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Kaizen in Japanese simply means change (kai) for the
better (zen), although the term has become associated with the philosophy
of gradual, orderly, continuous improvement, involving everyone in the
organisation.
Kaizen is implemented by lower management and workers but relies heavily
on Senior Management support and direction to develop the necessary culture
that challenges workers to be creative in finding solutions to problems
hopefully without the need for hard cash.
According to Imai (1986), “The message of the KAIZEN strategy is
that not a day should go by without some kind of improvement being made
somewhere in the company.”
Help Your Business, Learn From Puppy Training
As leaders we always want to improve the performance of our organization.
To improve we must release the creativity in our employees, leaders must
get involved in their employees’ work. Customers want our products
and services to be better, delivered faster, and produced less expensively.
This means that everything we do needs to be improved. To stay competitive
in this world we have to be better then we were last year and we should
be prepared to be better next year. We must continuously improve. Engaged
employees can show us the way. All employees can be thinking about how
to reduce costs, looking at safety issues, reducing wastes and improving
the environment, while at the same time developing skills to identify,
articulate and communicate those kinds of things...
By Chuck Yorke
Continuous Improvement - A Three Legged Stool (TQM - LEAN - Quick and
Easy Kaizen)
You might be familiar with TQM and Lean
as two of the very important parts to continuous improvement and hopefully
you will soon be aware that continuous improvement requires another vital
part which we call Quick and Easy Kaizen...
Norman
Bodek PCS Press
What is the purpose of the suggestion system?
Brief article outlining some of the benefits of employee suggestion systems...
Norman
Bodek PCS Press
Four
"Must See" Presentations
Four superb PowerPoint™ Presentations on Lean / Kaizen, Quick
Changeover (SMED), 5S and Mistake Proofing provided by Learning &
Productivity Pty Ltd who specialise in support resources for manufacturers
in Australia and New Zealand...
Further reading |
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All You Gotta Do Is Ask
Chuck Yorke, Norman Bodek |
All You Gotta Do Is
Ask explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from your employees,
something most organizations do very poorly, if at all. The people
who manage such organizations are either unaware of the power of
employee ideas, or they don’t know how to tap it. This easy-to-read
book will show you why it is important to have a good idea system,
how to set one up, and what it can do for you, your employees, and
your organization. In 1989, for example, Japanese companies were
averaging more than 37 ideas per employee, of which 87% were implemented.
Quantifiable bottom-line savings were calculated at more than $4,000
per employee. By contrast, their U.S. competitors put little effort
into encouraging employee ideas.
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US |
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The Kaizen Blitz:
Accelerating Breakthroughs in Productivity and Performance
Anthony C. Laraia, Patricia E. Moody, Robert W. Hall |
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Kaizen
is an approach that enables incremental productivity improvement
involving everyone across the organization, managers and workers
alike. The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) has pioneered
a powerful application based on kaizen service and marketed as the
Kaizen Blitz. The hallmark of Kaizen Blitz and why it is so appealing
to manufacturers is that the approach delivers breakthrough improvements
in the 40 - 50% range quickly. This book explores the approach and
shows how to implement kaizen for rapid results, discussing the
preparation necessary, obstacles to be wary of and the results you
can expect. Companies profiled in this book include: Critikon, Wiremold,
LanTech, Pfizer, Nypro, Hammond Manufacturing, Jacobs Manufacturing,
and Pratt & Whitney.
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Uk |
Buy
US |
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Idea
Generator, The: Quick and Easy Kaizen
Bunji Tozawa, Norman Bodek |
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The purpose
of this book is to teach you how to encourage and support others
to come up with small improvement ideas on a regular and sustained
basis, ideas that can be self-installed on the job to make work
easier, to give a sense of achievement and also add to the overall
success of the company. It is written for managers and executives,
leaders in the workplace, and for those interested in improving
their own work lives by helping to make work more interesting, more
enjoyable, and fun. The foreword is written by Joe Magliochetti
Chairman - CEO of the Dana Corporation who receive over 2,000,000
ideas a year from all of their employees. This book tells you how
to do it.
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Uk |
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US |
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Gemba
Kaizen: The Common-sense Approach to Business Management
Masaaki Imai
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When
it comes to making your business more profitable and successful,
don't look to re-engineering for answers. A better way is to apply
the concept of kaizen, which mean making simple, common-sense improvements
and refinements to critical business processes.The result: greater
productivity, quality, and profits achieved with minimal cost, time,
and effort invested. In this book, you discover how to maximize
the results of kaizen by applying it to gemba business processes
involved in the manufacture of products and the rendering of services
the areas of your business where, as the author puts it, the "real
action" takes place.
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Uk |
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US |
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Links
Kaizen Institute
The founder of the Kaizen Institute is Masaaki Imai the man who introduced
the word "KAIZEN" to the world way back in 1985. The Kaizen
Institute is home to dozens of excellent articles and case studies and
you can even test your Kaizen Power with a quiz...
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