in a cross-functional manner, a facilitator may be needed to ensure participation by all parties.  
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  • 00:04 Hi, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 I want to take a few minutes and talk about the Kaizen philosophy and
  • 00:11 how Kaizen events relate to Lean Six Sigma.
  • 00:14 >> Kaizen is a Japanese word for continuous improvement.
  • 00:18 One definition of Kaizen is the philosophy of continual improvement that
  • 00:23 every process can and should be continually evaluated and improved.
  • 00:28 This is contrary to the old saying of if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  • 00:32 The Kaizen philosophy is that there is always something that can be improved.
  • 00:37 However, the key is to make sure that you're working on the right thing.
  • 00:41 So Kaizen events are normally triggered by a key performance indicator,
  • 00:46 a KPI, that is not performing up to the desired level.
  • 00:50 And when that occurs, Kaizen is set in place to focus on that KPI.
  • 00:56 In many cases today, the KPI in question is a cycle time KPI.
  • 01:01 Something is taking too long, that will often lead to a Kaizen
  • 01:06 that emphasizes the concept of Lean to reduce cycle time.
  • 01:10 Another KPI that can trigger a Kaizen is a cost problem or a resource shortage.
  • 01:16 There's another old saying of do more with less.
  • 01:19 Well, as a scientist and engineer,
  • 01:22 let me tell you that you can't do more with less, you do less with less.
  • 01:26 So the key in this type of Kaizen is to identify what you need to do and
  • 01:30 what can you stop doing, something that is no longer needed and yet
  • 01:35 still gives us a very good result.
  • 01:37 But the most common reason for Kaizen are quality problems.
  • 01:41 This could be a quality problem due to an internal measure such as too much scrap or
  • 01:46 rework.
  • 01:46 This will likely lead to a Six Sigma-focused Kaizen event.
  • 01:51 However, it could also be a quality issue that is raised from an external source,
  • 01:56 such as a customer complaint or customer returns.
  • 01:59 In that case, the Kaizen is linked to how the product or
  • 02:03 service is being used in addition to how it's created and delivered.
  • 02:08 I mentioned Kaizen events several times, let me describe this type of event.
  • 02:13 First, Kaizen events are focused activities by a small team
  • 02:17 to work on improving the performance of a KPI.
  • 02:21 In many cases,
  • 02:22 a Kaizen event will result in the chartering of a Lean Six Sigma project.
  • 02:27 In these cases, the Kaizen event was able to identify a problem and did enough
  • 02:32 analysis to point the Lean Six Sigma team in the right direction to conduct
  • 02:37 a thorough data-centered analysis and discover the root cause of the problem.
  • 02:42 In fact, if the data is readily available, the entire domain process
  • 02:47 can be performed and completed within the time of the Kaizen event.
  • 02:52 Now that is aggressive.
  • 02:53 Most of the time when I've been involved in Kaizen events, and I've done dozen
  • 02:58 of these in many different companies, it will be a focused 2-3 day event where
  • 03:03 everyone on the Kaizen team is focused solely on the event for those days.
  • 03:08 I've done these by taking a team of five or six people to a factory and
  • 03:13 we Kaizen a work cell with problems.
  • 03:15 I've also done these in a conference room where we brought in all the data
  • 03:20 records for the past six months and
  • 03:22 then used them as we went through the problem-solving process.
  • 03:27 Don't get me wrong,
  • 03:28 the Kaizen event is not a boring meeting where we just look at musty old files.
  • 03:33 This is very much an action-focused meeting.
  • 03:36 In many organizations, there will be a senior manager sponsor for the event and
  • 03:41 they will help the Kaizen team overcome any internal organizational or
  • 03:46 bureaucratic barriers that can slow down the analysis.
  • 03:49 Also, it is a multi-level team.
  • 03:52 We want and need the insight and support from those on the front line.
  • 03:58 One reason I would go to a factory to do a Kaizen event is so that we could directly
  • 04:02 talk with operators and have them help us find and fix the problems.
  • 04:07 Most organizations that use Kaizens will have a basic problem-solving structure,
  • 04:12 often patterned around the Six Sigma DMAIC,
  • 04:14 to guide the team through their analysis.
  • 04:17 It's not just a free-flowing complaining session.
  • 04:20 The team is expected to at least partially solve if not
  • 04:25 fully solve the problem in those three days.
  • 04:28 That means that there's a bias to action.
  • 04:31 The team wants to make changes and create improvements in the KPI.
  • 04:35 Often, there's a facilitator there to help the team with problem-solving tools and
  • 04:40 techniques so that they can quickly make progress in their analysis.
  • 04:44 The Shewhart cycle of Plan–Do–Check–Act is very much at the core of
  • 04:48 the Kaizen events.
  • 04:50 The goal is action.
  • 04:52 A partial solution for the problem is developed and implemented within
  • 04:56 those three days so that there is an immediate impact on the KPI.
  • 05:00 And as I mentioned,
  • 05:02 often the Kaizen event will address part of the problem and then turn
  • 05:06 the remainder over to a Lean Six Sigma team to completely resolve the issue.
  • 05:12 >> While the Kaizen strategy is different from the Lean Six Sigma strategy,
  • 05:16 they are complementary.
  • 05:18 And most organizations that do Lean Six Sigma have a Kaizen initiative that is
  • 05:23 married to it.

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