Muda is the direct obstacle of flow. There are 7 distinctive types of Muda which all lead to waiting times, and therefore longer lead times in a process. Simply taking out the Muda does not work. Usually, there is a reason why the Muda is there and this reason often has to do with the other two enemies: Muri and Mura.  This means there are three enemies of lean and they are interrelated, and should therefore be considered simultaneously. Instead of just looking at the traditional 7 wastes of Muda, it is incumbent to consider instead the three categories of waste used by TPS (Toyota Production System).

Take a few moments and watch this educational video.

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Most definitions of lean manufacturing refer to the reduction of the Muda (7 wastes) as the main focus. Few definitions of lean differentiate between the different types of waste and seem to purely focus on Muda. The Toyota Production System (TPS) sees waste as being three — Muda, Mura and Muri — something that many lean practitioners seem to have forgotten. The best way to tackle a problem is to remove the root cause, therefore the focus of any waste reduction program should be on removing both Mura and Muri, as this will automatically remove much of the Muda (7 wastes) in the workplace.

The overall aim of any quality improvement technique is to improve the profitability of the business. To do this you have to be able to recognize these three wastes for what they are and be able to tackle the root causes.

Muda – Commonly referred to as the 7 Wastes and are non-value adding processes or actions.

Mura – Seen as unevenness or a lack of stability and flow. This drives the creation of Muda.

Muri – This is simply defined as overburden. Expecting too much, with defining process or not having the correct skills or tools.

The three Japanese Mu words are part of the Toyota Production System (TPS). Each of these is a type of waste and are recognized by the Japanese as part of a business improvement initiative. The elimination of waste has come to dominate the thinking of many when they look at the effects of the TPS because it is the most familiar of the three to implement. In the TPS, many initiatives are triggered by inconsistency or over-run reduction, which drives out waste without specific focus on its reduction.

In today’s competitive environment, a focus on reduction of waste is crucial to the success and profitability of any organization. Eliminating waste makes it easier to see and find problems, which is the first step to solving them. It removes frustrations, which improves worker and customer satisfaction.

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Kaizen is the Japanese word for “improvement.” In business, Kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees, from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching, government, banking, and other industries. By improving standardized processes, Kaizen aims to eliminate waste. It was first practiced in Japanese businesses after the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers, and most notably as part of the Toyota Way. It has since spread throughout the world and has been applied to environments outside business and productivity.

Now, take those simple processes from the factory floor to the home front and you might just find some success. With our world becoming more and more hectic in the digital age, we are losing the battle of a work-life balance.

Check out this amazing video on Kaizen in your personal life.

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Are you feeling overwhelmed and out of control? Not really a surprise for many, considering the demands on our lives in this digital age. We are spending more time at work than any other generation in American history. As a workforce, Americans lose more paid leave from work each year than any other country. Our workdays get longer and they don’t end when we leave the workplace. Our smartphones keep us tethered to the office, and we can never really disconnect until late into the evening. Then, we have to try and balance our professional demands with our personal lives. Spouses, children and extended family demand our time as well, but seem to be getting the short end of the stick for most American workers.

So the question becomes, how do I find balance when the demands on our time continue to escalate? There are a wide range of options available for the busy professional who needs to find balance in his or her life. Browse the internet for five minutes and you will find a long list of self-help experts and gurus who claim that they can make things all better and find the balance you are seeking. But, how do you find the right help, and can you fit the cost into your budget? Things just get more and more complicated, don’t they? Well, a simple answer may be just simple techniques that are practiced in many organizations around the globe and they get results. Just take a look at the Kaizen philosophy and really understand how that applies to your personal life, just like the processes on the factory floor. Kaizen may be just the solution you are looking for!

