Details on Kaizen, Kaizen circle and Kaizen Blitz

1. LEAN
MANUFACTURING-
KAIZEN
PRESENTED BY-
Antara Paul
Shreeti Mishra
Suman Kumar

2. KAIZEN
 Japanese term for “continuous improvement”
 Philosophy that advocates continually improving products, processes and activities
of a business to effectively meet the changing customer requirements
It focuses on elimination of wastes or non-value added activities throughout the
organization

3. DEFINITION OF KAIZEN
“A means of continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and
working life. At the workplace, Kaizen means continuing improvement involving
everyone—managers and workers alike. The Kaizen business strategy involves
everyone in an organization working together to make improvements without
large capital investments”
•By Masaaki Imai
“Kaizen is much more than an event; it is a philosophy, mindset and, for
breakthrough performance, a most critical vehicle to achieve strategic
imperatives and execute value stream/process improvement plans”
•By Mark R. Hamel

4. KAIZEN METHODOLOGY
• Mura (Unevenness)
• Muri (overburden)
• Muda (waiting)
3M
• Man
• Machine
• Material
• Method
4M

5. • Result
against
strategy
and
vision.
• Revise
actions
against
vision
• Methods,
tools
and
actions.
• Actions
are
consiste
nt with
vision &
strategy
Pla
n
Do
Ch
ec
k
Act
KAIZEN: STRATEGY

6. 9 TYPES OF WASTE
• Overproduction
• Delays (waiting time)
• Transportation
• Process
• Inventories
• Motions
• Defective products
• Untapped resources
• Misused resources

7. Key features of Kaizen:
Improvements are based on many, small changes rather than the
radical changes that might arise from Research and Development
As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely
to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement
Small improvements are less likely to require major capital
investment than major process changes
The ideas come from the talents of the existing workforce, as
opposed to using R&D, consultants or equipment – any of which
could be very expensive
All employees should continually be seeking ways to improve their
own performance
It helps encourage workers to take ownership for their work, and can
help reinforce team working, thereby improving worker motivation
Successful implementation requires "the participation of workers in
the improvement.

8. LEVELS OF KAIZEN
There are two levels of KAIZEN-
SYSTEM OR FLOW KAIZEN: Focuses on overall value stream
PROCESS KAIZEN: Focuses on individual processes and work on its improvement

9. KAIZEN CIRCLE
Another way of increasing levels of worker involvement is to implement circles
One group consists of 6-8 workers
It generates idea for solving practical problems
They meet for 1hour/week for 6-8 weeks and then present proposals to managers
for problem solving

10. KAIZEN PRINCIPLES
Getting rid of all false assumptions
Looking for ways to make it happen instead of looking for excuses
It doesn’t cost money
If something goes wrong, principle of “FIX IT NOW” should be used

11. KAIZEN PRINCIPLES…
Good ideas flow when the going gets tough
5WHY principle is used
Suggestions should be taken from a group rather than concentrating on single
person
KAIZEN should never be stopped

12. STEPS FOR KAIZEN
Organization constantly searches for non value-added activities and ways to
eliminate it
Focus is mainly on identifying the root cause of non value-added activities and
eliminating by improving methods

13. STEPS FOR KAIZEN…
Process improvement can be achieved through four basic exercises-
Process/cost centre matrix- It involves every cost centre in every process
It involves four processes-
Identifying the inputs in process and output obtained in a process
Identifying all people involved in the process
Determining the decisions that are made
Measures like time, cost, space, waste etc. should be observed appropriately

14. STEPS FOR KAIZEN…
Mapping the process – Flowchart of activities should be clearly depicted
Key activities and decisions should be identified and represented
Also called key process map
It includes making process dependency network diagram by incorporating cost
centres

15. STEPS FOR KAIZEN…
Analyzing the process- Several techniques are used by organization as-
Brainstorming- It’s a group technique used to generate a free flow of ideas quickly in a group
of people
Benchmarking- Process of measuring productivity, cost and quality of product against in the
same or other industry
Hoshin Kanri- Process improvement technique that unites an organization to reach a single
goal
Pareto analysis- It’s a technique for classifying problem areas according to degree of
importance and focusing on the most important ones

16. MINI-KAIZEN
KEY CHARACTERISTICS-
Permanent method changes
Continuous flow of small ideas
Immediate, local implementation
Quick and easy process

17. MINI-KAIZEN…
Sequence of events for this are as follows-
An employee identifies a problem, waste, defect or something not working and
then writes it down
Employee later develops an improvement idea and goes to immediate supervisor
Supervisor reviews it and encourages immediate action

