Kaizen: the Japanese system for achieving success. The "Nemawashi" principle. How do the Japanese make decisions?

The Japanese are always consistent. They consider it honorable to complete a task to perfection. Even if you are a janitor, do not complain about fate, but polish your skills. The Japanese do not change jobs in search of the ideal; they can make their dreams come true anywhere. It's all about the approach. And it's called kaizen.

Why not learn from the Japanese and try their management method? We have adapted the information so that you can apply the knowledge outside the office.

Analyze your activities by making changes to the process. This way you will constantly improve your working methods. This Right way, because the goal of kaizen is continuous improvement.

Life

The Kaizen principle is suitable for any area. For example, you want to start leading healthy image life.

1. Accuracy

Set aside half an hour when you will not be distracted. Sit down, divide the piece of paper into two parts and write down everything that bothers you in one column, and everything that helps you in the second.

2. Order

Make a list that includes everything useful: a walk at lunch, nordic walking in the park, cycling. You can also simply make a list of the things you need to pay attention to. For example, create a schedule for avoiding junk food and including healthy foods in your diet. This must be done gradually, otherwise the body will rebel, demanding a dose simple carbohydrates, to which he is accustomed.

3. Cleanliness

Maintaining cleanliness is very important, no matter what goals you set for yourself. In a cluttered room, a person loses the desired mood. In addition, cleaning can be turned into preparatory stage physical activity. Or make it a meditative process where you need to focus solely on physical actions and completely clear your head of thoughts.

4. Standardization

Now it's time to turn all the changes into a system. Just stick to a schedule and it will become the basis of your lifestyle.

5. Discipline

Look after yourself and get rid of cravings for old habits. It’s not easy at first: there are so many temptations around that it’s hard to resist. Improve yourself by finding new ways to make your reality better.

In order for the Kaizen philosophy to work in business, Japanese managers back it up with practical tools for optimizing jobs, quality control, submitting rationalization proposals, careful use of resources, etc.

The Japanese economic miracle is the unprecedented growth of the Japanese economy from the mid-50s until the oil crisis of 1973 - about 10% per year. Japan, previously known in the world as a producer of low-quality waste products, has turned its image around and become a competitor to leading American corporations.

The Japanese attribute the rise of their economy to the use of kaizen as a way of thinking and approach to management. It is interesting that the Americans themselves brought ideas for improving product quality to Japan.

Kaizen: Definition, Origin and History

In 1946, America sent its best engineers to lecture on quality and share their experiences with Japanese industrialists. In 1950, lectures in Japan were given by W. Edwards Deming, the founder of the modern quality movement. The Japanese implemented his ideas so effectively that 20-30 years later American delegations came to adopt the Japanese experience.

William Edwards Deming is an American scientist, developer of statistical quality control methods, and management and quality management consultant. Co-author of the Shewhart-Deming Cycle (PDCA). It is directly related to the revival of the Japanese economy.

The term "kaizen" as a direction of management became widely known in 1986, after the publication Masaaki Imai "Kaizen: the key to the success of Japanese companies." Then the whole world learned what kaizen is and that Japan owes its success to it.

Kaizen management approaches differ sharply from management methods accepted in the West. In Japan, people and the production process are of particular importance, while in the West, company management is focused on the product and results. Let's look at the basic principles of kaizen.

Consumers

The most important link in the production chain, and all the company’s efforts are aimed at ensuring that it receives a quality product at a low price. It is important to anticipate market demands and adapt production to changing needs. Feedback with the consumer is one of the important components of kaizen.

Employees

The most valuable asset of the company, without their support kaizen is impossible. Relations with personnel at Japanese enterprises are built in such a way that the employees themselves are interested in producing high-quality and competitive products. Here, the welfare of the enterprise means the welfare of the employee.

The pursuit of excellence is supported by five systems for forming relationships between a person and an organization:

• lifetime employment system
• on-the-job training system
• rotation system
• merit system
• reward system.

Management

Kaizen prefers leadership as opposed to Western formal bosses. Japanese managers earn authority not by a sign on the office door, but by their knowledge, experience, decisions made, and personal example. They are open to their subordinates, spend a lot of time at work, and communicate freely with employees of any level.

It is impossible to deploy kaizen in a company without the support of top management: improvement goals are set at the top level and unfold from top to bottom. The implementation of the plans requires decision making and investment. The higher a manager is in the hierarchy, the more improvement actions are expected of him.

Focus on process rather than results

Kaizen is based on process thinking, because... Improving processes leads to improved results. In Japan, employees' efforts to optimize the work process are valued, even if this does not bring direct savings to the company.

In the West, employees are focused on getting results at any cost. Any rationalization proposal is considered from the perspective of making a profit in the next quarter.

Gradual development plus innovation

Western companies prefer leapfrog development through innovation, without worrying about minor improvements. The Japanese combine kaizen and innovation to achieve long-term growth.

Building quality into the process

Quality - important element kaizen. The Japanese realized that checking finished products for defects is a waste of time and money, because... does not lead to improved quality. Therefore, they began to build quality into all stages of production, from product development and selection of suppliers to delivery of goods to consumers.

The next process is the consumer

Any production of goods or services can be divided into a chain of processes. In kaizen, each subsequent process is usually considered as an end consumer. Therefore, the next production link will never receive defective parts or inaccurate information.

