Kaizen Management Strategy - Research Paper Example

Kaizen Management Strategy Kaizen Management Strategy There are two major components of management: Maintenance and improvement. Thegoal of maintenance function is maintaining present managerial, operations and technological standards. The function of improvement is to develop the present standards. Under the function of maintenance, the management establishes policies, standard operating procedures-SOPs, directives, and rules. It works to make sure that all people follow SOP. Achievement of SOP is through a combination of human resource development and discipline measures. Under the function of improvement, the management continuously works towards revising the present standards, once mastered and creating superior ones. Improvement has two divisions’ kaizen and innovation. Innovation deals with radical development in the process already existing. It needs huge investment. Kaizen signify small developments due to continuous coordinated efforts by all workers (Manos, 2007). The paper focuses on the advantages of Kaizen in the success of the Japanese firms. The west people translate Kaizen as a continuous, ongoing improvement. There are authors who explain the competitive success of Japan in the global market because of the realization Kaizen idea in Japanese firms. In contrast, of the normal emphasis on innovative, revolutionary change frequently, Kaizen looks for continuous incremental change. There is room for development and continuous attempt of becoming better according to Kaizen concept. Kaizen was a vocabulary in Japan to mean improvement. Mid of 20th century saw the word acquire a strong meaning in Japans industrial companies (Manos, 2007). It represented the skill of improvement through removing waste and involving workers, without using a lot of money. The past decades saw Japanese firms use Kaizen for competitive advantage. Kaizen assists companies to reduce costs and improve on the quality and variety product. If persistent, it is a great weapon against competitors. Implementing Kaizen in firms allows improving of every element of business process in a stepwise approach, while steadily improving the skills of workers by increased improvement and educational training. Main principles in implementing Kaizen are human resources as the most crucial asset in a firm; processes must grow by steadily improving rather than drastic changes, improvement founded on quantitative or statistical evaluation of performance of process. The strategy further involves other elements of management as teamwork, improved morale, personal discipline, quality circles, and improvement suggestions. Kaizen uses process of 5S. 5S is an ordered program to achieve whole Institution, cleanliness, and standardization in the place of work (Manos, 2007). Organized workplace results in efficient, productive, and safer operations. It boosts workers morale, encouraging a sense of pride in their job and responsibility ownership. Seiri referred as sort out, means organizing and sorting items as important, critical, useless, frequently used or items currently irrelevant. Items, which are important, should be nearby for use while items not used anytime nearby are stored in one place. Seiton known as organize means every item has its own permanent location. After usage, one has to place it back in the same place. Seiso involving shining of the place of work requires the cleaning of the working environment (Manos, 2007). It caters for workplace inspection to make sure everything is as expected. Seiketsu refers to standardization. Workers decide after discussion the requirements for keeping machines, pathways, and general workplace neat and clean. The standards are for the entire organization, inspected, and tested randomly. Shitsuke means self-discipline. The 5S are for bringing discipline in the whole firm among the workers. Workers should wear badges, be punctual, follow job procedure, and be dedicated to the institution. According to Manos (2007), employees required training on 5S to implement Kaizen. They get additional training in the respective field such as construction and welding. Workers can make physical changes to the place of work themselves. Kaizen teams can seize minor projects for change, leaving workers for maintenance to concentrate on making manufacturing operational. The system of Kaizen involves every employee from the senior management to the cleaning workers. Workers are encouraged to come up with suggestions for little improvements on a regular basis. The system is not an activity for a year or month rather it is continuous. Companies in Japan like Canon and Toyota receives 60 to 70 opinions from each employee annually (Manos, 2007). They share the suggestions and if appropriate implement them. Kaizen concept is deeply fixes itself in the workers minds in all levels of work such that employees often do not know they are always thinking Kaizen. Maybe they most significant difference between western and Japanese management ideas is that Kaizen is an oriented process of thinking ways while innovations in the west are oriented in results. Japan uses Total Quality Control-TQC as a tool of management to improve the whole performance (Manos, 2007). TQC refers to Kaizen activities organized involving every person in the organization. The tool leads satisfaction of customers by satisfying such organization cross-functional objectives as cost, quality, worker improvement, product improvement, and cost. TQC in Kaizen is a process aimed at developing managerial activities in all levels. Kaizen being a continuous concept enables organizations to measure, evaluate 5S achievement and track cost saving in the company. It achieves this aspect by reducing materials, energy, scrap, sometimes workers, and inventory. The concept saves time by using efficient materials, place of work, reduced distance of travel, methods of work, tools, and parts. The idea additionally increases the morale of employee and satisfaction of customer. An effective Kaizen eliminates absenteeism and turnover of workers. Tracking Kaizen program in an organization is necessary in determining its usefulness, and to benchmark development of the future. Since 1986, programs of Kaizen have changed from predominantly focusing on simpler and better ways of working to involving injury risk, sprains, and strains reduction (Manos, 2007). Companies saved revenue by implementing 5S work principles, but risk of employee injury continued. The number of sprain and strain increased in some cases. There is addition of the sixth S for safety where hazards of ergonomics are wastes. The seven TQC features in Japan are company wide, training and education, circle of quality control, audits of TQC, statistical methods, standards of upgrading and promotion of TQC nation wide. Some authors show the major difference between practices in Japan and the west in management. Probably these differences are crucial in explaining the success in the firms of Japan in business. First, Japan focuses on the quality of people while the west nations focus on product quality. The west management practice is manufacturer oriented while Japan practice is customer oriented. Developing total performance is the aim of process-oriented style in Japan whereas eliminating and detecting defectives sections is the aim of product oriented in the west. In the west quality control is solely, manager’s responsibility while in Japan everybody in the organization is responsible for improvement and quality control (Manos, 2007). Concept of Kaizen recommends setting standards and improving the standards continuously. This shows why many Japanese firms have been successful and penetrated global markets easily as compared to firms in the west. It further supports superior standards by offering materials, training, and supervision required by workers to obtain high levels and maintain skills to meet the levels on a process that is continuous. In the modern environment of competitive business, delays in adopting latest innovations can be costly. It is less costly having delays in improved management methods. Since the aftermath of Second World War, many warnings are about increase in resource cost, tough competition to attract customers through the need to develop customer oriented services and goods. Quality goods and services production in a faster way is equally important (Manos, 2007). Successful firms show that it is possible to expect change and face challenges when they are still controllable. Companies in Japan, for instance, successfully developed, produced, and marketed products that are competitive by using the strategy of Kaizen. Practices by Japanese management succeed due to good practices of management. It is evident that success has less influence from cultural practices. Management ways can easily be adopted and implemented anywhere in the world. Competitive edge by Japanese management is because of their collaborative systematic approach of problem solving. The west on the other hand still applies approach of conflict resolution. Underlying the strategy of Kaizen is the acknowledgment that management must focus to impress the customer and serve his or her needs if it wants to stick to the business and make profits. An important element of Kaizen is the emphasis on process. Kaizen has generated process oriented means of thinking. Systems of management acknowledge and support peoples efforts of improvement in process orientation. Reference Manos, A. (2007). The Benefits of Kaizen and Kaizen Events. Quality Progress. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc. Read More