18. MINI-KAIZEN…
The idea is implemented
The idea is written up on a single form in less than three minutes
Supervisor posts the form to stimulate others and recognize accomplishment

19. MINI-KAIZEN BENEFITS
 Empowers employees
 Enriches work experience and brings out the best in every person
 Improves quality, safety, cost structures, environments, throughput and customer
service

20. KAIZEN
BLITZ
What is a Kaizen Blitz?
The Kaizen Blitz (or as it is also called, Kaikaku) is
a system Implemented by those looking to create
a lean manufacturing technique to reduce waste
and increase productivity.
Kaizen Blitz implementation is small but constant
in nature while Kaizen is meant to be a long term.
Although a Kaizen Blitz is discussed by a
relatively small group of individuals in a short
amount of time, the changes it makes the
operations of a company are dramatic.

21. KAIZEN BLITZ
It’s a focused implementation that suits beachhead strategy
It is fast, dramatic and effective
Kaizen events can implement work cells, SMED and 5S in targeted
areas within a week or less
Dangers related to Kaizen events are-
They are tactical not strategic
Require experience, knowledgeable and wise facilitators

22. ADVANTAGES
It focuses on all resources towards a narrow and specific objective
It forces solutions for problems
Results are generally significant, clear and quick
Generates enthusiasm and satisfaction

23. Typical Kaizen timeframe for work cells

24. STAGES OF BLITZ
IMPLEMENTATION
At the beginning of lean implementation to shift paradigms and quickly
demonstrate results
When an experienced practitioner identifies a simple, independent family of
products and processes that fit the slogans
When the event is part of a well thought out manufacturing strategy

25. DANGERS IN BLITZ
Insufficient time for deep learning of principles, tradeoffs and design methodology
It doesn't allow time to develop important corollary elements of lean
manufacturing
It can often result in an island of productivity within a factory that, overall, is a
mess

26. CASE STUDIES
1. Kaizen events for Industrial heaters
BACKGROUND
The firm manufactures two types of many electric heaters which go into
dishwashers, hot tubs and other consumer and industrial appliances, each differ
in wattage and voltage, physical and dimensional features
Initially the plant was arranged in a functional layout which required each order
to travel 60 departments which had the following issues
Normal lead time-60 days
Expedited orders required 15 days
Complex scheduling
Generally ineffective

27. PREPARATION
Product and process complexity required considerable analysis and
preparation in advance
The products were grouped into families with similar characteristics
and enough volume to justify a workcell
A separate cell prepared ceramic cores and wound them for other
cells that used these cores

28. 2. Kaizen- Blitz overdose
BACKGROUND
The company manufactured commercial and home water purifiers,
some of which were simple and others complex
Over the previous several years, the company had initiated over 150
Kaizen Blitz’
Many of the cells and production lines seemed well designed and
effective
They ignored team development, total quality, set-up reduction and
overall layout planning

29. RESULTS
Good productivity
High inventories
Complex material flows external to cells
Messy, fragmented storage areas
Quality problems
People being frustrated with the constant pressure for instantaneous
results
Lack of important fundamental changes
Diminishing results from each subsequent Blitz

30. PREPARATION
The executive who promoted the overuse of Blitz had recently
departed
A Strategos consultant conducted a 2-day seminar, Facility Design
for lean manufacturing.
The intent was to rationalize the macro-layout
The managerial team also began to think through their
manufacturing strategy
Began to develop the fundamental skills and knowledge that would
eventually lead to a highly successful manufacturing operation

31. 3. When Kaizen replaces Blitzing strategy
BACKGROUND
A smaller but well-known aircraft manufacturing company attempted to
implement lean manufacturing for their machine shop and subassembly
operations, Kaizen- Blitz being their primary approach
Things did not go very well in the machining cells. A very low volume and
high variety product mix combined with the company’s beliefs brought the
following results:
RESULTS
One-piece flow with improper equipment utilization resulted into slowest
operation cells that reduced effective capacity
Straight-through flow precluded many parts from a particular cell, which
were simply outsourced

32. Improper set-up reduction led to less capacity as lot-sizes were
reduced
Cell being tied to subassemblies instead of families led to sub-
optimum cells and limited the parts availability to different cells
Multiple fixtures of equipments led to severe quality problems
The overall result was layoff, higher inventories, unprofitable cost
structure, management changes and pressures from corporate
masters

33. THANK YOU