Differences between the Japanese kaizen approach and traditional management in Western companies

	Kaizen	Western management style
Focus on		Result
Development	Gradual, manifesting itself over time, sometimes plus innovation	Spasmodic, only due to innovation
Resources	Lean use of resources	Irrational use of resources - while there is profit, there is no point in optimizing costs
Relationships in the team	Mutual assistance, support, knowledge exchange	Individualism, competition between individuals and departments
Management		A boss with authority
Favorable environment for application	Slow economic growth with a lack of resources	Economic boom, resources in abundance
Perspective	Long-term	Short term

Kaizen goals

The Japanese resorted to kaizen and its methods to overcome post-war devastation. As a result, the country not only recovered from hostilities, but also became the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality competitive products - cars, equipment, electronics. And this is in the absence of resources, a small territory and relative isolation from the world. Like this by-effect kaizen.

The main goal of kaizen management is customer satisfaction.

To achieve this, top management sets clear priorities for product quality, cost and delivery discipline, and deploys them from top to bottom throughout the enterprise.

In addition to customer satisfaction, the Kaizen technique allows you to:

• improve product quality and at the same time reduce prices
• increase company profits
• motivate staff and maximize their potential
• remain competitive in the market for decades
• rational use of limited and expensive resources.

In my opinion, kaizen is also an end in itself - improvement for the sake of improvement, because this is precisely what many see as the meaning of human existence.

Application of methods in the kaizen concept

In practice, kaizen is implemented through practical tools and techniques. Let's look at some of them.

Total Quality Management (TQM - Total Quality Management)

Management philosophy of improving product quality, reducing costs, and satisfying consumers and company employees. The most important and large-scale kaizen tool.

Just-in-time production system ()

A production organization method developed by Toyota Vice President Taiichi Ohno in 1954 and used in the company's production system.

Its essence is that the parts needed for production are supplied to the assembly line within a strictly defined time frame and in the required quantity. Finished products It is produced in small batches and is not stored, but is immediately shipped to consumers.

Thus, the company avoided maintaining warehouses, which was impossible given the limited expensive resources and territory, and also increased the quality and speed of assembly, completely optimizing the production process.

(TPM - Total Productive Maintenance)

TRM is the concern of each employee about the entrusted equipment and workplace. Caring for the machine maintains its functionality for a long time and allows you to anticipate possible breakdowns. The actions of workers are supported by the development of standards for the operation of equipment, organization and order in the workplace, identification of problems, and minor repairs.

Proposal system

The Japanese adopted the practice of submitting proposals to improve production from the United States. There are two options for the methodology: individual proposals and small group proposals. The system of proposals supports kaizen and creates a sense of involvement of workers in the fate of the company.

Japanese management strongly supports employee proposals and gives bonuses and gratitude for their initiative. The record number of proposals submitted to one company by one person in one year was 16,821.

Small group work

Right on the shop floor, groups of 6-10 people are looking for ways to improve the quality of processes and products, reduce downtime and reduce material consumption. Such voluntary associations first appeared in 1962 as study groups that studied the theory of quality control and began to apply what they learned in their workplaces.

The most common small groups are quality control circles and QC circles. The area of ​​responsibility of QC circles is usually limited to the workplace - reducing resource costs, increasing labor safety and increasing productivity. QC circles use seven statistical tools to analyze problems and how to solve them: Pareto charts, cause and effect charts, histograms, control charts, scatter plots, graphs, and checklists.

At the time of writing the book about kaizen (1986), 170 thousand QC circles were officially registered in Japan, and about the same number operated unofficially.

Members of QC circles receive satisfaction from influencing the work process and participating in improvement; the element of creativity and initiative has a positive effect on the corporate culture.

The photo shows the work of QC circles at the Toyota plant in Indonesia then and now

Another tool created at Toyota as part of the Just-in-Time methodology. Kanban are tags that are attached to containers of production parts. The container moves along the assembly line and workers select the necessary parts. When all parts have been selected, the empty container is returned for the next batch, and the tag serves as a requisition form. Essentially, it is a communication system between production and warehouse workers that minimizes the storage of parts in production.

Zero defects (ZD - zero defects)

The zero defects program was developed by the American Philip Crosby. Its essence is that no level of defects in production is acceptable. The number of defects should be zero.

This goal is achieved as follows:

• it is necessary to prevent the occurrence of defects, and not to find and correct them
• Efforts must be made to reduce the number of defects
• the consumer deserves a defect-free product, and it is the manufacturer's responsibility to provide it
• management must clearly set goals for improving product quality
• quality is determined not only in the production process, but also by the activities of non-production personnel
• Quality assurance must be subject to financial analysis.

Advantages and disadvantages of Kaizen

The benefits of kaizen are obvious:

1. better product quality at lower costs
2. customer satisfaction
3. rational use of resources and equipment
4. atmosphere of mutual assistance and cooperation
5. employee motivation.

But why then don’t all companies arm themselves with kaizen techniques? Kaizen is not so easy to implement; to do this, you need to rebuild not only the production process, but also your thinking.

Here are the challenges companies face on their path to excellence:

1. process improvement requires investments that will not pay off immediately
2. it takes a long time to see the effect - 3-5 years
3. Kaizen is not suitable for a rapidly developing economy
4. it is very difficult to involve employees at all levels
5. interfere human factors- laziness, greed, dishonesty
6. Western companies do not have practices of lifelong employment, horizontal rotation, or combining several functions
7. Employees' suggestions for improvement are not taken seriously.

Kaizen in practice

The Kaizen philosophy is supported by many Japanese corporations - Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Philips. As an example of a kaizen follower, I would like to cite a Western company - Nestlé S.A.

