The Term Kaizen, the term which you had probably heard numerous time from your colleges day to your Professional days. But the Kaizen is not a term or definition it is philosophy which has a great potential in it when understood rightly and implemented systematically.
WHAT IS KAIZEN?
KAIZEN a term is derived from the Japanese vocabulary. The term Kaizen is generally used along the phrase “Continuous Improvement” but in real there is a different word for the phrase “Continuous Improvement” in Japanese Vocabulary. The real meaning of the term Kaizen in Japanese is “Continuous Self-Development”. The real term for “Continuous Improvement” in Japanese is “Kairyo”.
Kaizen is a more personal, and it occurs with the individuals in their own mindset. Continuous Improvement is an external force. Whereas, the Kaizen is the internal force. New addition of the equipment’s, facilities, or other investment in processes might be improvements but cannot be considered as a Kaizen.
Kaizen is more of a mind process, in which you revive your potential as a human being by developing willpower to break the status quo.
Achieving the Kaizen is not easy for it you have to hold yourself accountable and acknowledge the hurdles as well as the negative emotions that they bring out. This is not defeatism indeed it is the starting point of the change which you aim for. It is impossible to get motivated & avoid defeat in future if you are not accepting the internal struggle.
The Kaizen involves a continuous impersonation on one mind to get the concept under its ideology & its mind set. The concept of kaizen should be always crystal clear in order to achieve the targeted objective.
We can see multiple kaizen examples in daily life, for example, when you look at your kitchen you can see that the frequently used equipment’s are placed near to you & the others which are less frequently used are kept far. This is the perfect kaizen example in daily life. Over the by experience and daily use you tend to understand the exact location where you want the things to be to achieve the best possible output in the required & this thing is continuously evolve thereby fulfilling the exact concept of kaizen that is change for the better or we can say continual improvement.
So the Kaizen approach is not only restricted to the manufacturing sector but can be endorsed by any particular individual. We can say Kaizen is more of a spirit not just a concept. Kaizen is not just a concept that is done within the closed doors. In fact, it has to be a part of your daily not just a onetime activity.
Basically there are three types of Kaizen:
- Point Kaizen.
- Flow Kaizen.
- System Kaizen
Point Kaizen:
This type of Kaizen mainly focuses on improving a particular point in the value stream. For example:
- Change of Machine.
- Material Handling improvements.
- Efficient Ergonomics.
Flow Kaizen:
The flow kaizen is the cumulative results that is obtain when multiple point kaizens are done in order to improve the overall flow. It is focused mainly to the flow of material or information.
Example for the flow kaizen can be rearranging of the production line.
System Kaizen:
Sytem kaizen is the activity in which a complete overhaul of the value stream is done for a particular system of the organization. The system Kaizen typically focuses on Man, Machine, Material systems, or any other core business processes.
Why Kaizen? What are benefits of Kaizen?
So let us see it in this way. If we say we do small improvement on daily basis to our processes or activities in beginning the changes & improvement will not be that significant or drastic but over the span when this practice is maintained on regular basis day after day, month after month, year after year, you will definitely see the multiple times better version of yourself & your organization than one you started with. So same is the case with Kaizen, where these small improvements activites insignificant at start but has enormous benefits in long run.
Few of the benefits which can be achieve through Kaizen are as follows:
- Increased productivity.
- Better Quality Products.
- Reduction of Cost.
- Better Delivery performance.
- Improved Safety.
- Morale Boost.
The spirit or the attributes to keep Kaizen intact in your day to day activity are namely:
Positive Thinking:
By this we mean, that no matter how the hard the situation are today the things will get better. We keep on improving daily & we will solve our most difficult of problems.
Gemba walk:
The Term Gemba is more often used when the solutions of the problems are determined by actually going out on the shop floor & identifying the problems rather than seating and discussing in the office.
Doing it by yourself:
We learn the most when we get things done all by ourselves. We experiment the things to get the results, we take the necessary countermeasures along with standardized work & by implementing proper visual management which helps us to share what we have learned.
HOW VISUAL MITRA CAN HELP?
Visualmitra has been a pioneer in the field of Facility Visual Management for the past 21 years. Visualmitra has provided various facilities with the help of its highly skilled visual management experts. Visualmitra has on offer a wide variety of Kaizen display products which can be used at your facility to inculcate the philosophy and culture of the Kaizen into your workforce. We at Visualmitra has always provided our clients with the premium products so that our customers can move towards the cultural improvement at their workplace. Contact us to know more about the products & services of Visualmitra has on offer.