Kaizen: Building Continuous Improvement Into Any Organization

Concentrated kaizen events can have a long-lasting impact, building a culture of continuous improvement.

by Rebecca Mears & Crystal Young, BAS Senior Consultants

Everything has room for improvement and refinement

In a post-COVID era, when people and companies must adjust the ways in which they work, kaizen is a key methodology every organization can implement to improve quality, reduce cost, and adapt to the “new normal.”

Kaizen is a Japanese word that directly translates to “good change.” Kaizen means to make things better by studying the problem, identifying areas of improvement, and making incremental changes to enhance business performance.

Kaizen events

Kaizen events are group approaches to solving problems and improving processes. The events include everyone who contributes to a process or problem. Anyone from CEOs to junior employees can be involved in a kaizen event. Kaizen is grounded in the principle that all things have room for refinement and improvement. Implementing kaizen can be a significant competitive advantage in cost savings, value creation, and building a culture of continuous improvement.

Organizations leverage kaizen to identify opportunities and improve. The best companies in the world are aware that continuous improvement is critical for sustainability and growth. They make a concentrated effort to embed the kaizen philosophy into their culture, understanding that kaizen can be applied to any process in any domain. Kaizen is used in all business activities that may include, but are not limited to:

• Production
• Services
• Administration
• Safety
• Transportation
• New product development
• Technology enablement

Examples of event objectives include:

• Reduce lead times to customers, production times, waiting times, or bottlenecks
• Improve quality, reduce errors
• Increase value and process capability
• Improve safety
• Reduce inventories (including data)

Guiding principles of kaizen

There are five guiding principles that keep kaizen events on track and ensure that organizations are getting the most value from the event, as well as long-term improvement in performance of a given process.

1. There is a heavy reliance on teamwork and removing silos. Everyone on the team values and respects each other’s input and contributions, and all ideas are heard and considered.
2. The team has a collective commitment to work together to improve the process. If one person on the team is not invested in improving and sustaining that change, the kaizen may not be successful.
3. The team has autonomy to not only make recommendations for improvement but implement their changes.
4. In kaizen, there is always room for improvement. As a new process is sustained, another kaizen event occurs, repeating the plan-do-check-act cycle.
5. Building a continuous improvement mindset is a key outcome of any event. Teams should meet on a regular basis to continue to evaluate and improve.

Using value stream maps to create a kaizen roadmap

Value stream maps provide a framework to highlight waste. Waste offers an opportunity for improvement and is the essential component in a kaizen roadmap. Once a current-state map is structured, teams evaluate each step in their process to identify where they can improve the flow while considering the goals they are looking to achieve.

In the scenario of the development team using kaizen to improve their cycle time, the team may look for waste related to waiting and identify solutions or recommendations on how to eliminate “waiting” from their process. A kaizen burst is applied in all steps where the team and the data identify waste. After kaizen bursts are applied to the value stream map, each burst represents an item on the roadmap to be considered and prioritized.

Kaizen process steps

At a high level, a kaizen event includes the following steps:

1. Document the problem. The first step when using the value stream method in a kaizen event is to document the problem that needs to be solved. This is usually included in the kaizen charter and identified by leadership or stakeholders responsible for the output of the process.
2. Define scope, set goals. With the problem statement identified, the next step is to define the scope, identifying the team (anyone who contributes toward the process) and aligning on the goals of the kaizen event. It is critical that kaizen teams understand they are not tasked with “boiling the ocean.” However, they are asked to identify key areas in the process that will add value, improve flow, or reduce cost.
3. Gather data. Interviews and gemba walks are the recommended approaches for gathering data. A gemba walk represents the real time or actual place where the process happens. For example, if the team’s goal is to improve development cycle time, it is critical that the engineers, testers, and anyone else involved are interviewed and that the processing time for the steps they execute are captured in real time and documented as an input to the value stream map.
4. Develop current state value stream map. With a defined scope, clear goals, and a dedicated cross-functional team, the data-gathering findings are then integrated into a current-state value stream map where the flow of the process is mapped, measured, and presented in simplified step-by-step language that both business and technical teams can understand.
5. Standardize. After assessing the current state, the team determines and captures key steps and metrics that can be improved in a future state value stream map. Metrics are agreed upon and performance indicators are measured. The team develops and implements standard work practices that are repeatable and reproducible.

6. Rinse and repeat.

Steps in the kaizen event process

Kaizen timeline

Kaizen events should be used for process improvement efforts that can be accomplished with a cross-functional team in one to five days’ time, generally targeting a full five days.

Below we outline the major steps to consider from prep to the five-day event through event follow-up.

Kaizen prep: Work with key stakeholders and process owners to understand the problem to be solved, select the right team members for the event, and prepare materials.

Days 1–2: Provide kaizen training to lay the foundation for the work to be done and the tools that will be used. Outline guiding principles for how the team will work together, refine the problem statement, conduct current state mapping, and capture key metrics.

Days 3–4: Conduct future-state mapping, ideate on solutions, and implement those solutions.

Day 5: Document the new state, capture and share out the new process and lessons learned and — celebrate!

Follow-up: Set up a follow-up session to capture what is working and what still needs to be improved as well as capture any new state metrics to best understand the impact of the changes.

While the process and steps on how to conduct kaizen events is important, the key is an empowered, engaged team that embraces continuous improvement not only for the process at hand but for the mindset to view all processes with a lens of improvement.

If you’re interested in learning more or would like to explore opportunities in more detail, please contact us. Reach out to Slalom Orange County Business Advisory Services at slalomocbas@slalom.com or visit www.slalom.com.

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