“Toyota’s Kaizen Experience and its

benefits to the world”

- Kaizen, the Exclusive Or & How To Escape From The Black And
White Universe

Submitted by

Priyamvada Singh

B.Ftech ( Apparel Production – 8 )

As there is a famous saying that the only constant thing in the world is –
Change. Likewise Kaizen, a Japanese term that means continuous
improvement, taken from words 'Kai' - means continuous and 'Zen'- means
improvement is implemented in the business processes as a walk towards
perfection. Some translate 'Kai' to mean change and 'Zen' to mean good, or
for the better. The same Japanese words Kaizen that pronounce as 'Gai San'
in chinese means;
Gai = The action to correct.

San= This word is more related to the Taoism or Buddhism Philosophy in

which give the definition as the action that 'benefit' the society but not to
one particular individual.

The neat thing about this basic idea is firstly that it’s probably pretty close to
the truth. Yet there are a number of further presuppositions there that really
open up the way for a whole new type of growth in any area one wishes to
apply the Kaizen principle to. I think the most soothing aspect of the Kaizen
philosophy is the upfront presupposition that whatever we do, and no matter
how well we do it, it can never be perfect. It can’t be perfect, perfection
being a state that is for angels perhaps, and the Creative at large to
demonstrate to us, best as we may be able to even perceive such things.

Yet even from this state of imperfection, there is no need to be dismayed, or

afraid, if we follow the Kaizen principle. Here, we strive TOWARDS perfection
- we do the best we can to make things better, every way, and every day, to
move towards perfection in an evolution of simple endeavours, all the time.
And today’s market scenario is that we have to work in the direction of the
perfection and that can be possible only with the continuous methods to
improve the service for the customer and not sticking to a stagnant method.

The quality of benefit that involve here should be sustain forever, in other
words the 'san' is and act that truly benefit the others. 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 year, or monthly activity. It is continuous. 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, and
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. The Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, and
improve it even if it isn't broke, because if we don't, we can't compete with
those who do."

Toyota Motor Corporation commonly known simply as Toyota and

abbreviated as TMC, is a multinational automaker headquartered in Toyota,
Aichi, Japan. The company was founded in 1926 as Toyoda Automatic
Loom Works, Ltd. by Sakichi Toyoda, the inventor of a series of manual
and machine-powered looms.

Toyota's history goes back to 1897, when Sakichi Toyoda (Sakichi) diversified
into the handloom machinery business from his family traditional business of
carpentry. He founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works (TALW) in 1926 for
manufacturing automatic looms. Sakichi invented a loom that stopped
automatically when any of the threads snapped. This concept of designing
equipment to stop so that defects could be fixed immediately formed the
basis of the Toyota Production System (TPS) that went on to become a major
factor in the company's success. In 1933, Sakichi established an automobile
department within TALW and the first passenger car prototype was
developed in 1935.

Sakichi's son Kiichiro Toyoda (Kiichiro) convinced him to enter the

automobile business. After this the production of Model AA began and Toyota
Motor Corporation was established in 1937. Kiichiro visited the Ford Motor
Company in Detroit to study the US automotive industry.
He saw that an average US worker's production was nine times that of a
Japanese worker. He realized that the productivity of the Japanese
automobile industry had to be increased if it were to compete globally.

Back in Japan, he customized the Ford production system to suit Japanese

market. He also devised a system wherein each process in the assembly line
of production would produce only the number of parts needed at the next
step on the production line, which made logistics management easier as
material was procured according to consumption. This system was referred
to as Just-in-Time (JIT) within the Toyota Group.

The JIT production was defined as 'producing only necessary units in a

necessary quantity at a necessary time resulting in decreased excess
inventories and excess workforce, thereby increasing productivity.' Kiichiro
realized that by relying solely on the central planning approach, it would be
very difficult to implement JIT in all the processes for an automobile. And so
the Kaizen was granted to the world.

When Kaizen is applied to the workplace it means continuous improvement

for - managers and workers. Thus, Kaizen involves everyone in an
organization to make improvements 'without large capital investments.' It
can be seen as a culture of continuous sustained improvement focusing on
eliminating waste in all systems and processes. The Kaizen strategy begins
and ends with people. With Kaizen, an involved leadership guides people
continuously to improve their abilities to meet high quality expectations, low
cost and on-time delivery, which in turn helps the organization gain a
competitive edge.

The Black And White Universe : How it happened, we may guess but
never know; it may be in the structure of our language or in the structure of
our logic, but the Western World still and after all these years of giving lip
service to the quantum universe and all it’s riches, adheres on many, many
levels to a deep and abiding belief in what I call The Black And White
Universe. The exclusive "or" from general semantics; the "either or" meta
model violation in NLP. We can blame Aristotle who stated, "A thing is either
one thing, or another." and indeed, many do for what good that does.
Aristotle, after all, was an imperfect being as we all are and if he had lived
another 100 years or so, he might have changed his mind and the world we
live in today would be very different indeed. May this be as it may, it is so
that Western folk think very much in terms of black VS white - winning or
losing (no brownie points for second place), living and dying, and most
destructively, right VS wrong. To apply useful principles of the universe back
to oneself on a very personal level is an intriguing and extraordinary
challenge that not that many take up, mostly because they don’t actually
know they are doing this on a regular basis.

Kaizen To The Rescue!

The Kaizen mindset helps with this. You don’t need that much courage when
you clearly understand that nobody is perfect and that there cannot be any
man made object, computer programmed, body, skill, behavior, whatever
that can ever be. It’s always flawed - that’s the truth. And that’s not a reason
to throw your hands up in horror and declare everything to be a failure and
the end of the world, quite in the contrary. It is in its truest sense, the
beginning of the world. Of a whole new world where nothing is stuck, no-
one ever loses at all, cannot lose at all unless, unless they give up and turn
away. Where improvement and the desire for improvement open up all kinds
of new possibilities and thought processes and the thirst for the continuous
improvement is quenched by following the KAIZEN. Where any small
improvement, no matter how innocuous, no matter how tiny, is a glorious
step in the right direction, an event to be celebrated and greeted with joy,
and the next tiny improvement (which is sure to be found soon enough!) is
expected with excitement and the wondering just how it will make what
more effective and just how this as-yet-unknown little improvement will
affect the totality of the system you are working with. KAIZEN is related to
our day to day life as we take steps towards betterment in our life and every
step counts for the purpose.

This is the world and the principle of Kaizen.

With the Kaizen notion of continuous tiny improvements rather than trying to face the
impossible task of changing a "bad thing" into a "good thing" overnight.

Kaizen will stop you from berating yourself when you have failed yet again and get you to
start searching for that tiny improvement that will make the next failure not quite the same
kind of failure. Kaizen will stop you from stopping yourself in a hundred and one situations,
every day. Kaizen creates counter examples to self beliefs and decisions, no matter how
ancient they may be in your case or how you think they are set in stone - it chips away at
old illusions, a flake at a time, and it will bring them crumbling down eventually, with as
much certainty as the sun will rise again. All it needs is the seed of desire to improve
something, to change something that needs changing or wants changing or would be
serving you and those you love in a better way. So every tiny improvement counts in the
journey of big change:
 Think Kaizen.

Remember Kaizen.