Protea Products Ltd

Introduction to Kaizen - A Method Of Continual Improvement ...

B>Kaizen

What is Kaizen? A five word definition is: A system of continuous improvement

An improvement in what? Anything and everything in your facility, your production line, your office, materials handling, purchasing, operations, maintenance--any part of your company or organization can be improved by Kaizen. Using Kaizen results in improvements in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety, and customer satisfaction throughout your organization.

Who can use Kaizen? Any organization from a manufacturer, to a government agency, to a non-profit organization. Big or small, Kaizen can help.

So let's get started. This introduction to Kaizen will look at three basic questions: What is Kaizen? What are the benefits of Kaizen? How do I get started using Kaizen?

What is Kaizen?

The word Kaizen means "continuous improvement". It comes from a combination of the Japanese words "Kai" meaning school and "Zen" meaning wisdom.

Kaizen is a system in which everyone is encouraged to come up with suggestions for small improvements on a regular basis. These are small changes targeted at continually improving productivity, safety, quality, customer satisfaction, employee effectiveness, communication, and at the same time reducing waste. The Kaizen philosophy is that everything, even it it isn't broke, can be improved.

Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production, shipping or marketing. Kaizen is based on making changes anywhere improvements can be made. The Kaizen philosophy is to continue to improve every aspect of a business, because if you don't, your competition is improving and will leave you behind.

What Are The Benefits of Kaizen?

With every employee, from the executive suite to the janitor, looking for ways to make improvements, you can expect results such as:

One of the first and most significant benefits noticed when Kaizen is introduced is the waste eliminated by Kaizen suggestions in areas such as inventory, waiting times, transportation, worker motion, employee's skills, over production, excess quality and in processes.

You'll find Kaizen suggestions will improves space utilization, product quality, use of capital, communications, production capacity and employee retention.

A major benefit of Kaizen is that it provides immediate results. Instead of focusing on large, long-term capital intensive improvements, Kaizen focuses on creative ways to continually solve large numbers of small problems. Capital projects and major changes may still be needed, and Kaizen will improve the capital projects process, but the real power of Kaizen is in the on-going process of continually making small changes that improve processes and reduce waste.

Who owns whom

Beerman's financial year book of Southern Africa, investors' manual and cyclopaedia of South African public companies

Kenya Gazette

First International Protea Research Symposium, Cape Town, South Africa, 28 and 29 August 1985

Braby's commercial directory of Southern Africa