Focused Improvement (Kobetsu-Kaizen) ①
When we look at the theory of focused improvements, you may have witnessed it directly addressing losses over and over. The feature of the application contains in itself the spirit of negotiation required to make the current situation better. What I am most impressed with is never giving up. To focus with great patience and great struggle to improve the current situation. Kaizen is the principle of taking action against undesirable events that occur in reality and today. If we want to define it in other words, I wonder what is going wrong right now, let's find this wrong thing together, I think. It is the act of finding whatever went wrong, fix it, and keep it that way. These definitions became like quotations, but these are real definitions. A sensei I love very much told me that kaizen is the antidote to the loss. If there is a loss somewhere, there is kaizen, it should be. Two techniques that we use widely support us in making these definitions. "Why why analysis" and "PM Analysis". Thanks to these analyzes, we reduce and eliminate many losses. I see these two analyzes as the backbone of the kaizen study. The basic thinking behind Kobetsu-kaizen is divided into two. We want to "sustain" and "improve" to ensure that the results of our companies are constantly upward. There's more to this, of course, keeping the balance between "sustain" and "improve" well. I think the basic thinking is hidden in this sentence.
Even if we excel in one, it will be difficult to achieve better and better results over the long term unless we also excel in the other. While the Kobetsu kaizen a program provides tangible financial benefits, I see the latter of these two capabilities as a field of activity designed to develop the ability to develop. The primary target of Kobetsu kaizen is to increase production efficiency, and its main purpose is to reduce 16 big losses as much as possible.
Now I'm adding a picture here, this is an example from the TPM Book. It defines Kaizen's place in the TPM structure. Let's look at the place of kaizen in the TPM structure.
As you can see, there is a pillar structure in TPM. Today we know that there are eight pillars in TPM. The place of kaizen is very important when we focus on this picture. The pillars on the top want to continue their activities well. The method of organizational team building and progress within the company. Organizationally, teams naturally go through training. In response, the autonomous maintenance program was designed to develop the first of the two capabilities, namely the "ability to sustain". The autonomous maintenance program plays a role in sustaining the benefit of the kaizen program. It is a program prepared for a solid foundation in the long term. It would not be wrong to interpret the above picture as implementing the kaizen program if there is a deviation from the target, and the autonomous maintenance program to sustain the target. It is necessary to focus on the lower part of the picture to capture the target and the upper part of the picture to sustain the target.
The balance between the amount of sustainment work and improvement work (and also of radical change-related work) a person does will depend on his or her position in the company hierarchy. Also, while the aim of autonomous maintenance is to build a system in which operators look after their own equipment, and the aim of quality maintetnace is to establish and manage the conditions for ensuring zero quality defects, focused improvement is the means by which these aims are achieved. Focused Improvement (Kobetsu-Kaizen) therefore fits with the other TPM pillars in the way shown in the above diagram.
It is best to address each type of loss under the most appropriate pillar, with "Effective Maintenance" focusing on eliminating failures, "Office TPM" (TPM in Administrative and Support Dept.) focusing on attaining zero administrative losses, and so on.
Focused improvement (Kobetsu Kaizen) reduces high losses and / or sudden losses with "why why analysis" as studies progress. Chronic losses are brought to zero with "PM Analysis". The focused improvement (Kobetsu Kaizen) approach aims to eliminate the loss completely by looking at how the loss occurs and solving each of those causes.
In other words, "autonomous maintenance" and "planned maintenance" are activities that prevent the occurrence of losses thanks to the elimination of root factors and root causes. In other words, it is used in the sense of preventive activities. Focused improvements (Kobetsu Kaizen) activities, on the other hand, have the opposite understanding, that is, there is a loss and they are trying to eliminate this loss.
The basic approach takes place in the form of kaizen flow. This is the occurrence of the approach of let's apply it properly as a structure.