Kaizen took hold in the years after WWII with the Japanese and the Toyota Production System (TPS). It is based on the belief that continuous, incremental improvement adds up to substantial change over time. When teams or groups implement Kaizen, they circumvent the upheaval, unrest, and mistakes that often go hand-in-hand with major innovation. It’s fitting that the Japanese word kaizen translates to good change. You can take those techniques and apply them directly to your personal life and affect real change. The core principle of Kaizen is waste reduction, so take stock in what you are doing and make some changes. Look at what you need to stop doing that is not productive or unnecessary and make some changes. Look at the time-wasters that sneak into our daily activities and carve them out. Prioritize your tasks and find simpler, easier ways of getting things done. An audit of your daily calendar will truly be an eye-opener for most people.

Daily consistent improvement is the key to success. Think small in the beginning. Those little changes will, at first, free up 15-20 minutes a day. As you make improvements, those changes get a little bigger. Now, you are not having to work through lunch, or you have actually made the time to catch a kid’s soccer game or make it home on time for date night, without missing any key objectives. They real key to success is to constantly look at ways to improve, become more efficient at tasks or build better habits. Just be patient and you will find success in the process and a much need balance between your personal and professional life.

Read more here about Kaizen. It just isn’t for the factory floor anymore!

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The continual improvement process, also known as continuous improvement process, is the ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek incremental improvement over time or breakthrough improvement all at once. Delivery of quality improvement processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility. Improvement in quality business strategy, business results, customer, employee and supplier relationships can be subject to continual quality improvement. Put simply, it means getting better all the time.

Take a few minutes and enjoy this video on Kaizen and the art of continuous quality improvement.

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How many people involved in quality improvement initiatives have ever uttered this question? There have been many, without a doubt. You have been there before. Your team has just finished a project and briefed the leadership team on the results of your efforts. Everyone on the team is excited and very proud of the results, clearly backed-up by solid statistical data. Quality is improved, cost savings is achieved and production has increased. It is clearly a proud day! Then after presenting the achievements, the first question asked by the CEO is how can we improve on these results for next year? Everyone on the team has the wind knocked out of them and they pause for a moment in a blank stare. After all the hard work and success, your being asked to do it again’ and achieve some significant results. The question then becomes ¦ Will it ever be good enough?

The short and long answer is NO. It will never be good enough and nor should it be. That is not to say that the success your team has achieved should not be celebrated, but the simple fact is, that is now in the past. It is time, again, to look forward and lean forward. Isn’t that what quality improvement is all about? Of course it is! Successful organizations achieve that success by forward thinking and never accepting the current standards are good enough. Strong leadership teams understand the fundamentals of quality improvement. They also know that they must continually strive for optimum performance while encouraging the energy of their quality improvement teams to find ways to reach their goals in a positive manner. It is a fine balance to maintain, but the best organizations always find the way.

Customers not only expect, but they demand better performance, better quality and more value for their money. In other words, the expectation can never stand still. Quality Improvement teams must move from success to success with fresh eyes, and renewed leadership. Any organization that accepts the standard to be the status quo will surely lose out across the board. Once a goal is met and we have celebrated and rewarded the accomplishment, we must quickly move on to setting the bar even higher. To do anything less would be quitting.

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to complete 80% of your improvement over a 3-5 day period? Imagine being able to master the skill sets necessary to effect such dramatic improvement in such a short time. Most Lean professionals would immediately line up for the training curriculum that would provide them with such skills. If you consider our system of supply and demand, you would believe that would be the case. Long waiting lists for training of such a high value. The problem is, unfortunately, most Lean professionals learn their skill set through mentoring, hands-on experience and lots of practice.

Understanding the Power of a Kaizen Burst Event

Kaizen is the Japanese word for “improvement. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, Kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees, from the CEO to the lowest level of workers. A Kaizen burst event is a short duration improvement project with a specific aim for improvement. Typically, they are week-long events led by a facilitator with the implementation team being predominantly members of the area in which the Kaizen event is being conducted. A few additional people from support areas and even management could also participate.

A Kaizen burst event, although normally promoted as one off events, should be part of an overall program of continuous improvement if they are to be successful and for gains to be sustained. Events in an environment where they are not supported or understood generally have gains that are quickly eroded over a short period of time, as people revert to their original ways of working.

Imagine having the highest level of mastery with such a powerful skill set. Getting the proper training, coaching and mentoring may be elusive, but there is hope.

