Four Tips for Sustaining Kaizen Improvements

One of the questions I get asked most often is "How do you go about sustaining
 kaizen improvements ?"

Management Commitment and Ownership

At the end of the day, Management is paid to ensure that they are running an efficient, vibrant successful operation.

Leadership need to lead by example.

One of the first things I teach people is that kaizen is not easy!

When we come along and improve a process there is always change involved.

People need to learn the new way of doing things.

That takes time.

People need to be trained and then encouraged to take on the new way of working. That takes tenacity.

Management need to be committed to making the change happen and weather the storm of transition in a
supportive  and professional manner. The results will follow.

It can be easy to buckle at the first hurdle and drop the new way of working and focus on just "making the numbers"
 at any cost.

So the first tip for sustaining gains is for management to be committed to, and living and breathing the change.

Create and Maintain Standards


When I work in different organisations it is clear that often there are no standard as to what is expected of people
 who are operating a particular process.

One person does it one way, another person does it another way, and a third person does it yet another way.

What we are striving for is "The best known way".

Taiicchi Ohno, a kaizen master stated:-

 "Where there are no standards there can be no kaizen"

One of the jobs of kaizen is eliminate waste and help find "THE BEST KNOWN WAY"

I often hear "..but people aren't robots ... they need to put their own ideas into how they go about doing things"

Absolutely!

The trick is to take these best practices ,build them into "the best known way" and then roll out the new standard
 to the whole department.

That way everyone benefits.

Measure Improvements

"You cannot control what you don't measure"

When we make improvements we need to measure their impact.

What was the situation before the change ?

What is the situation after the change ?

Typically it will take anything from 3-4 weeks to see a positive impact.

In fact, in the first couple of weeks after the change performance may actually drop as people learn the new
 way of doing things.

Seeing measurable bottom line results gives everyone confidence that the change has been effective.

Maximise Participation and Ownership

If people create something they tend to have ownership for it.

Obviously, when we run a week long "kaizen blitz" event, it is not practical or effective for "everyone" to
be involved.

If we are smart there is ample opportunity to maximise participation.

We should always strive to do this without watering down the basic improvement ideas.

Examples of the types of things we can do:-

During the first week after the "kaizen blitz event" rather than handing out a paper copy of the new standard
way of working, and expect everyone to miraculously read it and start using it ,physically take individuals
through the new process and get their feedback as you do it.

Have a review at the end of the first week and include their inputs and tweak "the best known way" to include
these refinements.

Communicate the "what's in it for me ?" message so that people can see the benefits for them personally.

Audit the process daily for the first few weeks and use different members of the department to do this task.

Have a "red tag" walk around - again use different staff members to do this.

In conclusion

Kaizen is all about people.

It's all about hearts and minds.

It's about being committed to improving our workplace and tipping the balance till the " best known way " is the
standard.

It's about creating an environment where individuals can come up with great ideas and creating a vehicle to help
them implement those ideas so that everyone can benefit.

It's not rocket science.

It just takes passionate commitment ,maximised participation and pride in what we do.

When people own the change , improvements get locked in, which leads to sustainment.

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