Kaizen - What is it?
Kaizen is a term that means "change for the better" or "continuous improvement". Kaizen is the practice of quick small incremental continuous improvements. Kaizen encourages input from the colleagues who do the actual work, their leaders, and support staff. Ideally, anyone who touches the process will have input in a Kaizen.
Kaizen should be a normal part of the job, not something to be done “when there is time left after having done everything else.”
Kaizen is typically a 3 - 5-day meeting that includes a multitude of activities.
Those activities include:
Brainstorming: A creativity technique in which a group of people interact to suggest ideas spontaneously in response to a prompt. Stress is typically placed on the volume and variety of ideas, including ideas that may seem outlandish or "off-the-wall". Ideas are noted down during the activity, but not assessed or critiqued until later.
Documenting Processes: An internal, living document that details the tasks and steps needed to launch a new process. Process documentation streamlines and enhances standard operating procedures.
Data Gathering: A systematic process of gathering observations or measurements. Can be an Excel sheet or any type of report.
Value Added/Non-Value Added/Business Value Added: Value-added steps are activities that directly increase the value of a product or service for which customers are willing to pay. Non-value-added steps do not directly add value but may be necessary for the process to function, such as administrative tasks or compliance with regulations.
Change Leadership: The ability to influence and inspire action in others and respond with vision and agility during periods of growth, or uncertainty to bring about the needed change.
These activities will be facilitated with the help of the tools below:
Charter: A document that outlines a process improvement project. The charter contains data-driven information explaining the need for the project. Once approved, the document becomes the Six Sigma team's primary reference.
Process Mapping: A process map outlines the individual steps within a process, identifying task owners and detailing expected timelines. They help communicate processes among stakeholders and reveal areas of improvement. Most process maps start at a macro level and then provide more detail as necessary.
Fishbone: A visual tool used to logically organize possible causes for a specific problem or effect by graphically displaying them in increasing detail, suggesting causal relationships among theories.
SIPOC: Often referred to as a type of process map it maps out the high-level process steps and considers the suppliers, inputs, outputs, and customers, providing a complete visualization of the process and the variables needed for the process to work.
5Why: An iterative interrogative technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem by repeating the question "Why?".
POKE/YOKE: A Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or "error prevention". It is also sometimes referred to as a forcing function or a behavior-shaping constraint. A poka-yoke is any mechanism in a process that helps an equipment operator avoid mistakes and defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur.
PICK Diagram: A method to prioritize several action items or problem-solving ideas. A pick chart allows a visual comparison of action items relative to their impact on the problem being addressed vs. the ease/cost of implementation.
