Kaizen

Kaizen
Ongoing improvement involves everyone
Top management
Managers
Workers

A culture of supporting quality improvement

more important than the use of any specific tools

 Kaizen
The unifying thread running through
The philosophy
The systems
The problem-solving tools developed

of Japanese quality movement

Japanese Kaizen

 Japanese management
Kaizen
Process-oriented way
of thinking

Western management
Innovation
Result-oriented
thinking

 Climate features innovation

Rapid expending markets
Increasing sales more important than reducing cost

Consumers oriented more toward quantity

rather than quality
Abundant and low-cost resources
A belief that success with innovative product
will offset sluggish performance

 Climate favors Kaizen

Sharp increase in the costs of material, energy,
and labor
Overcapacity of production facilities
Increasing competitions

Need to introduce new products more rapidly
Need to lower the breakeven point

 Kaizen Culture
A corporate culture in which everyone can
freely admit these problems
A systematic and collaborative approach to
cross-functional problem-solving
Internal, Next process is customer
External, suppliers

 Kaizen Culture
A customer-driven strategy for improvement
Quality, cost, schedule, and delivery requirements

Emphasis on process
Result is not the only thing and everything
Support and acknowledge peoples process-oriented
efforts for improvement

Kaizen and management

Innovation
Kaizen
Maintenance

Top
Mgnt

Middle
Mgnt

Supervisor

Worker

 QC Circles
Primarily focus on
Cost, safety, and productivity
Indirectly to product-quality improvement

Account for only 10% - 30% of the overall

TQC efforts in Japanese companies
Making improvements in the workplace

 TQC in Japan
A movement center on the improvement of
managerial performance at all levels

TQC
Quality assurance
Cost reduction
Meeting production
quotas
Meeting delivery
schedules

Safety
New product
development
Productivity
improvement
Supplier management

 Process-Oriented management vs ResultOriented management

Evaluation the performance of employee
car sales in Taiwan
2006, 400,000 cars
2007, 200,000 cars? (optimistic estimates)

http://www.kuozui.com.tw

 Risks of result-oriented management

Lacking long term strategy
Missing new ideas and innovation

 Process-oriented management
Evaluation of quality control circles
Numbers of problems solved
NOT the amount of money saved
How the problems are approached
Do they considered the companys current situation
Do they consider safety, quality, and cost
Do they improve work standard

Directed at peoples efforts

Managers need to work with employees jointly

 Managers job
Maintenance-related administration
Checking the performance (result) of work

Improvement-related management
Checking the process that has led to a specific result

Key phrases of TQC

Speak with data,

Quality first, not profit first
Quality at source,
The next process is the customer
Customer-oriented TQC
TQC starts with training and ends with
training

 Speak with data

Emphasize the use of data
However, aware of
False data,
Mistaken data,
Immeasurable

 Quality First
Customers are satisfied with the quality of
products or services
Building quality into product
Building quality into people
Training is essential
Help employee become KAIZEN-conscious

 Quality First

Making the top quality products

At the low cost
In large quantity
From the very beginning

 Quality at source
Ask why 5 times
The real cause of a machine stoppage

Question 1: Why did the machine stop?

Answer 1: Because the fuse blew due to an overload
Question 2: Why was there an overload?
Answer 2: Because the bearing lubrication was
inadequate.
Question 3: Why was the lubrication inadequate?

 The next process is the customer

Mass production age
The person making the products neither knows nor
care who the customers are

The design engineers customers

The manufacturing people
(End customers)

 Customer-oriented TQC,
Not manufacturer-oriented TQC
Build a system for designing, developing,
producing, and servicing products to satisfy
their customers


follow up
Cf. ?

 TQC starts with training and ends with

training
Building quality into people

 Cross-functional management to facilitate

Kaizen
Quality at source means TQC should be
extended to include
Vendors
Suppliers
subcontractors

 Follow the PDCA cycle

Problem-solving
Management
Design Plan: product design corresponds to the
planning phase of management
Production Do: making products as designed
Sale Check: customers satisfied?
Research Action: how to approach complaints

 No layoff policy
Not PDCF

Plan
Do
Check
Fight/fire!

Virginia Mason Medical Center,

Seattle, WA

Redeploys employees
Training

Kaizen Promotion Office

Toyotas suppliers support center

 Use the QC story to persuade

Case study of shortening telephone waiting
time
kaizenStory.doc

 Standardize the results

There can be no improvement where there are
no standards
A way of spreading the benefits of
improvement throughout the organization

Cross-Functional Management
Building a better system for
Quality
Cost
Scheduling

Resolving inter-unit conflict on

Quality
Cost
Schedule

Top management
Strategy & planning

Production
planning

Marketing

Production
And
purchasing

Quality
Cost
scheduling

Production
preparation

Administrativ
e

Design

Ideal Product Development

100%

Marketing

Engineering

Trial run

Model
development

0%

Design
development

production

Idea
development

Involvement

50%

 Cross Functional Management at Toyota

Clarify its quality goals and deploy them to all
employees at every level
Establish a system of close coordination among
different department
toyotaXfun.doc