This book reports a literature review on kaizen, its industrial applications, critical success factors, benefits gained, journals that publish about it, main authors (research groups) and universities. Kaizen is treated in this book in three stages: planning, implementation and control. The authors provide a questionnaire designed with activities in every stage, highlighting the benefits gained in each stage. The study has been applied to more than 400 managers and leaders in continuous improvement in Mexican maquiladoras. A univariate analysis is provided to the activities in every stage. Moreover, structural equation models associating those activities with the benefits gained are presented for a statistical validation. Such a relationship between activities and benefits helps managers to identify the most important factor affecting their benefits and financial income.
It is easy to learn the philosophy and the concepts of kaizen. It is quite another challenge to translate the philosophy into action. While most books expound on the underlying principles and theory, Kaizen Assembly: Designing, Constructing, and Managing a Lean Assembly Line takes you step-by-step through an actual kaizen event. This approach demon
Agile teams have been struggling with the concept of continuous improvement since the first Agile frameworks were developed, and still very little has been written about the practice of continuous improvement in Agile environments. Although team retrospectives have been prescribed and some practices have been introduced in order to implement and facilitate them, the truth is that most Agile teams are conducting dull retrospectives that end with a list of things that have been done wrong, just to repeat the same list two weeks later at the next meeting. Instead of listing hundreds of Japanese-labeled tools, this book gives you practical insights into how to spot improvement opportunities, how to plan for improvement and how to engage everyone in your company in the Kaizen process. In addition, it will also provide you with 27 proven practices and 12 bonus activities to introduce into your retrospectives in order to keep them fresh, creative and exciting, so you can promise a team that, in a year’s time, no two retrospectives will be alike. This book helps you as a manager, team leader, change agent or consultant in any type of organization to unleash the real power of Kaizen cultures – no matter what kind of organization, market, product, technology, vision, goal or size. It provides you with the background, tools and practical hints on how to engage your organization in a process of continuous quest for new and better ways of performing.
What does it take to manage an organization to success? No matter what industry you are in, an organization is primarily a group of people. This book focuses on that ever-important human element. In the rush to get 'lean', many organizations focus solely on tools for increasing productivity, but where do these tools come from? In this book, Collin McLoughlin and Toshihiko Miura look back on their decades of international consulting experience to examine how organizations around the world have transformed on a cultural level by respecting the people who work within them and leveraging their creativity to solve problems. As our workforce becomes more knowledgeable, skillful, and more perceptive of their needs and wants as employees, the ability to reach the true potential of an organization becomes more and more difficult. Managers must look at each individual element of an equation like this in order to fully understand how to achieve an answer. They must begin to answer more focused questions, such as: 1. How productive is the existing work climate and culture? 2. How do employees, as individuals, navigate the existing work climate? (How do they deal with day-today issues with each other?) 3. Where and how are individuals and their work processes assessed? 4. What obstacles do employees face every day, and are they empowered to fix these obstacles? 5. What role does leadership play at each level of the organization? (Looking at the organization in layers of management.) To address these challenges, this book focuses on three main aspects of leadership and management: 1. Addressing and Improving the Perspective of Management -- The ideas presented in this book are not limited to a certain industry or field of work, but can be applied in any setting because they speak to a universal human element. 2. Exploring and Improving Work Climate -- Organizations are social entities, operating within their own controlled environment. This book will explore the factors that contribute to, and encourage, a positive work climate. 3. Observing and Eliminating Wasteful Work Processes -- Observing wasteful activities and work processes requires a refined perspective. The case studies presented illustrate the How and Why to help refine expertise. This will also lead to the joy and benefits
In this book, author Sadao Nomura taps into his decades of experience leading and advising Toyota operations in a wide variety of operations to tell the story of radical improvement at Toyota Logistics & Forklift (TL&F). This book tells in great detail what the author did with TL&F, how they did it, and the dramatic results that ensued. TL&F has long been a global leader in its industry. TL&F is part of Toyota Industries Corporation, which was founded by Toyota Group founder Sakichi Toyoda almost 100 years ago. Sakichi Toyoda is legendary in the Lean community as the originator of the all-important "JIDOKA" pillar of TPS, which ensures 1) built-in quality and 2) respect for people through ensuring that technology works for people rather than the other way around. Although TL&F seemed to be performing well, insiders knew that, as the founding company of the Toyota group, it needed to do better, especially in the quality performance of its global subsidiary operations. But improvement would not be easy in a company that already prided itself in its history as an exemplar in providing highest quality products and services. In 2006, TL&F requested assistance from Sadao Nomura. The initial request was for Mr. Nomura to support quality improvement in three global operations that had become part of TL&F through acquisition: US, Sweden, and France. Improvement was expected at these affiliates, but the dramatic nature of the improvement was not. Further, the improvement activities were so powerful that they were also instituted at the parent operations in Japan. Over a period of almost ten years, the company with the name most associated with product quality experienced quality improvement unparalleled in its history. "Dantotsu" means "extreme," "radical," or "unparalleled."
At present, how to develop industries is a burning issue in Africa, where population growth remains high and economic development has thus far failed to provide sufficient jobs for many, especially young people and women. The creation of productive jobs through industrial development ought to be a central issue in steering economic activity across the continent. The authors of this book, consisting of two development economists and five practitioners, argue that the adoption of Kaizen management practices, which originated in Japan and have become widely used by manufacturers in advanced and emerging economies, is decisively the most effective first step for industrial development in Africa. This open access book discusses what Kaizen management is, why it is applicable to Africa, and why it can provide Africa with a springboard for sustainable economic growth and employment generation.
Kaizen means gradual, unending improvement, doing "little things" better; setting --and achieving --ever higher standards. It is Kaizen, says Masaaki Imai, that is the simple truth behind Japan's economic "miracle" and the real reason the Japanese have become the masters of "flexible manufacturing" technology -- the ability to adapt manufacturing processes to changing customer and market requirements, and do it fast ... For the first time, Western managers have a comprehensive handbook of 16 Kaizen management practices they can put to work. Using more than 100 examples of Kaizen in action, 15 corporate case studies, and 50 charts and graphs, Mr. Imai examines step by step all the roles Kaizen plays in. --inside cover
This book highlights the concepts of lean manufacturing that help to achieve the objectives of sustainability in a global competitive atmosphere. Lean can help to lower the manufacturing cost in the rising labour and material cost market. Lean is based on various fundamental concepts such as Kaizen, Kanban, Zidoka, 5S and Six Sigma, which aim at reducing process waste for efficiency and productivity that are discussed in this book. In addition, the technological changes such as introduction of Internet technologies and Industry 4.0 are taken care by the lean concepts, which are also addressed in this book.
The next step in the evolution of the organizational quality field, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has come of age. However, many challenges to using LSS in lieu of, in conjunction with, or integrated with other quality initiatives remain. An update on the current focus of quality management, Quality Management for Organizations Using Lean Six Sigma Techniqu
This book is part of a series of titles that are a spin-off of the Shingo Prize-winning book Leveraging Lean in Healthcare: Transforming Your Enterprise into a High Quality Patient Care Delivery System. Each book in the series focuses on a specific aspect of healthcare including emergency departments, medical laboratories, outpatient clinics, ancil
