Last time, using the case of Nissan Motors, I mentioned that the power of change is within the company. And I was convinced that it was absolutely true at the small group activity presentation meeting at Company T which I visited last week.
Company T holds a company-wide Kaizen presentation once a year. This time there were 2 presentation from each of 5 domestic plant and a presentation from each of 2 overseas plant, totaling 12 presentations. For more than 5 years I have participated this meeting as a judge and commentator, and I am sure that the level of the presentation is rising year by year.
Previously, the most of the Kaizen theme were improvement of production operation and only the domestic plants attended. But this time, not only the production but also the related staff departments such as engineering, sales, production control and quality control participated and also oveseas plants participated
It is new that depending on the theme, manufacturing, engineering and management formed a small group, and some of the teams have created a synergistic effect.
And in the past, the most of the achievements of the activities were reducing defects by each product, productivity improvement of the team, but now they are spreading to inventory and lead time reduction, progressing to improve the structure of the whole company.
Actually, a few years ago Company T faced a crisis of bankruptcy shortly after sales declined sharply to less than half. Many colleagues left the company and many people thought that Company T might give up the small group activity. However, this small group activity and presentation meeting was continued.
However, by helping each other in the company, Company T survived and started getting profit significantly. In the closing speech, the president emphasized the Kaizen by all employees helped the company survival and expressed expectations for further improvement.
I thought it was really good that Company T did not stop the small group activity. And again the answer is inside the company! I was convinced that.
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2020.02.28
[68] The new management approach based on Kaizen by all Let’s wash our hands much more frequently to prevent atypical pneumonia!
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Lead time reduction cannot be achieved by the president alone. Experts alone cannot do it either. This is a theme that really requires the participation of all the employers and all the employees. In a normal company organization, each person can only do his or her job. It is not easy to discuss improvement between different departments, even if they are related to each other. However, on the other hand, people from various departments gather on Genba and discuss their relations and problems about the products, synergistic and surprisingly large effect will be delivered, and in the process you can get high motivation.
The president gather the Kaizen that have been implemented separately by each department and determine themes of overall optimization. Then the small Kaizen by each people gets together and they become big and start supporting the company’s strategy.
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Question : Have you had an experience of this type Kaizen?
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2019.10.28
The new management approach based on Kaizen by all 15 I would like to express my sincere condolences to those affected by heavy rain.
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Top management must know the real site all ways. It is important not only to look around the site, but also to communicate with the people who work at the site. For example, Mr. Toshio Doko, the former president of Toshiba left the following words:
“The organization chart of the company is made the president at the top, followed by general managers, and section managers, but I don’t think that style good. On the job, both the president and employees are standing at the equal level. The main point of the meeting is to do it casually. You can hold a meeting while standing. Communicate with your subordinate when you see his ore her face. ”
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Question: Do you really communicate casually?
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2019.08.30
The new management approach based on Kaizen by all 14 The terrible hot summer seems to be going away little by little. I am happy about it.
If designers talk about their job, you take it as a matter of design. But if operators talk about their job, it is not only their job but also about everything of the company. There are tremendous volume of information on shop floor. It is good to do free discussion with the people from many department with the operators and you can go beyond the walls that exist between the departments.
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Question: Are you talking with the operators in your company?
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2019.08.05
The new management approach based on Kaizen by all 13 It’s hot these days and time of heatstroke has come. Water supply is important!
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For example, all the workers know real things by experience. However, it is important whether those people can open their minds and talk about these experiences. Therefore, the various information that come out of KZ method or Choco-Ann are valuable. And It becomes possible for the president, the departments of design, purchase, sales, technology etc. to accept the experience of them on-site.
The part-time operators may be nervous and may not speak well if called in the president’s office. However, if the president goes to their job site and asks questions about his or her work and Kaizen improvements, the conversation boils. It may be possible only in such a way that the people of wide range roles such as the president, managers in other departments, leaders, full-time and part-time workers gather in one place and talk about one thing.
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Question: Are you talking with wide range of people in your company?
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2019.07.09
The new management approach based on Kaizen by all 12 It’s hot these days and time of heatstroke has come. Water supply is important!
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For that purpose, it is good for everyone to have a habit of implementing Kaizen continuously. Therefore all the employees are required to implement at least one Kaizen a month. The required level of Kaizen is very low. You can copy the Kaizen of your coworkers or just repairing your tool is also Kaizen. Choko-Ann’s rule is very loose and no need to have financial result and you are always praised.
All the people join the Choko-Ann activity and the president find the fact that all the people of the company have the ability to do Kaizen and start improving the management together.****************************************
Question: Can you imagine the Kaizen that copying and repairing is OK?
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2019.05.28
The new management approach based on Kaizen by all 11 The long holidays are over and Let’s work hard again!
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The Choco-Ann method is a way to bring out the improvement ability of the employees and execute the improvement idea in the company. There are many ideas in the company, but they are worthless unless they are implemented. It is required to improve the various problems found through the implementation of the KZ method. And it is necessary for everyone in the company to realize as many ideas as possible in a short time. When it comes to how to achieve that, most things come true if you can think of a way to do it rather than looking for reasons you can not do it.
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Question: How is the improvement implemented in your company?
