Kaizen

Question 1

What is Kaizen

Answer 1

Kaizen is a production philosophy that concerns making small changes on a consistent basis to continuously improve performance.

Question 2

What is required for Kaizen to work properly

Answer 2

For kaizen to work properly, you must have workers

Question 3

What does Kaizen involve

Answer 3

Regular communication with workers, providing meetings for them to contribute ideas to improve production.

Management listening to workers and being prepared to implement new ideas.

Genuine empowerment for the workers to be able to make decisions.

Substantial training costs - because you need to make sure the workers have the skills needed to communicate problems, but also adapt and be prepared to change)

Question 4

What will becoming 1% better per day do

Answer 4

Imagine just improving 1% everyday, over time, by just manageably improving, you’ll improve a lot.

Question 5

What are the benefits of Kaizen

Answer 5

Shop and factory floor workers are often the first to identify problems, which can be quickly resolved

Improves motivation - Allows subordinates to give their input

Reduces wastage and production costs

Less need for big capital investment

Small changes tent to be easier to implement

Question 6

Costs of Kaizen

Answer 6

Can be time consuming and reduce labour productivity

Managers may resist change, or not implement improvements

Cost of unsuccessful ideas

Question 7

What are some difficulties with Kaizen

Answer 7

May be difficult to respond to changes in demand
Need to train and upskill staff
Reliance on suppliers