Kanban Production System - Video and Free Guide

It's alleged that at one of Toyota plants in excess of 1 million recommendations are received from employees annually.  How does Toyota’s management handle so many of them?

The response is actually straightforward.  They don’t deal with those recommendations. Instead, they arrange staff in small working parties 5 to 6 people.  When a member of this team has an idea they submit their idea to the other team members for discussion.   If the proposal is adopted, they just go with it, with no need for further authority. The only exception might be when the idea needs sizeable investment.  This practice of continuous improvement is better known as Kaizen.

This is a good example of a bottom-up structure of a continuous improvement practice. This is the methodology that’s creating a vast flood of ideas that could increase the company’s efficiency and effectiveness.  Kaizen fosters the idea of empowering employees.  Kaizen is management’s attitude that appreciates the capability of its staff and does not need management’s authority for introducing improvement proposals.  This is the approach that significantly depends on a company’s cultural make-up.  If a company’s management assumes that employees are incompetent and lazy so there is constant need for tight control systems, then Kaizen isn’t achievable.

The Kaizen belief is via process change and constant improvement by means of a large number of tiny steps. This process ultimately leads competitive advantage for an organisation, which may mean that a company becomes more productive with lower expense levels.  At same time the principal function of managers isn’t to identify tiny improvements, but remain focused on bigger changes. 

This belief is uniform for the entire company, but is frequently associated with a company’s manufacturing activities.  The spotlight is given to creating better things and not to making things more favourable.  Kaizen centred companies must have enthusiastic, empowered and cross-trained employees that operates with only the smallest amount of control and authority levels. 

Kaizen must have highly developed networks.  Working parties have to be created rapidly, and they have to begin with their work in double quick time. Employee networks who share familiar experiences and issues should to be encouraged. More often than not, those groups are creating new ideas and new initiatives. In addition, they triumph over challenges in an imaginative way.

Generally, sharing ideas and also best practice is extremely vital. Sadly sharing each other’s ideas doesn’t always happen.  It’s vital to discover ways to incorporate the individual’s energy and creativity within the network with people who have dealt with similar issues.

Inside every company there are many limitations that prevent Kaizen-like enhancement. The most familiar is silo-thinking, which could be inter-departmental or inter-company, for companies that function across borders.  The typical barrier relates to issues concerning extra expenses that might emerge. Improvement regularly needs investment to carry out the changes that may enhance a company’s effectiveness. Lastly, there’s defiance in some management to surrender control for these processes.

Kaizen isn’t something which is simple to apply. Primarily it should begin from senior management and slowly to embed the principles and beliefs of the whole concept to the rest of the organisation.  Kaizen, as a constant improvement system, should be fostered. Nowadays, every organisation is faced with fast changing environments, customer needs and a changing marketplace.  Only the companies that are able to change rapidly can remain viable. Kaizen is definitely the one concept which should champion this change.  Consequently, Kaizen must continue to be introduced and supported in organisations that aim to compete in today’s environment.

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Ideas covered in the 5S Video -
Push Production System vs. Pull
Just-in-Time principles
What is a Kanban system
And More this 20 Minute Video Covers it all.

Kanban Calculator by the Lean Manufacturing site http://wcm.nu