Nestlé

Swiss multinational food and beverage manufacturer. Its product line includes baby food, medical nutrition, bottled water, breakfast cereals, coffee and tea, candy, frozen food, snacks and pet nutrition.

The corporation has not left the list of Fortune 500 companies for 22 years; in 2016, it took 66th place with a profit of $9,423 million. In the previous year, it took 70th place, and a year earlier - 72nd.

Lean production and zero waste are Nestlé's primary mission. The ideas of kaizen are clearly visible in Nestlé’s Corporate Principles and Nestlé’s Quality Policy.

The company's top management undertakes to strive for the highest quality and safety of products in the following ways:

• Fostering a culture of quality to develop, manufacture and deliver zero-defect products and services that our customers trust.
• Compliance with current legislation and international requirements.
• Continuously improve the quality management system to ensure product safety, prevent quality incidents and eliminate defects.
• Encouraging participation and dissemination of responsibility for quality among employees and partners through standards, education, training and mentoring, supervision and effective communications.

To create value and earn consumer trust, Nestlé implements 4 principles:

Nestlé Waters uses different techniques to understand where it is better to open a new factory. Techniques such as Value Stream Mapping illustrate the flow of materials and information required to deliver the final product to the consumer. Thus, new factories are opened where they will initially work most efficiently.

Total Quality Management: definition and essence

Total Quality Management is a term closely related to kaizen. Speaking about what Total Quality Management is, Masaaki Imai calls it “the main highway leading to kaizen” and often equates these concepts.

TQM is kaizen implemented using a systematic approach and statistical methods. They transform the company's problems into concrete numbers.

TQM are activities aimed at improving quality: they involve top and middle management, foremen and workers, employees of non-production departments. These activities relate to marketing research, design and development of new products, production, sales, relationships with suppliers and consumers, personnel training, etc.

In Japan TQM implementation starts with people— when the organization’s employees are imbued with the desire for quality and have mastered kaizen thinking, then they can begin to improve production and management processes.

While in the West there are special positions or departments for quality control, in Japan quality control is everyone's business. Employees at all levels are constantly trained to ensure effective quality control. In addition, TQM is supported at the government level.

TQM principles

One of the founders of the TQM movement, Professor Kaoru Ishikawa, formed six features of total quality management in Japan:

1. TQM is applied throughout the company with the participation of all employees.
2. The importance of education and training.
3. Work of QC circles.
4. Regular TQM audits by senior management or external organizations.
5. Use of statistical methods.
6. State support for TQM.

The Total Quality Management methodology contrasts sharply with the approaches of traditional quality management:

Principles of traditional quality management	TQM principles
Customer satisfaction	Satisfaction of consumers, employees and society as a whole
Actions to improve product quality	Actions to improve the quality of processes and systems
Corrective impact on quality	Preventive impact on quality
Quality management training for quality control department employees only	Quality management training for all employees
Only the quality control department is responsible for quality	All employees are responsible for quality
Solving only urgent quality problems, “plugging holes”	Finding and solving chronic problems
Dedicated solution to quality problems	Employee interaction when solving quality problems

W. Edwards Deming was directly involved in the formation of the TQM concept. He formulated a 14-point algorithm of actions for implementing the TQM concept:

1. Ensure consistency in product and service improvement goals.
2. Adopt a new philosophy.
3. Eliminate reliance on inspections to achieve quality.
4. Stop choosing partners solely based on price. Instead, reduce your overall cost by working with a single supplier.
5. Continually and forever improve every planning, production and service process.
6. Introduce on-the-job training.
7. Encourage leadership.
8. Get rid of fears.
9. Break down barriers between staff from different functional areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, appeals and workforce targets.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical targets for managers.
12. Remove barriers that prevent people from taking pride in workmanship and eliminate annual rankings or merit systems.
13. Organize a vigorous training and self-improvement program for everyone.
14. Engage everyone in the company in the transformation effort.

Advantages and disadvantages of TQM

The most obvious advantage of TQM is improving the quality of products. But since total quality management affects all processes in an enterprise, the effect of its application is much wider than a product without defects.

Here's the return you can get from TQM:

• improving product quality
• customer satisfaction and loyalty
• reduction in production costs
• company profit growth
• the company's adaptability to sudden changes environment
• motivating employees through involvement in the company's activities
• strengthening corporate culture.

Despite the positive effect, the implementation of TQM requires significant costs and effort. Critics of the concept call the following disadvantages:

• large financial investments at the initial stages associated with staff training and hiring quality consultants
• spending time on establishing communication processes and creating a new corporate culture
• formalization of the production process due to the introduction of new standards and rules
• difficulties in securing the required level staff engagement
• no effect in the short term
• lack of adaptation of the approach to the service sector, small businesses, and the non-profit sector.

TQM in practice

As an example of Total Quality Management, I would like to cite the Indian company, the flagship company of the CK Birla Group. In 2015, she received the Deming Award, an honorary prize in quality management.

NEI manufactures bearings under the NBC Bearings brand for the automotive and railroad industries. The production capacity of NEI's four factories is designed to produce thousands of sizes of bearings. It is the only bearing manufacturer in India that has its own Research Center. The company's products are exported to 21 countries, including the USA, Germany, Japan and Australia, and are used in products of the Honda, Suzuki, and Daimler brands.

NEI puts consumers first and always adapts to changing market needs. The company adheres to the “Zero Defects” concept in production and supply. Currently at 100 parts per million, NEI plans to reduce it to 50 parts per million over the next three years and below 10 parts per million in the future.

Company credo
Be the best you can be
Be the best that you can be.

