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This article is a guest post from Noeradji Prabowo, a continuous improvement practitioner in Indonesia. In this article, he shares a simple and effective application of Kaizen and the Kaizen frame of mind to a common activity in business meetings: drinking coffee.

Learn more about Noeradji Prabowo after the article.

Beginning in November 2011, we held training at a motorcycle tire manufacturer; in the class room we’ve encountered an interesting idea of kaizen. For participants, we provided drinks: tea or coffee are provided in a stroller or a drink cart. The result is often dirty floor because water, tea, or coffee spills from the cart onto the floor.

To cope with spills on the floor, we decided to add place holders in the stroller or cart, thereby eliminating the non-value added work of mopping spilled water, tea, or coffee spills on the floor.

About Noeradji Prabowo

Noeradji Prabowo is a Senior Consultant at PQM Consultants – a Consulting Firm that specializes in helping clients in consulting and training to build continuous improvement culture by making “productivity and quality improvement through people” works.

He is a Consultant who specializes in area of Productivity and Quality Improvement. He has served as consultant for shop floor management teams from various industries, services and manufacture, national and multinational companies, by providing consulting and/or training to make improvement happen in their workplaces through strong genba-oriented processes.

Some of his experiences are helping client’s organizations in building “Sustainable Excellence” by creating visual and error-free workplace; Creating Disciplined People and Bright Factory through 5S implementation; creating reliable equipment by eliminating its losses through Total Productive Maintenance implementation; building quality culture through Total Quality Management; people development through Management Development Program, and creating a flow production process, pulled processes and reduce excessive inventory by implementing Operation Excellence program.

He began his career as a Field Coordinator at Schlumberger(oilfield and information Services Company). He then joined PT Cold Rolling Mill Indonesia (steel manufacturer) as counterpart of HAY Management, to set up Compensation System.

He obtained his degree in Physics (Padjadjaran University) and post graduate diploma in Production Management (Institute for Management Education and Development/IPPM).

Training he has attended among others: Program for Quality Management, Statistical Process Control, Shopfloor Management, On the Job Training Instructor, Total Productive Maintenance and ISO 9000, Understanding the ISO 14001 Specification, Implementing EMS, Strategic Thinking, Toyota Way. He has also attended Quality Management Training in Singapore, Osaka, Japan and Detroit, USA.

Kaizen in Everyday Life is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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In early  2007, a friend I met from a conference on which he and I both spoke, shared an interesting project with me. He gave me permission to share this project, but without any names involved.

At this person’s family practice, the clinical team had been dealing with unorganized medical records, leading to an unusually high search time for the patient’s medical record.

I know what you’re thinking: why not just buy an Electronic Medical Records System? That’s a topic for another conversation. But here’s the gist: it is wise to create a well-formed and efficient manual process first; then, it makes sense to automate it. Companies get into trouble when they force their processes to match their systems, when process should come first, then design the system to support process.

That’s what this team did. They decided to improve their current manual process and the results they obtained helped the patient and the clinic staff tremendously.

Before the Kaizen Event

The team did the following prior to the actual Kaizen event:

• Team gathered time study data on patient encounters
• Team documented back office medical records process to understand process steps, distances traveled and opportunities for improvement, including a value stream map and identifying value add and non value added steps.

Even though the goal of this clinic was to transition to an electronic medical records system, documenting and improving the current process was really the first step they needed to do.

Here was one astounding result from the Pre Kaizen work the team did:

• The staff spend at an average of 8.5 hours of time searching across 39 potential locations for missing charts that were not in the file room.

The Kaizen Event

After some preliminary 3 hour training of the clinical staff, the clinic staff immediately went to work with 5S of the file room, front desk area, physician and also the resident mailboxes. This was done to create a condition of visual management so the staff could more easily identify a problem and create a point-of-use environment so that things are located where they are used. According to my source, this clinic had apparently accumulated years of stuff just sitting in the clinic.

Then, the team split into several sub-teams to brainstorm ideas with the goal of:

• decreasing the number of chart locations and creating a process for staff to easily identify chart locations without generating additional work.

For this team, they generated some great ideas that ultimately led to the following practical countermeasures:

• The team created colored out guides to track charts that were being pulled for
• physician messages or refills
• triage nurses
• irregular labs
• etc.

And, of course, the goal is to decrease the time spent searching for files and enable a tracking process for charts pulled for reasons other than for standard appointments.

A process change immediately was implemented and the results of the after Kaizen time study were the following:

• time spent looking for a chart decreased on average from six minutes to two minutes.