Gaining Skills and Knowledge When Managing Kaizen Events

Lean professionals are focused and resourceful individuals. If they have the resources available, they can make things happen. Successful people spend a part of their waking hours reading, studying and practicing the skills of their profession. With the right set of resources, a Lean professional would be able to develop their skill set with managing a Kaizen burst event and put that knowledge to work!

We have compiled a comprehensive set of references to empower Lean professionals and enable them to better manage a Kaizen burst event:

ELECTRONIC FILES

Kaizen Before and After Template

Kaizen Newspaper

Lean Ohio Kaizen Event References

DIGITAL BOOKS (Inexpensive)

Kaizen Blitz: An Introduction to Kaizen and Using the Deming Process Improvement Cycle to Enhance Quality, Reduce Costs, and Boost Internal Process Efficiencies

BOOKS

Kaizen Event Facilitator Fieldbook

Kaizen Demystified (with over 40 Dropbox file links to Excel worksheets): A Practical and Systematic Method of Evaluating Circumstances to Improve Processes

Kaizen for the Shop Floor: A Zero-Waste Environment with Process Automation

The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service, and Technical Environments

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Lean Kaizen is an approach that businesses can use to reduce inefficiencies and cultivate best practices. Let’s see what Kaizen and Lean mean, how they’re linked to each other, and what this means for your specific business needs.

What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is centered around the idea of continuous improvement. ‘Kaizen’ is a Japanese word that means change for the better. The purpose is to introduce changes, however small, that have the potential to introduce major improvements. 

Kaizen can introduce just-in-time deliveries, where products are only created when they’re needed in order to prevent overproduction, overstocking, and inventory management wastes. It can also bring efficient machines and streamline processes with the goal of cutting down on waste.

Ultimately, kaizen helps improve the quality of products and services delivered to customers and improves satisfaction levels.

What is Lean?

Lean is the methodology that cultivates a culture of continuous improvement. Lean begins with understanding value from the point of view of customers. You need to see what it is that brings joy to your customers and addresses their pain points and engineer your products and services around delivering that value. 

Value streams are then created to understand how processes flow and where wastes can be reduced. Pull-based systems are deployed to only get products based on customer demands.

Kaizen is an integral part of lean, which includes more tools in its arsenal to improve quality and reduce waste.

Kaizen and Lean: Lean Kaizen

Kaizen and lean work together to minimize waste and improve the quality of products and services for customers. Kaizen empowers employees at all levels, inspiring them to raise problems and discussions around them as well as propose solutions.

Lean Kaizen helps businesses transform their work cultures and solve challenges in a proactive manner. Kaizen and lean focus on the long-term optimization of the business through incremental and iterative steps.

Kaizen is, in fact, a founding pillar of the lean methodology. Without Kaizen, lean will lose much of its attributes and appeal, as it is important for continuous improvement. They work together to eliminate defects and wastes for customers through a series of continuous improvement steps.

It’s often not a question of lean vs Kaizen; the best approach is to use them both for the best results. Both approaches draw heavily from each other. Any enterprise no matter which sector or industry it operates in, can use lean and Kaizen to raise its products and services a notch higher. 

Both approaches have introduced paradigm shifts in the management field and continue to inspire managers and decision-makers at all levels to this day.

Summary

People often use lean and Kaizen interchangeably. While they share characteristics with each other, there are important differences between them. Kaizen is the deployment of continuous improvement strategies and changes that can contribute positively to business growth. Lean helps cut down on waste that includes defects, quality issues, overproduction, and delays, among others. 

Lean helps businesses become nimble and realize the value promised to customers. The focus essentially remains on waste reduction. Processes that don’t add any value for the customer are considered wastes. Lean uses Kaizen as an essential strategy for improving processes. 

In fact, the two approaches work hand in hand to bring unique benefits. Kaizen believes that there’s always a scope for improvement, however small. We can continue to strive for perfection and eliminate problems along the way, one at a time. 

