How Adopting KAIZEN™ helps attain Operational Excellence for an Organisation?

It’s a fast-paced world. New innovations take place every day, and the old ones are forgotten quickly. The changes are constant. To thrive, an organisation constantly needs to adapt to the surrounding and that too with effectiveness and efficiency. Since its introduction over 30 years ago, KAIZEN™ — as a concept — has been utilised by all kinds of organisation in order to keep up with the dynamics of the world at large while being in a state of continuous improvement.

But what is KAIZEN™ ?

‘Kai’ in Japanese means change, and zen means for the better. So, when put together the word means ‘change for the better.’ This concept got introduced to the western business world through a path breaking book called ‘KAIZEN™ : The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success.’ Through this book, Masaaki Imai — the author of the book — established the concept of Kaizen in the context of continuous business improvement 30 years ago. Since then Kaizen has become an integral part of long-term strategies of all kinds of organisations to yield better results in all aspects.

Five Core Principles of KAIZEN™

Like all good management concepts, KAIZEN™ too rests on 5 fundamental principles. These principles are deeply ingrained in KAIZEN™ tools along with the corresponding behaviour pattern. The five core principles are as follows:

Know Your Customer: Creating customer value and enhancing their experience by identifying their interest and concern areas
Let it Flow: Every person in the organisation should work towards zero wastage by creating value at every level
Go to Gemba: Value, more often than not, generates at the place where the real action happens. Follow it for best results.
Be Transparent: Improvements and results should be measurable as well as tangible. Utilise real data to promote clean transparency.
Empower People: Set uniform goals for all team members, and then provide them with the tools, processes, and systems required to achieve those goals

How do organisations adapt KAIZEN™ successfully?

KAIZEN™ is a continuous and daily process. KAIZEN™ promotes gradual change and takes small steps along with conventional know-how to bring about far-lasting and long-term impact. One of the most famous case studies of implementation of KAIZEN™ is in Toyota Motor Corporation. The company wanted to eliminate wastage and heavily promote error-free production. They did so, under the principles of KAIZEN™, by introducing a real-time alert system at an operational level. That’s how the overall process at Toyota was significantly improved over time with a gradual change and a small step in the right direction.
An organisation can be trained in the practice of KAIZEN™. It can be provided with tools and systems to first assess the problematic areas, and then implement principles of KAIZEN™ for a lasting positive impact.

Companies that have Implemented KAIZEN™

Over the years, organisations of all sizes and scope have adapted KAIZEN™ for better functioning and results. Apart from Toyota, other big names such as the Great Western Bank, The Ford Motor Company, Herman Miller, and Lockheed Martin. Closer to the home, Godrej is a big practitioner of KAIZEN™ along with Aditya Birla Group, L & T, Mahindra, as well as Paragon. In fact, the Gujarat government has also utilised KAIZEN™ by training its officials in the education and health department. It goes on to show that KAIZEN™ can be utilised by vastly different organisations for process improvement.

10th Annual Indizen 2019 (KAIZEN™ Congress India)

India’s biggest conference on operational excellence — Indizen — is taking place on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of February, 2019 in Suzlon One Earth Campus, Pune, India.

Along with KAIZEN™ Training Programmes and KAIZEN™ Benchmark Tours, the event will also feature 40+ Powerful Case Studies & 40+ Speakers.

Notable Keynote Speakers include :

Shekhar Ramamurthy, the Managing Director of United Breweries Limited
Gaur Gopal Das, the known International Life Coach
Suresh Mahadev, who is the Director of Process Excellence function at the online giant Flipkart.
Summi Sharma, the Vice President - Learning for india’s biggest airline Indigo Airlines

Noteworthy speakers include:

Vinod Grover, Founding Partner and Chairman of Kaizen Institute of India and Africa
Jayanth Murthy, Founding Director of Kaizen Institute of India and Africa
Dr. Ravi M Damodaran, CTO of Greaves Cotton Limited
S G Belapure, Managing Director of Zydus Hospira
Vivek Patwardhan, Retired global HR head of Asian paints, and many more.

To know more about how you can participate in Indizen 2019, visit here: https://www.kaizencongressindia.com/