But the team didn’t stop there. They also moved the nurses’ triage station from the library office down the hall from the front desk area to a more convenient location right next to the file room. This simple change decreased non-value-added activities due to travel time by 0.2 miles per day for refill calls (over 100 refills per day) and created a line of sight between the staff and triage nurse, improving communication for response to patient calls. Ultimately, the library was also relocated to the other end of the practice to move it closer to the preceptors and resident workspaces.

According to my source, the biggest impact wasn’t necessarily the quantifiable measures that were apparent in the before-kaizen and after-kaizen, but the culture change that happened to each of the participants was the biggest positive and long-lasting change. This last benefit is often the most long-term benefit – because the change happened internally in the participants, they can apply what they had learned to other clinical processes in the future.

Medical Records Storage: A Kaizen is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Lean Thinking advocates the participation of many in continuous improvement, over the long term. Indeed, we improve by Kaizen. This approach is sometimes described as “a thousand small rocks” as opposed to organizations that only focus on a “few big rocks”.

Similarly, most organizations don’t begin their descent into mediocrity through large, swooping, events. Rather, organizations begin their journey toward failure through many, many small decisions made over a long period of time.

This is sometimes called “death by a thousand cuts”.

For example,

• a little cheating here and a little cheating there will eventually lead to wholesale corruption
• spending money here and spending money there will eventually lead to fiscal pacifism and irresponsibility
• a little backbiting remark here and a little criticism there will eventually lead to full-out rebellion and corporate sabotage

Am I exaggerating?

I don’t believe so: just as most heavy drug users started out with “gateway” drugs, how we treat the small things will later dictate how we treat the big things.

Yes, the cliche “a small hole can sink a big ship” speaks true to our common sense though we might not want to admit it.

A Culture is Built Daily

Similarly, a culture is not created by any single event – true, a culture might be influenced by, but usually not created by a singular event. Indeed, over time, those many and seemingly insignificant choices made by those in the organization is what later sets it apart from others – it’s culture.

Super Sweaty and The Small Stuff

Yes, sweat the small stuff. For those little things can either

• make or break a company
• make or break a company culture
• stretch the company toward excellence or sink it into mediocrity

It’s Your Turn

How are you going to treat the small things today?

Death By a Thousand Cuts is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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John Wooden shares with us the spirit and approach of Kaizen – Kaizen Training. This way of doing things requires small improvements everyday and that type of training leads to lasting and sustained improvement. But don’t let me tell, John Wooden words can do that:

When you improve a little bit each day, eventually big things occur. Don’t look for big, quick improvement. Instead, seek small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens – and when it happens, it lasts.

- John Wooden

hat tip: @matthewemay

Kaizen Training is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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In general, Kaizen is manifested in an organization via the following characteristics:

• Total company involvement
• Small improvements, but many of them, steady, over a long period of time
• Improvements are measured, in careful experimentation using PDCA

Given the above characteristics of Kaizen, one could easily apply it to ones personal life and not just business.

Enter Kaizen Swimming.

Kaizen swimming is a group based on the principles of Kaizen and applied to the sport of swimming. Here’s how they describe themselves:

Welcome to the web site of KAIZEN SWIMMING, one of the finest USA Swimming teams in the southwest United States. We took our name from the Kaizen Method which is Japanese quality control concept for continuous improvement. Kaizen is also a way-of-life philosophy. Key elements of the Kaizen philosophy are quality, effort, involvement of everyone in the group (home, team, company, society), willingness to change and communication. Kaizen means literally: change (kai) to become good (zen).

The mission of KAIZEN SWIMMING is:

To provide the youth of the Tri-State area with the opportunity to pursue the sport of competitive swimming to the full extent of their ability and desire. We are committed to providing our athletes, no matter how talented or motivated, with the tools necessary to reach their maximum potential. Our swimmers learn how to set goals and then are coached according to those goals. We do not set out to produce champions but rather an environment where champions are inevitable. Key elements of our team culture include:

• Patience. No one is expected to be perfect but everyone is expected to get better (including the coaches).
• A positive environment. No one is allowed to be needlessly negative or mean and everyone is treated with respect.
• Excellence. Anything worth doing is worth doing right and every member of the team will be challenged to always do their best.
• Long-term success. The staff of KAIZEN SWIMMING will never risk the long-term development of the swimmer for short-term success.

At KAIZEN SWIMMING the goal is constant improvement, whether you’re an 8 year old beginner, an 18 year old champion or a 60 year old master. Improvement as a swimmer, but more importantly, as a person.