Kaizen in IT

Kaizen philosophy is not only suitable manufacturing enterprises. Kaizen principles form the basis of modern flexible development methodologies and are actively used by teams all over the world.

Scrum.

The creators were inspired by the practices of Japanese enterprises and many kaizen principles are the basis of their methodology: the PDCA cycle, constant analysis of activities, elimination of interference, mutual support and openness of information.

Lean.

Development is an IT-adapted method lean manufacturing, one of the Kaizen tools. Where developers work, it is just as important to eliminate downtime and waste as in production. Lean is based on constant learning, elimination of losses, informed decision-making, quick delivery of the product to the customer, team motivation, and lean principles.

Kanban.

- another methodology that has migrated from workshops to developers’ offices. Initially, this is one of the tools of the “just in time” concept.

Modern Kanban is based on the principles:

1. development starts with existing methods that change for the better in the process
2. the team agrees in advance to make important changes
3. initiative is encouraged
4. roles and responsibilities in the team are clearly distributed. It also has quite a lot in common with kaizen ideas.

Remember and you will understand where all modern methods of creating a quality product come from.

Likewise, the principles of TQM have found application
in software development: quality is built into the process creating a software product at the stage of collecting customer requirements.

Applications

There are many project management services that allow you to control the work of production, IT teams and digital agencies that profess Kaizen or Total Quality Management. And there is Worksection.

The Saas service allows you to establish such transparent communication between management and the team, between the company’s client and the contractor, right down to the hired freelancer, that quality control and continuous improvement of the product are inevitable.

5 Principles That Made the Japanese Management Model Successful and Continue to Improve the World

The Japanese have always been, are and will be very consistent. When I looked documentary“Jiro dreams of sushi”, I was very impressed. Especially the story of Jiro Ono that they consider it honorable to bring any task to perfection. Even if you work as a janitor, you should not complain about fate, but should bring your work skills to perfection. The Japanese do not jump from job to job in search of the perfect one; they can eventually turn any job into the job of their dreams. Because it's all about the approach.

Why not learn from the Japanese again and try their management method, which they use in their management, applying it not only to their work, but also to themselves? I looked for information about this system on the Internet and tried to build a more individual approach from the corporate approach.

Kaizen, kaizen (Japanese 改善 kaizen?, romaji Kaizen; sometimes incorrectly "kaizen") is a Japanese philosophy or practice that focuses on continuous improvement of production processes, development, supporting business processes and management, as well as all aspects of life.

The basis of the Kaizen method consists of 5 key elements, “5 S”:

• Seiri- neatness
• Seiton- order
• Seiso- purity
• Seiketsu- standardization
• Shitsuke- discipline

These principles can be adjusted both to your work and to your life. After the end of World War II, it was thanks to the use of this technique that many Japanese companies, including Toyota, managed to quickly recover and catch up with lost capacity.

Job

If you decide to try to apply the 5 principles of Kaizen to your work, then these 5 points should take their place of honor right in front of your nose and hang there until their implementation becomes the basis of your work.

1. Sorting. You have to sit down, think carefully and make a list of what you want to improve and what you think is preventing you from working more efficiently. This principle states that an employee should not do anything unnecessary, do not do his job. Which tasks are least related to your main job?

Some parts can be reduced to a minimum (checking email, working with documents), some can be delegated to someone whose specialization they are more relevant to.

For example, in some companies it is customary for sales managers to calculate the cost of services sold, issue invoices and draw up contracts. Although in fact, invoices and cost calculations are a matter for the accounting department, and contracts are the responsibility of the legal department or, again, the accounting department. Sometimes it seems that if you do it all yourself, it will be faster and you won’t have to go to the accountants. This part, for some reason, upsets everyone, and sometimes scares us the most. But in fact, if you organize the process correctly and convey to these departments that, in fact, this is their job, things will go much faster.

Think about what is unnecessary and get rid of it. And think about what simple changes you can make to your workflow. Just as the ocean is made up of drops, global changes begin with small changes.

2. Building and establishing order After you have discarded everything unnecessary, you can streamline the work process by arranging things in the necessary order. It will be good if, at least for the first few weeks, you keep something like your work diary, in which you will write down the tasks completed, the time at which they were completed, the amount of time it took to complete them, and note their priority. As a result, it may turn out that you spend the least time on the most important things, and routine eats up the most, although sometimes it seems that it’s easier to first sit down, for example, to make plans for the day (week, month), in order to get started, and then Having already warmed up, do the most important things. As a result, it may turn out that you again do not have time to complete the most important things.

If you know that you usually have 2-3 complex important tasks, it is better to schedule them at a time when your productivity is at its peak. We have already published an article about “prefrontal Mondays” and perhaps this option is just for you.

3. Cleaning or “polishing”. After finishing your work day, do not forget to clean your office desk and put everything back in its place. Finding the things and documents you need is much easier when everything is where it should be.

You need to put things in order not only on your desktop, but also in your head. To do this, it would be better to take a few minutes, look at your work diary and summarize, make the necessary notes and... forget about work when you find yourself outside the threshold of your office. Because the next morning you should come to work with a clear head and fresh thoughts. We have also written more than once about the benefits of distracting from a task and returning to it after some time. This way you have a much better chance of finding an interesting and fresh solution.

4. Standardization (systematization). After you have gotten rid of tasks that are not part of your responsibilities, built your workflow and put everything on the shelves not only in the workplace, but also in your head, it’s time to make a system out of it. That is, every morning you must do everything according to this structured scheme. Follow it and you will see results.

