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    Kaizen For Leaders: A Continual Process Improvement Tool to Increase Profit & Organizational Excellence: Business Process Management and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide series, #8
    Kaizen For Leaders: A Continual Process Improvement Tool to Increase Profit & Organizational Excellence: Business Process Management and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide series, #8
    Kaizen For Leaders: A Continual Process Improvement Tool to Increase Profit & Organizational Excellence: Business Process Management and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide series, #8
    Ebook135 pages1 hour

    Kaizen For Leaders: A Continual Process Improvement Tool to Increase Profit & Organizational Excellence: Business Process Management and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide series, #8

    By Shruti Bhat

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    About this ebook

    Kaizen For Leaders: A Continual Improvement Tool to Increase Profit & Organizational Excellence is the eighth book of 'Business Process Management Systems and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide series'.

     

    If you want results fast, then Kaizen is the way …

     

    Kaizen has mainly been used in Japan and many other SE Asian companies and in Europe. Up until now, it has not gained enough significance in North America, because of which it has not been utilized to its full potential.

     

    The root cause is the difference in work culture and corporate governance styles of companies in eastern and western countries; this book eliminates this gap.

    Kaizen requires very less investment, therefore can be implemented to its full potential not only in small & mid-size companies but even in startups.

    Kaizen following companies can have minimal failures!

     

    This book is an invaluable resource, an essential tool for all business owners, CEOs, other executives and all professionals, who want to update themselves about Kaizen and to discover how Kaizen can help them achieve their business's goals rapidly …

     

    About the Author: Shruti Bhat PhD MBA CLSSBB

    Dr. Shruti Bhat is a global leader in operational excellence, business transformation, innovation management and continuous improvement. She is a true Thought Leader with numerous industry awards, patents, publications and successful projects to her credit. She has a Ph.D (Tech) in Pharmaceutics, MBA and is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Kaizen coach. She is the Chief Operations Officer at Innoworks Inc., a Canadian Research & Management Consulting Co.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherShifting Paradigms, Canada
    Release dateDec 23, 2018
    ISBN9781988663227
    Kaizen For Leaders: A Continual Process Improvement Tool to Increase Profit & Organizational Excellence: Business Process Management and Continuous Improvement Executive Guide series, #8

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      Book preview

      Kaizen For Leaders - Shruti Bhat

      Introduction

      Do you find the same problems every other morning?

      What do you do with regularly recurring issues?

      Is the pesky issue tackled for the day allowing it to recur the next day … ?

      Unless a Leader analyzes and goes to the core of ‘WHY’ a problem happens, it will not go away … instead keep on repeating, creating a culture of ‘fire-fighting’ within the company.

      Moreover, inspiring the team by discussing how solution will benefit their performance and reflect positively on them (and company’s bottom line) will drive greater process efficiency improvements than just telling them to fix the problem!

      For recurring problems- I recommend creating a bucket list of all such daily headaches, find out ‘what is the significance & impact of those problems’, rank order them and assign a score. Collating all problems into a list helps you come to terms that you can’t afford to fix them all at once; the one with a highest score gets the first fix.

      Such methodical problem-solving however, needs a significant level of conducive company culture. It also needs a collective shift in mindset from ‘ we won’t’ to ‘we can, and we will’, or perhaps a 360-degree reconditioning. Such a culture overhaul though desired ASAP, it does take time to get there.

      If you need solutions now, then it’s all about prioritizing the current headaches and implementing an improvement methodology that continually brings-on ‘quick lasting changes’ that is- Kaizen

      Kaizen is classified into 9 main types- Lean Kaizen, Gemba Kaizen, Modular Kaizen, Process Kaizen, Personal Kaizen, Flow Kaizen, Daily Kaizen, Agile Kaizen and Blitz Kaizen. All nine types of Kaizen can be applied for process improvements in manufacturing and service-based industries.

      Kaizen is a rapid business improvement technique, hence is also referred as ‘instant revolution’.

      Kaizen can be applied in a short time as compared to other process improvement techniques such as ISO, TQM (Total Quality Management), Lean Six Sigma etc. Another desirable aspect of Kaizen is that, it is engaging, entertaining, stimulating and addictive in nature.

      There are numerous advantages of applying Kaizen to organizational frameworks. One of the most promising benefit is that Kaizen helps meet a moving target of increasing productivity and decreasing costs. Secondly, Kaizen can be implemented on its own or added to pre-existing business process improvement programs or continuous improvement campaigns to augment returns on investment- ROI.

      Kaizen is a scientific and methodical business process improvement technique where bite size improvements are made consistently, resulting in exponential benefits over time.

      Few examples of ‘improvements’ obtained by companies practicing Kaizen are:

      Productivity increased by 2 - 3 folds

      Capacity increased by 10 - 75%

      Equipment uptime increased to 90%

      Production lead time reduced by 20 -70%

      Inventory level reduced by 20 – 70%

      Inventory costs reduced by 30 - 75%

      Space utilization reduced by 10 - 65%

      Employee morale increased by up to 100%

      Standard Operating Process (SOP) compliance increased by up to 100%

      On Time delivery improved to more than 80%

      A vital point to note about Kaizen is that-

      Kaizen ≠ Small Changes

      Kaizen = Big Results coming from Small Changes Accumulated over time

      So, what is Kaizen? Let us take a look …

      What is Kaizen?

      Kaizen is a management methodology of business process improvement based on employee suggestions. The term Kaizen comes from a Japanese phrase meaning ‘Make Better’.

      Creating a viable and meaningful standard process is key to the success of a business. Implementing Kaizen brings on this success swiftly at practically no or minimal investment. Firstly, employees feel engaged, valued and motivated to give cost-effective solutions to run process faster, more efficiently. As people from all walks within the organization are actively involved in the change- the transition becomes smooth, more accepting, resulting in a collaborative style of working. Kaizen inculcates an attitude of continuously raising the bar of excellence and brings on improvements at minimal cost.

      Kaizen uses Japanese judgment of improving a workplace internally, to bring about astounding results. Kaizen was first introduced into the industrial sector by Toyota in their car manufacturing plant in Japan.

      ‘It is not necessary to change.

      Survival is not mandatory."

      - W. Edwards Deming

      Next, let us understand- Why Kaizen? How does Kaizen help an organization as well as individual?

      Kaizen hails from the words, Renew the heart and make it good.

      Kaizen employs a strategic combination of common sense, statistical quality control, organizational goals, excellent technique and a fluid method of working to bring about organizational excellence.

      Its incremental yet fast change saves cost, yields products and services with minimal or zero defects and eliminates waste. Kaizen-ing involves a continual and focussed approach to gaining process excellence.

      Kaizen generates process-centric thinking; it is people-oriented and is directed at people’s efforts. Rather than identifying employees as the ‘problem’, Kaizen emphasizes that the ‘process’ is the ‘target’ and employees can provide improvement ideas by understanding how their joint fits into the process and changing

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