Yes, as a philosophy and way of life, Kaizen has many applications outside of business.

For your Mixed Martial Arts interest, visit MMA Gloves and how to get rid of stretchmarks, celtrixa.

Kaizen for Personal Improvement is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Kaizen, as a mindset, can be seen everywhere. Yes, even mixed martial arts.

Kenny Florian, an up-and-coming, lightweight shares how he’s risen up the ranks in the lightweight class:

I’m real blessed to be able to fight for the UFC and have them keep giving me top level guys. That’s what I’m in the sport for, to see how far I can take it and keep improving. Anything can happen out there but I just try to focus on what I can control and have fun and that’s what I did. I wanted to open (Gomi) up and keep him guessing. He was really low and I didn’t want to force anything out there, I just wanted it to flow and he got a little upright so I changed levels and took him down. I’ve been working a lot on my wrestling, especially the offensive side of it and it paid off. I still got a long way to go and a lot of things to work on but I know the plan’s working, I’m getting better every day. ‘Kaizen,’ little improvements every day.

He goes on to say that in his workouts, he tries to do “1 more” than the previous day – whether it is 1 more pushup, 1 more sit-up, or 1 more of whatever. He believes that improving little by little everyday – or the Kaizen mindset – is what has helped him improve.

Below is a video of Kenny Florian in the cage, with MMA Gloves and to be a champion UFC fighter, it’s important that you follow a good chemistry tutor.

Mixed Martial Arts and Kaizen is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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In May 2010, Jeff Bezos held a press conference where he fielded questions about environmental stewardship and what Amazon.com is doing about it. Here are a few key points and how Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com are using the principles of Lean thinking toward environmental stewardship.

Earth Kaizen

Bezos shared several examples within the Amazon.com fulfillment network where Lean Thinking is being applied toward environmental benefit and also cost savings:

Inside Amazon, we also do a number of things. Our new campus in South Lake Union here in Seattle is a LEED certified campus. We have three years ago or so, we started doing these things called Earth Kaizens in our fulfillment center network. So our fulfillment center network is kind our — kind of our biggest footprint and we’d always done — or for many years, anyway, we had done Kaizens. It’s a Japanese process.

It’s a very formal Japanese process invented by Toyota many years ago to look for opportunities for improvement, and our Kaizen process had been focused on cost savings. So we decided a few years ago that we would tinker with that process, keep it basically the same but add — it’s kind of a new — it’s a second process — we didn’t get rid of the Kaizen process we were using to look for cost savings but we supplemented it with Earth Kaizens. And their motivation is to look for things that would be better for the environment, things we could change in our processes that would create an improvement for the environment, and we found lots of things.

The — a simple one serves as a good example is that one of these Kaizen — Earth Kaizen teams came up with the idea of taking all the light bulbs out of all the ending machines in our multitude of fulfillment centers. So these vending machines are backlit — they kind of have advertisements and they have light bulbs in the vending machines to make the advertisements stand out, but inside the fulfillment centers we certainly didn’t need those.

And if I remember the figure right, kind of globally, that saves us $20,000 worth of electricity and of course — no, the cost savings on that is small enough that it might not have been found if it were motivated by a cost savings Kaizen, one of our traditional ones, but as an Earth Kaizen, those incremental things can add up. Now, of course, it’s also a good example because one of the things that you find with the Earth Kaizens is that it’s very hard to do something environmentally effective that doesn’t actually also save you money. Most of these things, they aren’t either/or choices, they — they’re better. Most of them end up saving fuel in some way or making something more efficient, reducing packaging waste.

He goes on to share specific examples from several of the Amazon.com fulfillment network:

Lexington, Kentucky
Amazonians in our Lexington, Kentucky, fulfillment center analyzed the type of work performed in the bulk-storage area of the facility and learned that although a large portion of this area was not used during the weekend, the power remained on. Additionally, the team took light-level readings and determined that the area had too many lights installed for the type of work that associates were doing. As a result, over 120 lights were permanently shut off, and an additional 34 lights are turned off during the weekend. Their efforts resulted in an annual reduction of over 450,000 kilowatt-hours of power usage for this one facility; that’s enough electricity to power 33 homes in Kentucky for an entire year.

Coffeyville, Kansas
At the Coffeyville, Kansas, fulfillment center, conveyor belts are used throughout the facility to route orders through the packing and shipping process. Previously, the conveyor belts operated continuously while the facility was open. An Earth Kaizen team determined that timers could be installed on the conveyor belts, so that they automatically shut down when they weren’t in use. As a result, the facility now uses 30% fewer kilowatt-hours of power usage to operate the conveyor belts.