5. Maintaining practice. Once the first 4 processes are completed, they become a new way of working for you. You must stay on track and not fall back into old habits and methods.

When you think about a new method, you'll likely be thinking about what other changes you can make to improve efficiency. And thus you will again review the first 4 aspects, making changes to the process. This way you are constantly improving your working methods. And this is the right path, because the main goal of Kaizen is constant, never-ending excellence.

It is enough to be just one step ahead. Constantly

By the way, kaizen guru Masaaki Imai, whose book “Kaizen: The Key to the Success of Japanese Companies” still remains a bestseller in business literature, spoke about the application of this method in business in his interview with Russian readers. A fragment from this interview published by the magazine “Own Business” clarifies a lot.

According to the Kaizen system, improvement of all processes in the company should occur continuously. Why does improvement need to be done every day?

Indeed, there are managers who prefer episodic improvements. We believe: if we did something yesterday, then without delay we must ask ourselves the question: “What are we going to improve today? Or tomorrow?".

Toyota began using the kaizen system 60 years ago. Since then, all of her employees have been making improvements every day. Imagine what heights you can achieve if you do something every day for decades to improve your work efficiency! Toyota's experience confirms this: the company has achieved incredible business success.

The company has reached a leading position in its sector, and today it is very difficult to compete with it. IN Lately consumers are becoming more and more demanding. Therefore, the conditions in which companies operate are becoming more stringent. And in the future we will face even more severe competition. Therefore, those who want to succeed have only one thing left to do: always be one step ahead of the competition.

In this regard, I remember an anecdote about an American and Japanese businessman who went on a safari to Africa. They arrived in the savannah and began photographing the local beauty. Fascinated by this, they went far from their car. When the businessmen were about to go back, a huge lion jumped out from behind the bushes in the distance. The Japanese, not paying any attention to the lion, took out his sneakers and began to change his shoes.

"What are you doing?!" — the American asked in surprise. “Don’t you see, I’m changing my shoes!” — the Japanese answered calmly. The American is perplexed: “Look how far our car is! In order for the lion to catch us, we must not change our shoes, but run!” To which the Japanese replies: “To save myself, I need to overtake you by just one step!” The Kaizen system helps achieve this.

- Is it really possible to come up with and implement some serious improvements every day?!

The improvements may be small, and each one individually may not be that noticeable. But taken together they will have a significant effect. Let me give you an example.

At one of the Matsushita enterprises, large teapots were placed on all tables during the lunch break, and each employee could drink as much of the drink as he wanted. The waitresses of the company noticed that the amount of tea drunk at different tables varied greatly. They then discovered that the same customers usually sat in certain seats. Having collected and analyzed data over several days, the waitresses determined exactly how much tea should be served on each table. As a result, they reduced the brewing consumption by half. In terms of money saved, the savings were negligible. Nevertheless, at the end of the year, these waitresses received gold medals from the president of the corporation.

After all, it is precisely such step-by-step improvements that together lead to significant strategic victories. In the worst companies, employees are focused solely on maintaining existing processes—doing the same things day after day without thinking about improving them. In those companies where kaizen is used, everything is different.

Whenever a person sees some opportunity to do his job better, he must implement these changes and change the standards of performing individual operations accordingly. If a company uses kaizen, the number of staff may be reduced by 10-20%, and sometimes by 50%.

Most companies prefer to make improvements not gradually, but immediately - carrying out global transformations through innovation. What are the disadvantages of this approach?

Daily improvements do not require significant financial costs. To implement kaizen, all that is needed is for people to use their minds and concentrate on the work at hand. However, kaizen processes are often invisible or subtle, and their results are rarely immediately apparent. Global innovation always requires large investments to purchase new technologies, equipment...

Therefore, before thinking about innovation, it is better to first take advantage of the existing potential by implementing kaizen. In many Japanese companies, top managers tell workers: “We cannot allocate a large budget to implement your proposals. But you still have to make those improvements.”

In the 1970s, Toyota was led by a very talented top manager - Mr. Taiichi Ono. He always believed in the strength and talent of his subordinates and was confident that if they were given the necessary powers, they would be able to solve any problems. He often used this approach. For example, Toyota set a goal of producing 100 units per hour. Then Ohno gave his engineers the resources to produce only 90 units, but required them to produce all 100. Since they could not do this right away, they either had to work overtime or urgently come up with some kind of improvement to cope with given task. When the engineers finally figured out a way to solve the problem, he would remove ten percent of the workers from that production line and move them to another area. And from the rest he again demanded to produce 100 units of product.

Does this mean that in the kaizen system innovations are rejected as such? Looking at leading Japanese companies, one cannot say this...

To develop a company, you need both a kaizen system and innovation. It is the combination of these two approaches that allows you to achieve the best results. Imagine: with the help of kaizen you gradually rise up. Then you take a big “leap” - you introduce innovation. Then from this new height you again continue the gradual upward movement - and again make a jerk.

As a result, you find yourself superior to those who apply only an innovative approach and move in leaps and bounds. In addition, the system created as a result of the introduction of innovation will inevitably degrade if efforts are not made first to maintain it and then to improve it. The effect of innovation is gradually decreasing due to intense competition and obsolescence of standards. Kaizen helps ensure a steady rise.

These same “5S” can be adjusted to any aspect of life. For example, you want to start leading a healthy lifestyle.

The first “S”. You sit down, divide the piece of paper into two parts and write down everything that bothers you in one column, and everything that helps you in the second.

