Kaizen Events
October 30, 2013 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under A Note for You, Front Page
Why do some companies show reluctance to implement kaizen events?
A huge number of business organizations have realized the amazing benefits involved with Kaizen. Still, some businesses show hesitation to utilize kaizen events because they think that such events take away a team of employees from their “actual jobs” for three to five days at a time. Certain companies decide to replace kaizen events with projects assigned to 1 or 2 individuals. This approach will not bring the desired results because it does not contain substantial participation and buy-in and, they will come to the conclusion that kaizen events cannot be implemented in their business organization.
It can be described as a wrong perception and the perceived ‘lost time’ of the employees can be compensated with the help of properly planned and implemented kaizen events. When a company implements this method in the proper manner, they are going to increase their productivity and many of the day-to-day problems can be solved permanently as well.
Since kaizen events can be described as 3 to 5 day breakthrough events and they include a wide variety of activities. The first one is known training and the second step is to define the problem/goal of the company. Thirdly, the process of documenting the current state will be performed and the next one is all about brainstorming and developing a future state. The implementation process will take place in the next stage and a follow-up plan will be designed during the next phase. The other two activities are presentation of results and celebration of success and, with these two activities, kaizen events will reach a full circle.
The entire process can be implemented in a wide variety of situations to find permanent solutions and in order to target the correct areas for improvement, Kaizen events are being planned using value stream mapping. It can be said without an iota of doubt that correct implementation of kaizen events will bring the desired results and the reluctance shown by companies is mainly because they have not made any efforts to understand this concept in a detailed manner.