Three Steps to Better Kaizen
Richard D Rahn
I coach companies in the most important Lean skill: Mixed Model Manufacturing. The Lean Manufacturing strategy is built on the foundation of Lean Industrial Engineering, workflow and material flow design.
When companies rely too heavily on Kaizen, what they're often really saying is, "Our Value Stream isn’t good, but we can't afford to start from scratch."
Free Webinar: 3 Steps to Better Kaizen
The underlying philosophy of Kaizen is that unless a process is improving, it is degrading. This means that every process needs to have an improvement plan. And it’s part of everyone’s job to make this happen by suggesting improvements and working on them. Sounds great, right?
Not so fast. Could the very need for Kaizen be a red flag, a warning that something was lacking at the design stage?
It’s easy to embrace the concept of Continuous Improvement, without considering why you need it to begin with. The problem with traditional Kaizen is that continuously improving a broken system results in wasted time, resources, and money.
What I’m proposing is a new approach to Kaizen. Rather than seeking to incrementally improve your Current State, begin with the end in mind. Then use your Kaizen efforts, not as a quick fix, but as a means towards the creation of the perfect Value Stream.
I discussed this idea at length in a free 60-minute webinar called "Three Steps to Better Kaizen"
Watch the Webinar here
Best Regards,
1-303-494-4404
P.S. We recently launched a, "Fundamentals of Mixed Model" video series that I am confident you will find educational.
How do you build many different products without wasting floor space, lowering productivity, or having to invest millions in additional equipment and tooling? The answer is an industrial engineering methodology called Mixed Model Line Design.
Join the discussion on the Lean Six Sigma Group
Join the kaizen conversation on the Lean Sigma Jobs Group
Join the featured conversation on the Kaizen Group
Join the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Group Discussion
Join the Discussion on the Process Improvement Consultants Group
Statistics and Analytics Group
Lean Six Sigma for the Public Sector
Join the Discussion on the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Group
Join the conversation on the Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Group
Quality Analyst: Saving the World, One Graph at a Time.
7 年It has been my impression that improvement events (whether "Kaizen" or not) often fix things that were fixed once before and/or that were included in an initial design -- it is my impression that the "sustain" phase of quality assurance is most difficult and most important. One could combine "sustain" and "standardize" in some situations -- I have seen organizations teach employees a good way of doing something, and then months later everyone is doing it their own way, with a few using improvements but most getting sloppy and everyone causing "confusion and delay" (to borrow a phrase from Thomas's friend Sir Topham Hatt). Perhaps we need a research phase at the beginning titled "VSM How It Was ORIGINALLY Done/Designed" and then "VSM How It Is Currently Being Done." What do you think?
Continuous Improvement Supply Chain Planning & Lecturer at The University of Texas at El Paso
7 年Excellent information Richard Rahn
MBA, Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Business Excellence
7 年such a new aproach. thanks for share this
We help businesses achieve operational excellence by building teams and improving communication without adding complexity.
7 年Thanks Richard Rahn
We Help Companies Leverage Hoshin Kanri | OKRs | Lean | Agile to Consistently Outperform Expectations
7 年Thanks Richard Rahn