Lean Kaizen can make a major difference to organizations that adopt the amalgamated approach combining the best of both. Lean Kaizen is all about organizational culture. It needs the participation of people across the hierarchy to make a real difference.

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Kaizen is a philosophy that focuses on improvement in business activities, processes, and functions. It is a major force underlying lean production processes and also applies to business growth and lean software development.

The practice ultimately aims to reduce wastes and redundant processes. Kaizen involves every member of the business right from the CEO to the workers on the assembly line for optimized workflows.

Let’s see what Kaizen means, how it originated, and then explore the essential elements of this methodology.

What is Kaizen Methodology?

Kaizen goes beyond the traditional concepts of productivity improvement in business workspaces. It is all about increasing the human element, training the workforce to observe all processes they’re a part of and identify sources of improvement. 

Kaizen thus mandates the participation of the whole business community — the entire workforce. Everyone, right from the management to those at the bottom of the business hierarchy are involved in Kaizen philosophy.

The methodology ultimately aims to produce goods and services without waste. This is done by improving processes and activities which are standardized. 

Where Does Kaizen Come From?

The word Kaizen is Japanese in origin, being made of ‘Kai’, which means change, and ‘Zen’, which means good. Kaizen, therefore, means changing for the better. It doesn’t matter whether the change is big or small or if it’s constant — what’s important is that the change should contribute to betterment.

Kaizen is a widespread practice in Japan. The methodology was in use in the US before World War II, after which it entered Japan. Masaaki Imai is widely known for his work on the Kaizen principles and is considered by some as the father of Kaizen as we know it today. 

Toyota is well-known to have used the Kaizen methodology to sustain business growth and achieve heights of success. The Toyota Production System employs Kaizen as a fundamental principle. The philosophy helps employees achieve superior productivity levels with rigorous practice and training. 

What are Kaizen Principles?

The 5 principles of Kaizen are: 

• Know Your Customer
• Let it Flow
• Go to Gemba
• Empower People
• Be Transparent

The three pillars of Kaizen include housekeeping, waste elimination, and standardization. At the core of the practice is continuous improvement. 

Let’s now see some of the fundamental principles that lie at the heart of Kaizen.

1. Continuous improvement: there’s no limit to improvement
2. Don’t accept any assumption on the face of it
3. Empower all employees to take decisions and contribute to the betterment of the business 
4. Make corrections if anything goes wrong
5. Don’t strive for perfectionism and make small, iterative improvements along the way
6. Avoid exorbitant expenses to save money to stay within your budgetary framework
7. Ensure you never accept any excuses and get to the root of all problems, even if it takes time
8. Question everything before you take any decision
9. Look for problems and consider them opportunities to make processes better
10. Check your progress from time to time and make improvements

Kaizen’s tools are actually the methods and techniques that can reduce waste in processes. Kaizen is thus a lean practice with a focus on waste elimination. Wastes constitute anything from defects and delays to extra-processing.

Summary

What does Kaizen mean in a nutshell? Kaizen implies continuous improvement for the better and engages employees at all levels. Conceptualized by Masaaki Imai, the practice is now used the world over. The methodology involves looking at problems as potential opportunities for improvement in an interactive, adaptive manner.

The approach aims to reduce waste and creates innovative solutions for problems rather than accepting the status quo. Team participation is encouraged in problem-solving rather than confining decision-making to the upper management levels. Ultimately, Kaizen is a humanizing approach for businesses that help in increase in production.

The philosophy is all about the reduction of wastes and simplification of processes to achieve higher quality levels and shorten time to market for higher customer satisfaction levels.

The post What Does Kaizen Mean? Top 5 Kaizen Elements You Should Master Now appeared first on 6sigma.

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophical concept and Lean manufacturing tool which believes that processes can always change for the better and there are no limits to how much they can improve. Translated from Japanese, the word Kaizen is made up of two words, kai which means good, and zen which means change. Although the term and philosophy were designed to serve business and company services or products, it can also enable people to improve themselves and evolve.

