How to be Awesome with KAIZEN?
Lean manufacturing consists of several philosophies, methods and principles, and it is usually applied by companies to increase their profitability and productivity, also diminished waste of time, money, usage of resources.
Kaizen is one of the most popular and strong method of lean manufacturing. It is a Japanese word due to its origin. Its history begins with the end of the World War II, when Toyota implemented quality circles to their production process. American business and quality management experts visited Toyota in Japan, and they were impressed by their implementation of lean manufacturing philosophy. As you know Toyota still one of the most powerful company in the world.
I am not planning to get you bored with some detailed information about lean philosophy and its gorgeous methods. Today I want to tell how we can make our lives meaningful, if we implement Kaizen to our daily lives. First of all, I would like to explain the meaning of Kaizen. As I mentioned before Kaizen is a Japanese word and it means continuous improvement. YES! Kaizen provides you continuously improvable life.
There are several rules that you should obey then Kaizen will help you even better than some fridays!! Please don’t forget, the rules below may use for companies in today’s world but for me companies are also can be considered as a human being. Of course, they have limited chance to do mistakes and they should be more organized, and in some cases they should work without any break. However, they are still managed by humans. Okay, let me introduce you to our lovely Kaizen Rules. Don’t worry, this time you will enjoy obeying rules!
- “Keep a positive attitude”.
It’s not saying look to the world from pink glasses but please try to think always positive things and call them in your life! When you fail never give up, you may cry or get angry it is a useful way of clean your mind, but learn from your failures. Always display good behaviours..
2. “Be open-minded”.
It’s a very clear rule. Learn from old, but abolish old. As Barney Stinson said:
Barney Stinson is following Kaizen and that is why he is AWESOME!!!!
3. “Get involved in teamwork and challenges”.
Forget about teamwork that you do in your job. Firstly, get involved in teamwork with yourself! Love yourself and try to get on well. Understand yourself and know your capacity. Use your capacity efficiently and force it if you need! Love challenges, don’t be afraid of being unsuccessful you will do it eventually and you won’t believe how it will satisfy you when you succeed.
4. “No excuses — look for solutions”.( my fav rule)
Woow, I hate excuses… Consider them as big obstacles in your way which is going to achievements. Get rid of them!!! Obey Kaizen rule and look for solutions. Problems can be “solved” with “solutions”. Hey! Listen T.J. Detweiler.
5. “Ask the five whys rule”.
Well, if you are getting interested in “Kaizen” please have a look that book’s Section 8.4.1 (Taghizadegan, S. (2010). Essentials of lean six sigma. Elsevier.)
However, we can still adapt it to our daily lives. Ask “Why?” question five time before you make decision. Asking “Why?” is essential to find out roots of causes.
Lastly but not least, please, please investigate all the time, try to learn and ask “Why?” . Don’t be shy while you are asking, we are here to discover the world and reveal hidden secrets! Some people may find asking “Why?” annoying, but try to don’t listen them, because how can they know the best? Also, please don’t forget our world is developing thanks to the inquisitive researchers. Don’t let that people to murder “inquisitive researcher” in you.
Hey, now can you understand the reason why Barney Stinson is AWESOME!
6. “Apply ideas immediately with available resources and do not wait for perfection”.
Yeah, one more clear rule. Don’t wait, don’t wait, don’t wait, don’t wait, don’t wait, don’t wa…. Don’t delay your things to do, you may be not able to do tomorrow. Especially youngsters, young adults please pay attention here.. You have resources such as power, enthusiasm, time…. Use them efficiently for good things. Trust your ideas and apply it, you don’t need perfection at first. It is a process, process of continuously improvment. You can make them perfect while improving.
7. “Treat and implement all the team members’ opinions equally. Ignore member rank”.
I accept this rule seems for companies, but don’t worry we will adopt it for our daily lives again!!! Okay, consider us as a company and our emotions are team members. Then, ignore emotion rank. Don’t suppress your emotions feel them deeply, listen their needs and implement them equally.
Moreover, listen and evaluate useful and meaningful ideas around you. Consult people that you trust and always try to catch good vibes from them. Don’t stuck to one opinion, you may know better but still ask several people in order to find the best.
8. “Apply 5S improvements rules”.
5S is an other amazing methods of lean manufacturing. I may tell it after, if you interested. However, for starter I just want to explain what is 5S. Here we go…
- Sort
- Set in order
- Shine
- Standardize
- Sustain
these five cute things are vital for be productive. For now, I don’t want to scratch your head.
9. “Apply just-in-time (JIT) concepts”.
I must accept that JIT is really hard to implement, and may be impossible. However, even trying to implement it brings you awesomeness. It will take time to explain JIT due to its importance. I will explain it later too. However, to sum up it says you to do every assignments on time without wasting resource. Challenging huh? We love challenges!!!
Thank you for reading until here, please share your experiences with me. I would like to discuss your opinions, and please comment me if you are interested in 5S, and JIT.
resource: (Taghizadegan, S. (2010). Essentials of lean six sigma. Elsevier.)