Hebron/Campbellsville, Kentucky
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Previously, when Amazon transferred products from its larger automated fulfillment centers to its network of smaller distribution centers, it shipped the products in single stacks of pallets loaded into trucks. Because Amazon’s smaller distribution centers didn’t normally use forklifts, they couldn’t unload double-stacked shipments. After analysis by the Kaizen team, Amazon bought forklifts for the distribution centers allowing them to accept double-stacked pallets. Now each truck can carry twice as much cargo, resulting in an overall savings of 1.1 million miles traveled and more than 175,000 gallons of fuel.

Swansea, Wales
Amazon opened a new fulfillment center in Swansea, Wales in 2007. During the planning process, an Earth Kaizen team worked with the management team to determine the most efficient ways to light the facility. First, the team decided to increase the size of the skylights and windows throughout the building to improve natural lighting in the work areas. Second, the team had motion sensors installed throughout the facility so that lighting was used only when needed. As a result, the fulfillment center now uses 40% fewer kilowatt-hours of power each month than originally planned.

Milton Keynes, England
Gourock, Scotland
Swansea, Wales
Amazon receives new inventory every day from vendors across the world. Typically, this inventory is shipped in cardboard boxes, which is recycled once the products are shelved. In 2009, an Earth Kaizen team began working with vendors to deliver the products in reusable totes, rather than cardboard boxes, in order to eliminate waste and cost for both parties. As a result, one out of ten inventory shipments to our UK fulfillment centers is now shipped without excess packaging waste.

Bad Hersfeld, Germany
The Earth Kaizen team in our Bad Hersfeld, Germany, fulfillment center determined that the high-rack and pallet area of their facility was being lit long before the first associates arrived to work. Working with the local facilities technicians, the team developed a process to turn on the 2,400 fluorescent lights in the area only when associates were working. Their efforts resulted in an annual reduction of over 10,000 kilowatt-hours of power usage in the facility.

Orleans, France
Amazonians in our Orleans, France, fulfillment center previously disposed of all kinds of waste–from corrugate cardboard to plastics–in a single compactor. An Earth Kaizen team re-engineered the process to sort different kinds of waste into separate compactors, so that corrugates and plastics could be recycled. As a result, the facility now recovers more than 60% of its disposal costs by selling the corrugate and plastic to recycling vendors in France.

Glenrothes, Scotland
An Earth Kaizen team in our Glenrothes, Scotland, fulfillment center analyzed the heating and hot water supply systems in the facility and learned that the heating was activated at all times, even during the summer months when none was required. Additionally, they discovered that their systems were supplying hot water even when it wasn’t needed. The team updated the systems so that gas and electricity were used only when needed. As a result, the facility reduced their daily gas and electricity consumption by more than 90% per day–an annual reduction of thousands of cubic meters of gas and kilowatt-hours of power usage.

Ichikawa, Japan
A complex system of conveyor belts is used in fulfillment centers to move products from their shelves into the boxes that are then shipped to Amazon customers. An Earth Kaizen team in our Ichikawa, Japan, fulfillment center devised a simple but effective solution to reduce conveyor power usage by creating a visual guide that shows employees how to power down the conveyor belts when not in use, saving over 20,000 kilowatt-hours of power usage per year.

Guangzhou, China
Associates in the Guangzhou, China, fulfillment center receive products for Joyo Amazon customers from many vendors. Once the products were moved into the warehouse, the packaging materials were previously discarded. An Earth Kaizen team re-engineered the process for sorting packaging waste, so that cardboard boxes and packaging could be recycled. As a result, the facility now recycles more than 40,000 boxes and more than 8,000 kilograms of packing material per year.

Regarding Environmental Packaging, Jeff Bezos and the Amazon.com team are working with suppliers to determine environmentally friendly packaging.  Here’s what Bezos said:

If you take some of the categories like toys, many electronics products, they get packaged — they have historically been packaged for the retail environment. So, that means typically the packages have a lot of air in them. They have to have four color packaging, which is not the — not an optimal process from the environmental point of view.

They also turn out to be frustrating for consumers. So you buy — oftentimes in the physical store you get this clam shell packaging or this very hard, impenetrable nuclear-proof packaging that you try to get scissors and knives and –. At one point, I knew the statistic for how many emergency room visits there are per year of people trying to get stuff out of clam shell packaging. It’s like 6,000 emergency room visits a year; it’s not a trivial number. And — but it’s frustrating, even if you do it without injuring yourself.