1. Getting Started

To start growing and improving, the Kaizen philosophy reveals that a person only has to start doing something. That means that one step a day is infinitely better than no steps a day and that growth may eventually come out of just one simple effort made every day. This speaks about the power of habits and the power of daily activities as they are the ones that really turn things around and can shape a human being. For example, if a person wants to be more physically active, they can walk or run each day for 5minutes and when they feel prepared they can increase the amount of time. The same goes for people that want to write a book, one sentence or two per day are better than only imagining and thinking about doing something.

2. Simple Math

Daily improvement is achievable as the Kaizen philosophy teaches people that if they grow and improve with 1.01% percent every day, they will be up to 38 times better by the end of the year. Slow and steady wins the race as it is also showcased in the story of the hare and tortoise. The hare may be fast and can run 100 times faster than the tortoise but the resilience and steady progress of the tortoise eventually outruns the hare as they avoid tiredness and exhaust.

Another simple comparison can be done with normal habits and activities such as brushing teeth, while it may not change much in a person’s life, it sure as hell keeps dental health problems away.

3. Continuous and Infinite Improvement

One thing that Kaizen can teach people is that improvement is infinite and that there’s never a time when something or someone cannot further improve. This can keep people engaged and never let go of the healthy activities as success is a long ladder and falling from it is fairly simple. This means that even if a person improves nearly every day, they can still fail and fall as improvement should be a daily habit and one day of stoppage can mean very much, especially in the beginning.

4. Eliminating Bad Habits

Improving continuously means letting go of everything that is stopping the improvement. This means that to fully grow as a person and human being, a person should identify shat’s stopping them from achieving a certain objective. After eliminating the objective, a person can try and visualize what they have to do to improve and reach their target in detail and small steps that can be followed every day.

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To ensure that team members are productive – putting their time and resources to good use – during a Kaizen event, they need the right tools. However, doing this is no easy task since Six Sigma has many tools. But this is important, considering that pulling it off will lead to the success of the Kaizen event and significantly increase workplace productivity and business performance.

Here are four tools that are essential to pulling off a Kaizen.

1. 5S

During a Kaizen event, there will be questions regarding quality management that need to be answered. 5S is usually used to answer many of them. This tool has helped many organizations achieve total quality management, on top of helping them reduce costs, increase safety, standardize procedures and deliver products and services on time.

There are five major components or Ss to 5S: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize and Sustain.

2. Value Stream Mapping

To study how the value of a product flows through a process, teams use value stream mapping (VSM). This helps the team visualize and analyze how things like information and materials contribute to the smooth delivery of value to the customer or end-user. This allows them to better identify which activities in a process add value and which ones don’t. Any activities that don’t add value are removed from the process, which significantly reduces or eliminates any waste.

3. Fishbone Diagram

If you know what 5 Whys is, you’d know that this tool leaves a lot to be desired visually. Think of the fishbone diagram as a way to visualize 5 Whys. Kaizen emphasizes that to effectively get rid of problems in the workplace, root cause analysis must be performed. 

In this diagram, the problem is represented by the fish’s head. Each bone leading to the tail is a homogenous group of potential causes or “Why?” questions. These bones can also have sub-bones or subgroups that lead to further potential causes. 

The aim of the fishbone diagram is to see if there are some less obvious causes that are leading to the issues being experienced. It is believed that once these are eliminated, the problem will disappear indefinitely. That way, resources aren’t wasted on the wrong causes.

4. Pareto Analysis

Pareto Analysis is one of the most effective tools for identifying and solving problems. It is not uncommon for teams to use it during a Kaizen event. This technique, which is also known as the 80/20 rule, seeks to prioritize problems in terms of severity. The problems are usually arranged in order of severity through the use of a Pareto chart. By simply looking at the chart, teams know which problems they need to tackle first.

Conclusion

Of course, there are other tools that are essential to add to everyone’s Kaizen toolbelt, including Kaizen newspapers, SIPOC and Target Process Report. However, now you have a good idea of what tools can contribute to a successful Kaizen event. Making sure a Kaizen goes well is one of the best ways to increase productivity in the entire organization.

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