Second "S". After identifying all the positive and negative aspects, you make yourself a schedule in which you include everything useful (a walk in the park, going for a walk at lunch, etc., etc.). In addition to creating a “health schedule,” you can simply make a list of what you need to start doing. For example, make a schedule for yourself to reduce your intake of junk food to a minimum and gradually introduce healthy foods into your daily diet. This must be done gradually, otherwise the body, and behind it the willpower, will simply rebel, demanding a dose of sugar and simple carbohydrates to which it is accustomed.

Third "S". To be honest, it’s difficult for me to draw an analogue to this S, but if I were doing this for myself, I would simply include this item as “Cleaning”. Keeping it clean and tidy is very important no matter what you try to do. This applies to work and just life. Because in a cluttered room a person loses strength and the necessary mood. In addition, cleaning can be turned into an initial stage of physical exercise or made into a meditative process, when you need to focus exclusively on physical actions and completely clear your head of thoughts.

Fourth “S”. Now it's time to turn all the changes into a system. Just stick to the schedule you created and it will become your normal way of life.

Fifth "S". Look after yourself and get rid of temptations to return to your old, easier life. At first, a healthy lifestyle is not easy, because there are so many temptations around that it is difficult to resist. And improve by finding more and more new ways to make your life better.

After reading a huge amount of material, I realized that the Kaizen system can be adjusted to anything. The main thing is to follow the basic rules - get rid of unnecessary things, build a system and constantly improve it!

Reference

Companies that use this system increase the profitability and competitiveness of their business without making large capital investments. It allows you to increase labor productivity by 50-100% or more. This system is called “kaizen” (from the Japanese words KAI - “change” and ZEN - “good”, “for the better”). Kaizen is a constant desire to improve everything we do, embodied in specific forms, methods and technologies. This method is used by outstanding companies: Toyota, Nissan, Canon, Honda, Komatsu, Matsushita.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “continuous improvement.” The word "KAI" is translated as change, and the word "ZEN" is translated as "for the better." Kaiden is a popular management system and philosophy that helped enterprises in post-war Japan take leading positions in world markets in many technological areas.

The Kaizen philosophy is closely related to Japanese traditions and approach to work. For example, in Japan it is not customary to change jobs frequently. You've probably heard that the Japanese can work for the same company all their lives. Their approach to work can be called more profound. In the country rising sun It is considered honorable to become a master of your craft and bring your skills to perfection. Even if you work in a non-prestigious job, you must become a professional in your field. In addition, it is not customary there to whine and complain about fate. The Japanese mentality is significantly different from us.

Kaizen technology is aimed at continuous improvement business processes in business. In addition, kaizen is used not only at work, but also to restore order in life.

5 main principles of kaidzen

The essence of the kaizen method comes down to five elements:

1. Accuracy and selectivity;
2. Order;
3. Purity;
4. Standardization;
5. Discipline.

The idea of ​​kaizen is widely known among managers. And, apparently, it was thanks to the ideas of kaijzen that many Japanese companies such as Toyota were able to achieve enormous success in the post-war era. In Russian you can find several books about kaizen. In particular:

• Kaizen: the key to success of Japanese companies (Masaaki Imai)
• Gemba Kaizen: the path to reducing costs and improving quality (Masaaki Imai)

I also saw books on sale about the Toyota way, as well as about lean manufacturing. Surely Kaidzen was mentioned there.

Kaizen system and philosophy

List of changes. According to kaizen, you must first determine what needs to be done to improve your performance. A list is compiled of what can reduce financial, time and other costs. To the point that tools in the workplace must be arranged in a certain order. Just in such a way that it helps you work quickly. Changes can be made not only to the jobs and business processes themselves, but also to your habits. For example, if you are used to checking 20 times a day email, then in this way it is unlikely to achieve high . You can, for example, set a rule for yourself - check your email 2 or 3 times a day at a certain time. Some tasks are worth getting rid of altogether. Big changes can start with small things. We talked about this just yesterday in an article about.

Setting priorities and order. It would seem that rearranging the positions of the terms does not change the sum. But in reality, the order of work matters. For example, people are much more refreshed and able to work in the first hours after they wake up. Based on this, you should set yourself the most difficult tasks in the first working hours. And you can completely abandon other tasks. In addition, it is worth thinking about optimizing tasks. What to do first and what to do second. For example, you went on business to the other side of the city. It would be wise to schedule several work tasks there at once, so as not to go back and forth 10 times. After all, this is a waste of time, effort and money on gasoline. In order to organize your affairs, it is recommended to use the timekeeping technique. When you write down what you do and when you do it, it may turn out that the bulk of your time is spent on secondary tasks, and priority tasks take up relatively little time.

Putting things in order, “polishing”. In Kaizen methodology Special attention is also paid to order. For example, after finishing work, they advise you to spend some time and put things in order in your workplace. Order will give you a boost of energy for the next working day, because... when you arrive at your workplace you will already be thinking about important matters, and not about the fact that some incomprehensible chaos of papers was established on the table.

Implementation of working standards. When the optimal balance in work is found, this should become the company standard. High standards allow achieving outstanding quality, and hence all the successes of Japanese companies. Japanese quality is usually put on par with the products of German companies. When they say that a product is made in Japan, it means impeccable quality.

Discipline is necessary in order to adhere to the practice of constant improvements in work processes and not to return to the previous chaotic management methods customary in Russia, when within the same company there is “some in the forest, some out for firewood.”

Kaizen methods in life

Although kaizen is usually viewed as a system for improving individual business processes within a company, this philosophy can also be applied in everyday life. Each of us has areas of our lives that require improvement and our attention. And here we can use the same practices, but in relation to our personal tasks.

In Russia, it is customary to bring things to a critical state, and then, through heroic efforts, make a revolution in the industry. There are even books that analyze the Russian management model. So, kaizen is different in that it involves many small but constant improvements. The point is that your business will improve through gradual evolution, and not through revolutionary upheavals.

In order for kaizen ideas to work, it must be supported by all employees of the company, from top management to line executives. Kaizen focuses the company on maximizing the quality of work. At the same time, special attention is paid to improving the business processes themselves, developing personnel at all levels and implementing improvements every day.

Kaizen goals in business

Kaizen is characterized by the following points, which are also called the “Kaizen Umbrella”:

• focus on the end user;
• end-to-end quality control (total quality control, TQC);
• introduction of robotics, automation;
• quality circles;
• proposal system;
• end-to-end equipment maintenance (maintenance, TPM);
• Kanban - Japanese just-in-time production technology;
• quality growth;
• zero defects;
• focus on work in small groups;
• implementation of kaizen;

In essence, kaizen applies to almost all aspects of a company's operations. Therefore, this methodology is readily used not only in production, but also for development software. Kaizen focuses on improvement as a process. You need to constantly improve all aspects of your business in order to be one step ahead of your competitors.

Improvement cycle PDCA, SDCA

Each iteration assumes the following sequence:

• Plan (plan) / Standard (standardize);
• Do (execute);
• Check (check);
• Act (improve);

Instead of planning, standardization (SDCA) is sometimes implied. But in essence, standardization and planning are related concepts. Planning is needed to improve a business process, and standardization is needed to maintain it.

This cycle has something in common with the classical management scheme: planning, motivation, organization and control in the classical school of management.

Kaizen people management

It is common in Japanese culture special treatment to subordinates. So, a person cannot be punished or given orders. At the same time, they are encouraged and supported, and their opinions are taken into account. That is, here we see positive motivation. In fact, it is this approach to management that is more effective, because increases the employee's interest in work, his involvement and interest in the business. At the same time, independence is encouraged.

In kaizen ideas, mistakes are not prohibited, because... Employees learn from mistakes. A proactive approach is encouraged. In this case, it is assumed that the employee has intelligence and must use it in his daily work. At the same time, it is better to start doing something than to be afraid of making a mistake and not doing anything.

Important ideas of Kaizen:

• the client must be satisfied;
• constant changes in all areas of the company’s work;
• recognition of problems at all;
• openness policy within the company;
• small working groups-teams are created;
• rotation of personnel to different departments of the company to broaden their horizons;
• focus on high employee involvement in the work process;
• employees should share their experience with colleagues;
• the development of self-discipline on the ground is encouraged;
• self-development and responsibility for one’s work;
• informing people about the affairs of the company;
• delegation of authority is widely used;
• management includes begins with planning and ends with control;
• analysis of business processes based on evidence;
• solving problems by eliminating the root cause rather than dealing with the consequences;
• quality should be controlled not at the stage of delivery of work, but during the business process itself;
• application of standardization methods.

What is zero loss

Everything that happens within the organization is conditionally divided into those actions that bring value and those that do not. They add value and don't. For example, an employee smoking at work clearly does not add any value to work, but rather may even interfere. These types of costs or losses must be excluded.

In kaiden there is a list of such costs or losses (they are also called muda - which sounds like a Russian swear word):

• overproduction and warehouse overflow;
• idleness, waiting;
• transportation losses;
• losses from useless actions;
• losses from defective products;
• and others.

What is Gemba in Kaizen?

In kaizen, it is customary for the top manager to have a good idea of ​​what is happening at the most low levels his business. For example, the head of a bank should imagine how employees of his Call Center or cashiers work in a bank branch. And the plant director must know and see what is happening in his workshops. Advanced work is also called “Gemba”.

The point is that the head of the company should be maximally involved in the work and then he will be able to make effective management decisions. The manager must thoughtfully listen to complaints and study the causes of all problems.

The classical management system is in some ways similar to kaizen, but there are also some differences.

Business in Russia

At the same time, Kaizen differs significantly from the classical Soviet management system, when Soviet Russia it was customary to achieve goals at any cost, regardless of losses, to launch sometimes irrational projects like turning a river in the opposite direction or confronting the United States, and at the same time all of Western Europe combined. Kaizen is a completely different philosophy, where even small things are considered important. Kaizen philosophers say that small defects will eventually lead to big problems.

However, many large Russian companies now understand that to be competitive they need to improve their efficiency. Indeed, many companies began to introduce certain elements of the Kaizen philosophy. For example, I see KamAZ, which has long been interested in the ideas of lean manufacturing. Many other large companies in Russia gradually began to use Kaizen developments. By the way, other Western countries also willingly apply Japanese ideas of continuous growth in quality. For example, Siemens company willingly implements these ideas in his work. In particular, it is accepted there:

• solve problems as a team;
• fix all the mistakes at once;
• look for the root causes of the problem;
• find the most cost-effective solutions;
• make decisions quickly;
• question familiar things;
• think about tasks that can actually be done and do them;

Kaizen ideas have good potential for implementation in Russia. If we superimpose our breadth of views and the scale of the tasks that we set for ourselves and superimpose this breadth of Russian character on ideas modern management(including Kaizen philosophy and Western achievements in management), then we can get a leading global economy.

Japanese companies are very different from European ones in that they tend to offer a large number of innovation proposals. And these proposals come not “from the top”, but “from the bottom”.

Kaizen assumes that any organization always has problems. And problems in this sense are good, since they provide an incentive for further development. Kaizen is not only a concept that pursues economic goals, but there are also social tasks here, such as smoothing the management hierarchy within the company, maximizing staff involvement in work, maximizing satisfied consumers, and so on.

Kaizen is not only about business and money, kaizen is about the essence of work, skill and perfection.

“From Monday I will start a new life, I will go to the gym, do yoga, do self-massage, pump up my abs...” - each of us periodically sets some goals for ourselves and does not achieve them, postpones them to the next month, for several months, for a year . Isn’t it because this happens because we want a lot at once and plans fall on us like a heavy burden, preventing us from doing even the smallest thing in the end.

Sometimes we zealously begin to carry out our plans, but after working out, for example, 3 times a week in the gym for several hours, we give up classes for a while. for a long time. Why is this happening? Because the load is heavy, because it gets boring, and the habit has not yet been developed.

Kaizen technique or the one minute principle

Exists Japanese technique“Kaizen”, which is based on the “one minute” principle. The principle of this technique is that a person is engaged in a certain task for exactly one minute, but day after day and at the same time. One minute of time is very little, which means it is easily doable for anyone. Laziness will not get in your way. The same actions that you didn’t want to do for half an hour, coming up with excuses or justifications, you can easily do in a minute.

Jump rope, exercise your abs, do eye exercises, do yoga, read a book in a foreign language - when time is limited to one minute, the activities do not seem difficult to do, but on the contrary, bring joy and satisfaction. And by taking small steps, you improve and achieve great results.

It is important that you overcome self-doubt, free yourself from feelings of guilt and helplessness, and feel success and victory. Inspired by the feeling of success, you gradually increase your one-minute sessions to five minutes, and so on. Then quietly approach half-hour classes. Progress is obvious!

Kaizen originated in Japan. The word itself is a compound word, and includes two others - “kai” (change) and “zen” (wisdom). The author of this management concept is. He believes that this is a real one, which can be equally successfully applied in business and in personal life.

People of Western culture Japanese technique may seem ineffective, since in the West there is an established opinion that good results cannot be achieved without great effort. But large-scale programs that take a lot of effort can break a person and remain ineffective. A kaizen principle Suitable for everyone and can be applied to many areas of life. , for example, use a strategy of gradual and continuous improvement in management.

All that remains is to decide on your needs and start applying the Kaizen technique in practice.

Material from Wikipedia:

Kaizen, kaizen (Japanese 改善 kaizen, romaji Kaizen; the incorrect version “kaizen” is also found)- or a practice that focuses on continuous improvement of production processes, development, supporting business processes and management, as well as all aspects of life.

Kaizen in business- continuous improvement, starting with production and ending with top management, from the director to the ordinary worker. By improving standardized activities and processes, the goal of kaizen is production without waste.

Kaizen principles

1. Focus on customers - for a company using , the most important thing is that their products (services) satisfy customer needs.
2. Continuous changes - a principle that characterizes the very essence of kaizen, that is, continuous small changes in all areas of the organization - supply, production, sales, personal relationships, and so on.
3. Open recognition of problems - all problems are openly brought up for discussion. (Where there are no problems, improvement is impossible.)
4. Promoting openness - low degree of isolation (especially in comparison with Western companies) between departments and workplaces.
5. Creation of work teams - each employee becomes a member of the work team and the corresponding quality circle (an employee new to the organization is also a member of the “first-year” club).
6. Managing projects with cross-functional teams - no team will work effectively if it operates in only one functional group. The rotation inherent in Japanese management is closely related to this principle.
7. Formation of “supportive relationships” - not only and not so much financial results are important for the organization, but the involvement of employees in its activities and good relationships between employees, since this will inevitably (albeit not in this reporting period) lead the organization to high results.
8. Horizontal development. ( Personal experience should become the property of the entire company.)
9. Development of self-discipline - the ability to control oneself and respect both oneself and other employees and the organization as a whole.
10. Self-improvement. (Train yourself to identify issues for which you are personally responsible, as opposed to those for which others are responsible, and start by solving your own problems.)
11. Informing every employee - all personnel must be fully informed about their company.
12. Delegation of powers to each employee - transfer of a certain amount of powers to each employee. This becomes possible thanks to training in many specialties, possession of broad skills and abilities, etc.
13. To manage means to start with planning and compare the plan with the result.
14. Analysis of what is happening at the enterprise and action based on facts. (Draw conclusions based on reliable data.)
15. Eliminate the root cause and prevent relapses. (Do not confuse the cause of the problem with its manifestations.)
16. Build quality into the process as early as possible. (Quality must be built into the process. Inspection does not create quality.)
17. Standardization. (We need methods to consolidate the success achieved.)

Kaizen in software development

Late 2000s kaizen began to gain popularity in the software development industry. In particular, one of the creators of the Scrum methodology, Jeff Sutherland, views kaizen as a process of eliminating impediments, by a team (and not just one Scrum Master). At the retrospective meeting, the most serious obstacle is identified, and the task to eliminate it is included in the next sprint backlog along with other user stories, that is, along with cost estimates and acceptance tests.

Kaizen in psychology

In addition to application in the business sphere, according to psychologists, the application of kaizen principles contributes to the development and achievement of success in both professional and personal life. Any change frightens people; radical or revolutionary ways of achieving set goals are often unsuccessful because they increase this fear. However, small steps of kaizen soften negative reaction brain, stimulating both rational and creative thinking.