And of course, the reason that packaging exists is to make it harder for people who would shoplift in physical stores which is not a problem that Amazon has. So, all that packaging is bad for the environment, it’s bad for consumers because it’s frustrating to open. And it’s bad for Amazon because we end up shipping a lot of air around which is very expensive. When you’re using — actually both for ground and air transportation, most vehicles are constrained by their cube — by their volume capacity rather than their weight capacity.

So when you send one of those UPS trucks on a optimized route, the more packages that — really, unfortunately, you’re shipping around a lot of air, and that’s not as efficient as it could be. And so we’re working — our frustration free packaging initiative is working directly with the manufacturers to get them to build a separately packaged product for us and other e-commerce companies that is environmentally beneficial and better for consumers because it’s easy to open.

The Role of Lean Thinking

The perspective of Lean Thinking provides a different look at waste – whether it be cost, material, motion, over-effort, etc., – but with specific application toward the environment and what we can do to reduce our overall impact. What is interesting with the Amazon.com story is that the CEO, Jeff Bezos, is the champion behind this effort, leading by example, how we all ought to be thinking.

Earth Kaizen is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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The true spirit of Kaizen isn’t just about improving the organization, but it is also in teaching, guiding, and in effectively stretching people beyond their current capabilities. Indeed, it is in developing people and in increasing their capability to contribute and add value.

Staying true to the spirit of Kaizen has a few implications on approach: Rather than be the hero in an organization, Kaizen actually requires us to teach others and coach them to be the hero. The role of a sensei, then, is to really decrease so the student can increase.

They must increase, I must decrease

That’s exactly what is happening where I’m currently employed. My goal is to eventually work myself out of a job. This means my goal is to create enough self-sufficiency in the organization such that they can systematically solve their own problems using the principles of Lean Thinking.

Right now, they need me as their Sensei; over time, as they gain more competency, then they won’t need me anymore.

But, the reality is this: most organizations, like most people, need a coach; a mentor; a teacher; a leader. But the Kaizen vision is free of pretense: create self-sufficiency in the organization so they eventually won’t need me anymore.

I’m okay with that.

My goals are aligned to theirs and I’m looking out for their best interest, not mine.

That’s the true spirit of Kaizen: continuous improvement and developing people.

Kaizen: They Must Increase, I Must Decrease is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Taiichi Ohno is credited with having said:

When there is no standard, there is no Kaizen

In other words, when a process is performed unsystematically in different ways, then:

1. There can be no basis for comparison (before/after)
2. One cannot objectively tell if there was a difference or change
3. No improvement is possible in regards to Time, Quality, Quantity, Cost, etc.

Pictorially, a standard is a wedge in this diagram:

The ball represents the process we’re trying to improve.  The uphill picture represents improvement.  So, at each improved process, that becomes the new standard.  When the process is improved, then the standard is updated.

Where there is no standard, there is no Kaizen.  This is true because variation, which invites defects and errors, continues to thrive in an environment where no standard is followed.

An important note: The concept of Positive Variance is an important but not discussed topic in Lean Manufacturing – but a well-rounded and good understanding of Standard Work requires understanding Positive Variance.

It’s Your Turn

Have you experienced an operation where no standard was followed?  Did that process produce defects?  How did you deal with helping others recognize the importance of standards (standard work in Lean) and then create and follow standard work?

No Standard, Then No Kaizen is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Systems that are internally consistent and externally pragmatic stem from just a few rules.  Systems with exceedingly many rules typically fail or will not endure.  For example,

• Most mathematical truths stem from just a few axioms
• Music stems from just a handful of finite notes
• Most Martial Arts stem from a few principles of angle, attack, force, etc.

This same approach is true for Kaizen.  In Kaizen, it is important to have fidelity to just a few atomic rules, from which a range of behavior will originate.  Below are the rules that I subscribe to:

1. Spend no Money
2. Add no People
3. Add no Space
4. Add no Steps (Touches)

These four atomic rules collectively form constraints, leading to some creative tension.  For example,

• We will be compelled to use creativity
• We will be compelled toward elegance
• We will be compelled to respect people
• We will be compelled to question the status quo
• We will be compelled to think “we can, if…” instead of “we can’t because…”
• We will be compelled to focus on processes, instead of finger-pointing at others
• We will be compelled to make many small improvements, instead of big, water-shed changes that take a lot of time and resources
• We will be compelled to seek the collective wisdom of many people, instead of a few, select heroes

In a tough economic climate in which we all find ourselves, a Kaizen worldview is needed more now than ever.

The Atomic Rules of Kaizen is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting