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Kaizen is a new management paradigm. About Kaizen. The key to the success of Japanese companies" Masaaki Imai

(Japanese 改善) is a Japanese philosophy/practice that focuses on continuous improvement processes of production, development, management, as well as all aspects of life.

The term "kaizen" became widely known thanks to the book of the same name by Masaaki Imai "Kaizen. The Key to the Success of Japanese Companies" (1986, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success), which has already gone through several editions in Russian:

I began to profess the philosophy of kaizen - continuous improvement - long before I got acquainted with the term itself, having read Imai's book. In principle, the attitude to life as a process of continuous improvement is characteristic of a large number of people. At the same time, the definition of kaizen allows one to systematize such an attitude to life, to identify new aspects, to compare one's philosophy and practice with Imai's approach.

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Is it necessary to use this term in Russian reality, or, perhaps, try to replace it with something more that meets our ears? Some authors believe that an incomprehensible Japanese term can scare off potential followers, but I believe that the use of the word "kaizen" allows you to preserve the roots, and facilitates the learning process using original (in the sense translated into English or Russian :)) materials.

Why is kaizen not widely used in Russia? In my opinion, the answer is contained in the words of V.A. Lapidus, said in the preface to Imai's book: “Kaizen is an excellent strategy for honest business and decent people who build success on the basis of partnership and trust. To the rest, please: do not worry about trifles. Unfortunately, in our country, the OTHER make up the majority ...

Why is kaizen able to defeat the dominant management paradigm? Because the world has changed, the external conditions for doing business have changed. Here is what Y.P. Imai writes about this in the preface to the book. Adler: “... it becomes clear that it is not profitable for a business to ... consider employees as an object of exploitation. He can look forward to something more if he makes employees ... his partners ... ". This approach correlates with the understanding that no one knows their work better than the performer. It is naive to think that the manager can "reach out" to all the nuances of the work if the performers do not cooperate with him. Recently, I came across another way of looking at the same problem: to increase efficiency (productivity), use the “ask” approach instead of the outdated (and less effective) “tell” approach. Involve employees in the improvement process, don't impose it.

In relation to the Japanese experience, they usually talk about "five great systems for creating relationships between a person and an organization" (Yu.P. Adler):

Lifetime employment system
Workplace learning system
Rotation system
Merit system
Reward system

Is there something in this list that cannot be implemented in domestic business? Perhaps "lifetime employment" will cause the most controversy. I think that the idea should not be taken to extremes. Well, not for life ... but if you build relationships with employees, as with people hired for a long time, then this will allow you to implement kaizen. And there, you see, and lifetime employment will not look strange. For example, my father worked all his working life (30 years) in one research institute! I agree that in Soviet times it was less surprising than it is now.

What other elements of the new paradigm raise questions when first introduced to kaizen? (Yu.P. Adler):

Employees cannot be punished. This is not a blessing at all. This is the latest attempt by management to save their business. Fear of punishment breeds lies, and lies make it impossible to make timely effective decisions, which makes the fate of the business doubtful.
Employees are not ordered. They are consulted, they are helped, explained, they are taught, decisions are made together with them. So you can ensure that employees work with an efficiency close to 100%! This means that they are involved, and there are no barriers for them. How do you understand modern methods controls allow you to work with the efficiency of a steam locomotive, and this is about 3-10% ...

Chapter 1. The concept of kaizen

The central idea of kaizen is that not a day should pass without improvement in the company. Kaizen is not a single technique, it is an umbrella under which most of the “unique to Japan” practices live:

The Japanese understanding of management boils down to the following: meet standards and improve them. The task of management within the framework of maintenance is to ensure that each employee of the company is able to follow the standard working procedure. If employees cannot follow the standard procedure, management must either educate them or revise and amend the standard so that it is possible to act in accordance with it. The higher the level of management, the more time it devotes to improvement:

The starting point for improvement is recognizing that there is a problem. Complacency and complacency are the sworn enemies of kaizen. That's why . By acknowledging that the complaint is related to a problem, you get a chance to improve the quality of the product/service. By brushing off the complaint, you lose this chance.

The most important element of kaizen is. Another important quality management tool is the Deming-Shewhart cycle:

The most important thing in this cycle is. Management without feedback– blindfolded riding… 🙁

Japanese management involves employees in kaizen through a system of proposals. Each introduced innovation leads to a revision of the standard. But since the new standard is set by the will of the worker, they are proud of it, and willingly comply with it. If a person is forced to follow the standard set by management, he will work with less enthusiasm.

Kaizen breeds process-oriented thinking, because in order to get better results, you must first improve the process. Evaluating the performance of employees, Japanese management pays special attention to the attitude of a person to work. A process-oriented manager (P-criteria) is interested in: discipline, time management, skill development, participation and involvement, morality, communication:

Chapter 2

Those who follow the kaizen strategy believe that standards are temporary in nature. Another feature of kaizen is the requirement of each and every individual effort. Management has to make a conscious and continuous effort to maintain the spirit of improvement. Kaizen is focused on people, while innovation is focused on technology and money. The most significant failure of Western management is the lack of a philosophy of improvement.

Performance is a metric, not a reality. However, in our search for the “secret” to performance, we act as if the key is how to measure performance. This is reminiscent of the behavior of a person who, having found that the room is too cold, looks at the thermometer in search of a reason ... Managers who are result-oriented behave similarly. They look at the final numbers and try to improve them! The only way is to improve production process. The reality is the efforts made to improve quality and productivity.

American managers at meetings advocate own ideas and only occasionally rely on the opinions of other people. At the core of kaizen is the belief in the human desire for quality and excellence.

Chapter 3 Kaizen and Total Quality Control

Total Quality Control (TQC) focuses on the quality of people. Drop by drop to change a person - this has always been the basic principle of TQC. First you need to teach employees to identify problems, and then master the methods of solving them. Next stage– standardization of results to prevent recurrence of problems. The goal of TQC can also be formulated as follows: to contribute to the realization of the potential of employees to achieve the company's goal, paying special attention to aspects such as policy deployment and voluntary action. TQC stands for a statistical and systematic approach to kaizen and problem solving. Its methodological basis is the statistical application of the concept of quality control, including the use and analysis of statistical data. TQC is a way of thinking that can be expressed as follows: "Let's improve processes!"

In the West, processes are improved by engineers with knowledge. In Japan, a lot of work is being done to bring such knowledge to everyone, including production workers, which increases their ability to solve current problems. Quality control starts with training!

Talk to data.

Quality first, not profit. The main elements to be managed are quality (products, works, services), quantity, deliveries (time), safety, costs, and employee morale.

Control the previous process. The next process is your consumer. Workers from a neighboring workshop are consumers of your products. TQC is consumer-oriented, not producer-oriented. Break barriers between divisions!

The relationship between SDCA cycles (standardize - do - control - act) and PDCA (plan - ...):

Maintenance allows you to stabilize the process (reduce variations), and kaizen - to improve.

Kaizen means that everyone, regardless of rank and position, must openly admit any mistakes.

Where there are no standards, there can be no improvement. Everyone's work should be regulated by standards, and it is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that everyone works in accordance with established standards. This is called discipline.

If management can't get people to follow rules and regulations, they can't do anything.

TQC slogans at PENTEL:

The one who performs the next technological operation is your consumer.
Where there are no problems, improvement is impossible.
Let's spin the PDCA wheel and change the way we approach the work we do.
Chronic problems can teach you more than those that come on suddenly.
Correction and fitting are problems that arise due to management oversight. The solution to these problems is no longer management, but manipulation.
Draw conclusions based on reliable data. Do not rely on intuition or inner voice.
It is more important to eliminate deviations than to raise averages.
Classification helps better understanding.
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.
Do not confuse the cause of the problem with its manifestations.
Quality must be built into the process. Verification does not create quality.
Don't forget about standardization. We need methods to consolidate our success.
Personal experience should become the property of the whole company.
Pleasant and meaningful work on the shop floor begins with an active QC circle, which promotes mutual learning and self-development.

Chapter 4 Practice Kaizen

In the West, if the employee who made the proposal cannot guarantee the economic effect of the implementation, the proposal is shelved. The implementation of a kaizen initiative begins if common sense dictates that the initiative will lead to process improvement.

Graham Spurling, Managing Director of Mitsubishi Motors Australia: “I firmly believe that the Japanese worker is no more diligent and dedicated than his Australian counterpart, but he is better directed and better managed. Management in Japanese factories works better, which the worker is used to and appreciates. The best leaders provide better motivation and better preparation, which improves productivity and product quality.”

Taiichi Ȯno (Toyota) classified costs as follows:

Overproduction
Loss of machine time
Losses associated with the transportation of products
Loss in processing
Inventory losses
Losses associated with unnecessary movements
Losses in the form of defective parts

Taiichi Nono proposed a pull system (instead of a push system) using a kanban (tag). Jidoka (autonomization) - equipment, the design of which involves the automatic stop of the mechanism in the event of a malfunction. Visualized management - cards / scoreboards / other devices that can be used to control the process.

Information is also corrupted. If it is collected, but not used properly, it deteriorates extremely quickly. The problem with many managers is that they consider information to be a source of power and try to control subordinates, disposing of it monopoly.

Management should focus its efforts on improving systems (this is the most important task of kaizen for management).

Abandoning the traditional quality control, which was primarily an inspection, the Japanese management took up the task of solving this problem during the production process and at the stage of product development. Now the concept of quality control is understood even more broadly, since it involves the inclusion of suppliers and subcontractors in its scope.

As businesses begin to be defined by increasingly complex parameters, managers find they don't always have the numbers and facts they need to plan, issue orders, and track results. Since the current production activities are carried out by workers who are much closer to these problems, it is often easier for them to make a decision than for a manager ... If the workers do not offer ideas, most likely this is not their problem, but the manager.

The work of quality control circles is only about 10% of TQC work. Workers are satisfied if they are given the opportunity to participate in the work of the QC circle and see how their proposals find practical use. Some people even say that now they are happy to go to work and delve deeper into it.

Engineers don't always know what's going on on the shop floor. Existing guidelines and procedures are often outdated or, from the point of view of workers, not user friendly. Even if the instruction manual is up to date, people who are forced to use it often criticize it. However, after the instructions are rewritten at the initiative of the workers and thus become their own, they are used with pleasure.

Individual kaizen. The starting point - positive attitude to change and improve the way they work. Management does not expect the effect of all proposals. If a manager wants his subordinates to become “thinkers”, striving for continuous improvement in working methods, he must be attentive and sensitive. The proposal system usually goes through three stages:

Submission of ideas, even the simplest ones
Emphasis on learning; in order to submit quality proposals, employees must be able to analyze problems in their environment, and this requires special training
Analysis economic effect submitted proposals

Kenjiro Yamada, Managing Director of the Japan Human Relations Association: “…offers help bridge the gap between a person's ability and the job at hand. Therefore, they indicate that the qualifications of the employee are higher than his job requires.

Chapter 5 Kaizen Management

From a TQC point of view, management has two aspects:

1) maintaining the current level of business performance, which ensures results and profits

2) kaizen management aimed at improving processes and systems.

Kaizen-oriented management and maintenance-oriented management:

Cross-functional management (quality, cost, delivery discipline) and policy deployment are the two most important management concepts that support the TQC strategy.

If the consumer does not receive the products he needs, in the right volume and in a timely manner, the system collapses. This is the meaning of the concept of "discipline of delivery", and the achievement of the goals associated with the discipline requires a huge cross-functional effort. Only after the supply tasks are solved, the company can switch to the factors that affect its competitiveness - quality and costs. Cross-functional goals should be defined before departmental goals are defined.

Toyota: any serious defects in the management system show up in quality; poor quality - the result of imperfect management - cannot be hidden.

Policy deployment (Japanese: hoshin kanri) is the process of implementing an accepted kaizen program at all levels of the company, from top to bottom. An important aspect of policy deployment is prioritization (Pareto). Policy deployment is the relaying of the program outlined by top management to the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. Conditions for policy deployments:

1) a clear understanding of the role of each manager in achieving the goals set for the company and in improving its activities (kaizen)

2) a clear idea (for managers different levels) about control points and control points established to achieve goals

3) the presence in the company of a stable system of current management aimed at maintaining the existing status quo

Control is carried out with the help of: when we find points outside the established limits, we must identify the factors that led to the abnormality. We go from the result to the cause and correct or eliminate the factors that led to the problem.

The control point is managed by data, and the control point is managed through its subordinates. Control point - P-criterion, control point - P-criterion:

Any goal must be accompanied by means to achieve it. All that a manager can do without them is to tell his subordinates: “I hope you do your best” or “You must work hard!” When the manager and his subordinates develop specific means to achieve the goal, he is able to give them clear instructions instead of calls.

By "goal" here we mean the point of control, and by "means" - points of control. The goal is result-oriented, and the means are process-oriented. Policy deployment is revolutionary because it involves the involvement of grassroots managers in setting goals and achieving them. The basis of this is the belief that working together contributes significantly to the desire to achieve the goal. The deployment of policy goes from goals (control points or criteria) to means (control points or P-criteria), starting with top management and ending with foremen and workers in the shops.

One of the problems of management is that employees are willing to put up with the low standards of their products. The benefit of structuring (deploying) the quality function is to improve communication between sales and marketing people and development and production people.

Chapter 6

In daily activities, the first impulse when faced with difficulties is the desire to hide or ignore, instead of openly acknowledging their existence. This is because “the very existence of a problem is a problem” and no one wants to be blamed for creating it. However, taking the point of view positive thinking, we can turn every issue that needs to be addressed into a valuable opportunity for improvement. Where there is a problem, there is also potential for improvement.

It must be firmly grasped that it is impossible to transfer an unsolved problem to the next stage. In TQC, the term varusa-kagen is very popular, denoting a state of affairs when there seems to be no problem yet, but it can no longer be said that everything is going well. Managers should encourage workers to identify varus-kagen. In Western management, a lot of opportunities are missed simply because neither the worker nor the managers like trouble.

Most managerial problems arise in cross-functional areas. Japanese managers are very sensitive to the demands of other departments. In Western companies, cross-functional problems are perceived and settled as conflicts.

Productivity is the concept of continuous progress, both material and spiritual. To increase productivity, you need to enlist the support of workers, to carry out interaction on the basis of cooperation.

If you do not treat kaizen as a top priority, any attempt to implement it is doomed. The implementation and management of kaizen must be top-down. However, suggestions for improvement should come from the bottom up.

Chapter 7

From the point of view of kaizen, customer satisfaction is determined by such concepts as quality, costs, delivery discipline. Defects are measured in ppm (pieces per million). The director, who operates with interest, has a place in the museum.

Corporate strategy should not be monopolized by a handful of top management. It should become the basis for communication between all individuals in the business structure. The strategy must be linked to their needs and motivate their work. Creating an atmosphere of cooperation and a new corporate culture is an integral part of kaizen.

If management considers profit as the only criterion for performance, it will be reluctant to use P-criteria.

Applications

3- MU- checklist of kaizen activities (muda - actions that consume resources but do not create value, muri - overload, work with stress, mura - deviation from the process): human resources, technology, method, time, equipment, fixtures and tools, materials, volume of production, reserves, place, way of thinking.

5- S- streamline, put in order, clean up, personal cleanliness, discipline.

5- W + 1- H Who, what, where, when, why, how.

5- M– operator, equipment, material, working method, measurement.

Kaizen tools: Pareto charts, cause and effect diagrams, histograms, control charts, scatter plots, graphs, checklists.

I have already written about the importance of definitions. Here is what Robin Williams says about it: “If you can name something, you are aware of it. You gain power over it. You own it. You have it under control."

There are four prefaces in Imai's book... J

In Robin Stewart-Kotze's book Performance. Secrets of effective behavior»

One of the 14 Deming principles.

Kaizen - the key to the success of Japanese companies "Kaizen. The key to the success of Japanese companies" Gemba kaizen: A path to reduce costs and improve quality "Masaaki Imai

The essence of kaizen is very simple: improvement. Moreover, this continuous process improvement, in which everyone participates - both managers and workers. The philosophy of kaizen suggests that our way of life, whether it be work, social or family life, deserves constant improvement.

Lifestyle - Kaizen After World War II, most Japanese companies started from scratch. Each day brought new challenges to managers and workers, and each day brought new successes. Without constant movement forward, businesses could not survive, and kaizen became a way of life.

Distribution of tasks in Japanese management Top management Improvement Middle management Masters Maintenance Workers The figure shows how work functions are distributed in Japan. The two main components of management are maintenance and improvement. Maintenance - actions designed to maintain current technological, managerial and organizational standards; Improvement - actions aimed at improving existing standards.

Kaizen and Japanese Management Top Management Innovation Middle Management Masters Maintenance Workers What is improvement? It can be broken down into kaizen and innovation. Kaizen means making small improvements in ongoing work that do not change the status quo. Innovation is a fundamental transformation that changes the status quo and is carried out as a result of large investments in new technology and/or Kaizen equipment

Distribution of tasks in Western management Top management Innovation Middle management Masters Maintenance Workers Most Western managers see the distribution of functions as shown in the figure. There is little room here for the concept of kaizen.

The effect of the implementation of kaizen If the company is just starting to implement kaizen without external investment, then the usual results that can be achieved in a short time: reduction in the lead time by 510 times, an increase in labor productivity by 50200%, a reduction in costs by 1030%, a decrease in scrap by 3080 %. This is exactly what almost all Russian enterprises need today.

Effect Long-term, steady, but not conspicuous Short-term, but impressive Pace Small steps Big steps Time interval Constant step increments Periodically, spasmodically Changes Gradual and continuous Abrupt, transient nature Participants All A group of selected "champions" Approach Collectivism, group work, systems approach Prominent individualism, personal ideas and efforts Mode of action Sustain and improve Break down and rebuild Driving force Traditional technology and ordinary state of the art Revolutionary technical solutions, new inventions, new theories People-oriented Technology Favorable environment Works well with slow economic development Effective with fast-paced developing economy

Introduction of Quality Control into Kaizen In July 1950, W. E. Deming was invited to Japan to teach statistical methods of quality control. In the 1950s W. E. Deming. visited Japan several times, and during one of these visits he said the famous prophetic words that this country would soon flood the world market with quality products.

Deming Wheel or PDCA/SDCA Cycle Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Standardize-Do-Check-Act (SDCA) SDCA standardizes and stabilizes current processes while PDCA improves them. maintenance, and PDCA to improvement, and together they become the two main tasks of management.

Improvement and Maintenance Plan" suggests that goals for improvement should be set (since kaizen is a lifestyle, there should always be a goal of improvement in any area) and action plans outlined to achieve them. "Do" refers to the implementation of the plan. "Check " refers to determining whether an implementation has left a mark and resulted in a planned improvement. "Influence" refers to building and standardizing new procedures to prevent a recurrence of the original problem or to set targets for new improvements. Whenever deviations appear in the current process, the following questions should be asked: “Is this because we didn’t have a standard? Was it because we didn't follow the standard? Was it because the standard was not adequate? Only after the standard is established, and its requirements are met, it is worth, stabilizing the current process, to switch to using PDCA.

The three building blocks of a business Hardware (equipment) Paper (documents) People (personnel) To improve quality, you need to start with people. To improve the quality of people means to form kaizen thinking in them. That is, first you need to teach employees to identify problems, and then master the methods of solving them. The next step is to standardize the results to prevent recurrence of problems.

Kaizen and TQC ( Total control In Japan In the West TQC activities in Japan are aimed at improving management efficiency at all levels: Quality assurance Cost control Achieving production quotas Compliance with supply discipline Safety Development new products Increasing Productivity Supplier Management TQC is primarily concerned with the technical verification of finished products and falls under the purview of the quality manager. The top management of the West does not pay as much attention to this, unlike the Japanese.

Kaizen and the Suggestion System Toyota Motor Chairman Eiji Toyoda said, "It's a characteristic of Japanese workers that they work not only with their hands, but also with their heads. Our workers submit 1.5 million suggestions a year, and 95 percent of them find practical application. to perfection at Toyota is so great that it is almost physically palpable in the atmosphere that reigns here." It is common for the management of leading Japanese companies to spend a whole day presenting the results of the quality circles, awarding awards according to pre-established criteria.

Kaizen Generates Process-Oriented Thinking A process-oriented mindset bridges the gap between process and outcome, between ends and means, and between objectives and measures, and helps people build a whole picture with an open mind.

The difference between the mentality of Japanese and Western society A process-oriented society A result-oriented society A post-industrial, high-tech, highly intellectual society A mass production society The attitude of a person to work is evaluated The result obtained is evaluated The main criterion for assessing the company's activity is the effectiveness of kaizen The main criterion for assessing the company's activity is profit

Management should use the following basic concept elements to implement the Kaizen strategy: Kaizen and management (improvement and maintenance). Process, not result. Follow the PDCA/SDCA cycles. Quality is first and foremost. Speak with data. The next process is the consumer.

The Ultimate Goal of the Kaizen Strategy Because kaizen is all about improvement, we need to know which aspects of the business are most in need of improvement. The answer to this question is QCD Quality: not only finished products or services, but also the processes that create those products or services. Expenses: total cost design, manufacture, sale and service of products or services. Delivery: timely delivery of the required volume of products or services. When the three conditions defined by the term QCD are met, consumers are satisfied.

Basic Kaizen Systems A description of the basic systems that are needed to achieve the goals of kaizen. Total Quality Control / Total Quality Based Management. Just-in-time production system (Toyota production system). General care of the equipment. Policy deployment. Proposal system. Small group work.

Method 5W and 1H in Kaizen Why (Why?) - Why is this work necessary? What (What?) - What will be the result of the changes? Where (Where?) - Where, in what conditions do you need to make changes? When (When?) - When do you need to make changes? Who (Who?) - Who should do it? How (How?) - How should the changes be made?

Five questions (5W1H) to identify the problem 1. Why did the machine stop? – Due to the overload, fuse 2 has blown. Why did the overload happen? – The bearing was poorly lubricated 3. Why is there not enough lubrication in the bearing? – The oil pump did not work well 4. Why did the pump work poorly? – The piston is worn out 5. Why is the piston worn out? – There was no filter and metal chips got into the pump 6. How can I fix this? - install filter

5 S effect in Kaizen 5. Improvement (Shitsuke) 4. Systematic implementation of the first three S (Seiketsu) 1. Sorting, getting rid of unnecessary items (Sein) 2. Rational layout, determining the place (Seiton) 3. Cleaning, cleaning the worker spaces (Seiso- "to scrape off")

Principle 5 R in KAIZEN REFINE (quality improvement) change of raw materials and technologies REDUCE (reduction) - development of waste-free technologies REUSE - reuse where possible RECYCLE - recycling of waste for reuse in production RETRIEVE ENERGY - (energy recovery), use it as an energy resource. These principles are used in the development of new products

The foundation of the Kaizen system Value Action Quality comes first Enter the market within the company. The next operation is the client. Staff development Involve people. Don't condemn, don't blame, implement teamwork. Process and result To the result through process improvement. SDCA/PDCA cycles. GEMBA KAIZENGo to Gemba, look for the root of the problem there. "Speak" to data. Exclusion of losses Eliminate 3M: (muda, mura, muri), 7 unnecessary things, other types of losses. Visual standards Develop standard work methods, visualize standards. Pull and flow Create material and information flow based on pulling acc. with consumer requests.

Toyota kaizen Toyota production method High quality Minimum delivery time Low cost Motivation Factory automation, Fault alarms Process standardization, production alignment, Production flow Identify and eliminate unnecessary costs Practical team training, encourage initiatives

Kaizen. The key to the success of Japanese companies Masaaki Imai

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Title: Kaizen. The key to the success of Japanese companies

About Kaizen. The key to the success of Japanese companies" Masaaki Imai

The book "Kaizen: Key to the Success of Japanese Companies" was written by a well-known analyst, Japanese management guru Masaaki Imai. When it was released in 1986, it became a world-class bestseller, and the concept of "kaizen" established itself as one of the main methods of management.

Kaizen means "continuous improvement" in Japanese. "Kaizen" in the economy involves continuous improvement in all areas: the production process, product quality, employees - from a simple worker to senior managers.

The philosophical concept of kaizen originated in Japan and was used by individual companies during the economic recovery after World War II. And when in the late 70s of the 20th century many well-known Western holdings experienced financial crises, everyone was interested in the secrets of the success of Japanese firms and the progressive economies of Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. Business publications were regularly full of articles about the "Japanese miracle". The release of the book "Kaizen: the key to the success of Japanese companies" made this practice understandable and accessible to the whole world.

Translated into 20 languages of the world, the book was not just interesting to read. She has inspired thousands of global companies to do business the Japanese way. In it, the author not only gave a definition of the concept of "kaizen", but also opened the prospects for Japanese experience in the art of management.

In Kaizen: The Key to Success in Japanese Companies, Masaaki Imai outlined the essence of the strategy, which is that the systematic improvement of processes is just as important as the introduction of innovations aimed at fundamental change. Improvements must be made continuously, everywhere - from small incremental improvements to significant strategic upgrades, affecting everyone and everyone. It emphasizes the role of a person as the main driving force of any activity and his interest in improving his workplace. Therefore, many engineering and technical problems turn into sociotechnical ones and require a different approach.

The kaizen philosophy sees any mistake as an opportunity for growth, not an excuse to quit. Kaizen provides for a new attitude towards employees, based not on exploitation, but on trust and partnership. Based on what any person expects from the work of creativity, respect and worthy rewards, the manual provides principles, rules, kaizen strategy tools, codes of conduct, tables and examples of what it has allowed to achieve.

The handbook "Kaizen: the key to the success of Japanese companies" will be interesting to read, first of all, for all kinds of managers, personnel managers, quality and marketing departments, and managers.

Current page: 1 (total book has 22 pages) [available reading excerpt: 5 pages]

Masaaki Imai

Kaizen. The key to the success of Japanese companies

Translation T. Gutman

Scientific editor Y. Adler

Editors P. Suvorova, S. Turko

Technical editor N. Lisitsyna

Corrector P. Suvorov

Computer layout S. Sokolov

All rights reserved. The work is intended solely for private use. No part of the electronic copy of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet and corporate networks, for public or collective use without the written permission of the copyright owner. For copyright infringement, the legislation provides for the payment of compensation to the copyright holder in the amount of up to 5 million rubles (Article 49 of the zoap), as well as criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to 6 years (Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Dedicated to Kenichi Nakaya, Distinguished Professor at the University of Tokyo, who opened new horizons for me when I was a student

Preface to the Russian edition

Dear reader! You are holding in your hands Masaaki Imai's legendary book Kaizen: The Key to the Success of Japanese Companies. Masaaki Imai is a management guru who has been studying the management tools of Japanese companies since the mid-1950s and spreading their philosophy around the world. The basis of this philosophy is a special vision of everything that happens in the enterprise in terms of value created and losses. In accordance with this approach, every operation on a material, part or document, every movement of a person, the work of machines or computers is considered from the standpoint of what added value they bring to the end user. If the presence of these operations is not due to the needs of the client, this is a loss.

Sounds shocking but hard to find manufacturing facility or an office space not infected with the loss virus. What's more, it's like a contagion - waste spreads beyond production and infects not only the entire organization, but also suppliers! The loss virus is very widespread. If you look at the production or administrative process "through the eyes of the client", it becomes clear that inventory, transportation of materials, movement of people, waiting for the next stage of work, changeover of equipment are all waste. Unfortunately, losses are not easy to identify and really hard to get rid of them forever. But just as human health depends on the influence of viruses, so the health of production can be determined by the presence or absence of a loss virus.

In his book, Masaaki Imai writes about how to identify losses, organize their planned and systematic reduction, and most importantly, how not to stop at the achieved level. And the main assistant in this - kaizen, which means "continuous improvement" in Japanese.

Masaaki Imai talks about the differences between Japanese and Western approaches to innovation. The main difference lies not so much in the actual implementation of the changes, but in what happens afterwards. Creating something new today, Japanese companies are ready for its further improvement tomorrow. And the sooner you start improving, the less rework will be required. That's what it is kaizen– an addition to innovations, ensuring their maximum efficiency. At the same time, the effect of improvements is comparable to the result of the introduction of innovation, and the costs are many times less.

As you read the book, you might get the impression that Kaizen deals with small improvements, while innovation, new equipment, Information system This is a big and significant change. In order to keep up with the demands of globalization and technology development, many organizations, including state institutions and private enterprises (both manufacturing and service sectors) demonstrate a commitment to a major innovation strategy. Kaizen same - this is not a fashion for a month or a year. It's not just a collection of disparate improvements applied without purpose. Kaizen does not mean improvement for the sake of improvement. Kaizen is a long-term strategy that is focused on achieving specific goals and that involves each employee, regardless of his function and position. Application benchmark kaizen is TOYOTA Corporation, whose production system has earned the highest status of Lean Production (Lean Production).

Readers already familiar with the basics kaizen, will agree that most of the tools are fairly simple to understand and use. Therefore, the main question that confronts a company choosing the path kaizen,– “How to involve all employees in the improvement process and how to manage this process?” Let's take an example: to make bacon and eggs, we need a pig and a chicken. But what a different price they "pay" for participating in our dish! If as a result of changes we sacrifice people, then even those who fully shared the new approaches will be wary of what is happening. Description of examples of building relationships between superiors and subordinates in Japanese companies allows us to understand the deep foundations of the approach kaizen as a people-oriented management concept.

When asked by Masaaki Imai what are the minimum conditions for implementation kaizen, he replied, "First, top management commitment, second, top management commitment, and third, top management commitment." Thus, Masaaki Imai stresses the critical importance of separating the principles kaizen top echelon of the company. The effective involvement of employees is made by changing their own attitudes and only through the full adoption of the philosophy kaizen.

Kaizen requires small material resources but great effort. So thinking about using kaizen, many managers fear for the success of the undertaking due to the lack of time, which is sorely lacking even in the normal mode of operation. If you understand what is " normal mode”, it will become clear what caused these fears. A significant part of the work of the leader is reduced to resolving problems that have already arisen. The ability to "put out fires" is highly valued in the enterprise, and often much higher than the prevention of these "fires".

The author aims the reader at avoiding problems, talking about numerous examples of following the path of process improvement, leading to the idea that a well-built, thoughtful process will certainly give positive result. The main recipe for preventing “fires” is standardization, in which leading specialists and ordinary employees help the manager. Thus, the manager can use the freed time to improve processes and operations. Process improvement becomes a key regular function of the manager, demonstrating to employees the conviction and adherence to the strategy kaizen.

This book was first published in 1986, and to this day it remains relevant, especially today, when the whole world has felt financial and economic shocks. The global crisis has shown the failure of the architecture in which management is primary. The world is changing very quickly, and management models of the late 20th century will be replaced by other approaches. No one yet knows their exact outlines, although it can be said with certainty that a humanistic approach will be the basis of the new dominant system. The human personality will become a key link in this model, which means that it will be based not on disunity, but on dialogue, not on orders, but on involvement.

We sincerely wish readers to apply the ideas of this book in practice and thereby find their own key to success.

...

Nikolai Kanareikin,Andrey Gavrichenkov, KAIZEN Institute Russia

Perfection - where does it come from?

All progress -
reactionary
if a person collapses.

A. Voznesensky

This book was ahead of its time. It appeared in the mid-80s of the last century, but immediately fell into the category of bestsellers. And until now it is carefully studied where people seriously think about perfection and improvement. It's time to take the next step in improving - and here it is, Masaaki Imai's book "Kaizen: the key to the success of Japanese companies", in front of you, now in Russian.

The author is sincerely trying to tell the reader about those special features of Japanese management that distinguish it from what is considered to be the standard of management in the West, primarily in the USA. These special features could be ignored special attention, attributing them to national characteristics, rice culture, religion, if not for the outstanding achievements that Japan has been demonstrating after the Second World War, for more than 50 years.

Of course, success in business is determined by a complex combination of many different factors, conditions and circumstances. But not all of them play the same roles. And, perhaps, the most important achievement of the end of the past - the beginning of this century - is the realization of the special role of management in the fate of business. First of all, we are talking about the first person. As they say, "what is the priest, such is the arrival." It is the first leader or his team (which is even better) that determines the fate of the organization in a tough global market, where the usual rules and laws no longer apply, but the new ones have not yet become familiar, and even understandable. And in order for the fate to become prosperous, the leader must voluntarily and consciously take on the role of leader, and hence the leadership responsibility, with all the very far-reaching consequences that follow from this.

A natural question arises: “Why for many centuries everyone was satisfied with the boss, boss, boss, manager, and now suddenly give you a leader?” The answer is simple and complex at the same time. For many centuries, in the Western consciousness (and, therefore, in our country too), the Cause was revered higher than a person - an object of exploitation. A person was defenseless against the arbitrariness of the authorities, as was written, for example, by such authorities as Gogol and Dickens. It is clear that the authorities liked it, even really liked it. And this is easily explained. Everything would have remained so to this day, if not for one small snag.

Suddenly, unexpectedly and almost imperceptibly, the world market has changed. If it were in the past, they would probably say that another world scientific and technological revolution. And since we are just now experiencing all this and the process may take more than a dozen years, we have not yet had time to come up with a name. True, this does not make it easier for us, since the laws of the market do not wait until they come up with the right names, and do not announce in advance a change in the rules of the game, relying on our quick wit and ingenuity.

The new rules, which people are struggling to understand and learn, seem to force a rethinking of the role of the person in the organization. Many tasks that were traditionally considered engineering and technical are now becoming sociotechnical, which radically changes the approach to solving them. Gradually, it becomes clear that it is not profitable for business, for example, to consider employees as an object of exploitation. He can count on something much more if he makes employees (and not employees at all) his partners in business. And partners need leaders, not bosses. It so happened that the Japanese were the first to think of this. And they not only thought of it, but also implemented it in practice. We know the result.

That is why you are now reading the preface to this book. So, a person is put at the forefront - the main value and the highest asset of any organization striving to maintain competitiveness in the market for as long as possible, which means jobs and the prospect of a decent life. In relation to the Japanese experience, one usually speaks of "five great systems for creating relationships between a person and an organization." Let's briefly review them to better understand the contents of this book.

1. Lifetime employment system. Here we are talking not so much about legal obligations, but about the contract "by default", accepted by the organization voluntarily and unilaterally. At first glance, it seems that in the conditions of our country it is simply impossible, at least now. But a closer examination shows that such a reaction is most likely the result of the inertia of thinking. Lifetime employment is just the first step to turning an employee into an employee. How else to make him loyal to the organization?

2. Workplace learning system. It is clear that the most that neither is higher education never enough for immediate application in any particular enterprise. In all cases, a person must be trained taking into account the specifics of this particular business. This is how it is everywhere. But you can go much further. Making lifelong learning part of technological process. At the same time, "many birds with one stone" are killed immediately. The work becomes much more interesting, which ensures a rapid growth in qualifications. There is an incentive to study, which leads to the improvement of the individual. Prerequisites are being created for mastering related or new professions. All together significantly affects the quality of working life and the opportunities of employees.

3. rotation system. From traditional positions, the movement of a person from one structural unit to another without any extraordinary circumstances seems absurd and violates the age-old principles of the division of labor. The result will be an obvious decrease in efficiency and disorganization of established processes. But you can look at things differently. People get tired of working in one place, and the transition to a new division is perceived as a renewal of life. But that's not the point. Rotation, carried out in a planned manner, broadens horizons, helps to dock related processes, helps an employee become a “person of the company”, creates informal friendships that can help when cross-functional problems arise. This makes it much easier to instill process thinking in a person, without which the process approach stalls.

4. merit system. Every person is unique. Everyone needs to find a place in the organization where he feels most comfortable and at the same time can make the greatest contribution to the common cause. This is a long process that requires patience, attention and respect. To help a person find himself, it is useful to regularly give him the opinions of everyone he comes across in the process of working, about how they imagine him. In no way should such information be used for attestation in any form. It is clear that certification destroys human relationships and, consequently, business. By adding self-assessment to the results of evaluations of fellow workers, a person begins to better understand what his strengths and weak sides, what needs to be worked on and whether it is worth changing the role. In recent years, what is often referred to as "360°" has come into vogue in the West. Technically, it resembles a Japanese development. But, unfortunately, it is often used as a tool for "objective" certification of personnel.

5. Reward system. This is a very important, very complex, but, unfortunately, too broad topic to discuss in detail here. We only note that length of service is a significant moment in determining wages. But not only this is important. One of the key mechanisms is based on the principles of participatory management. Simply put, remuneration is explicitly and clearly related to the success or failure of the entire firm and the team in which the employee works. This is the final touch in his transformation into a man of the company, who consciously connected his life with this particular company and is not ready to run away, like rats from a sinking ship, at the first failure. Vice versa. Now he is ready to fight for the survival of the company "to the last drop of blood."

It is worth noting that we have tried to describe a "system of systems". So, it makes no sense to “implement” one thing that you liked more, and then be surprised at the lack of any noticeable results. Of course, it is necessary to implement everything at once, but not in one day, but gradually and systematically. In general, there is absolutely nothing in the described system that cannot be implemented in domestic business.

Some obvious consequences follow from what has been said. It is immediately clear that beloved employees cannot be punished. In no case (we, of course, do not cancel the criminal code yet, as well as the rules traffic). By the way, this is not a blessing at all. Not at all. This is the latest attempt by management to save their business. The fact is that the fear of punishment inevitably gives rise to lies, and lies make it impossible to make timely effective decisions, which, in turn, makes the fate of business doubtful.

It is also clear that the company's internal information flows must be transparent. What can you hide from business comrades? Any attempt to hide information or manipulate it will inevitably be detected and evaluated. After that, trust will be lost, and soon the business itself. So the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, becomes our motto. Anyone who thinks that such principles are unrealizable need not read further. Let him just inform his employees about this so that they can find another job for themselves before his business goes bankrupt.

In addition, it is clear that employees are not ordered. They are consulted, they are helped, explained, they are taught, all decisions are made together with them. This is the only way to ensure that employees work with an efficiency close to 100%. This means that they are full of enthusiasm and they "have no barriers on the sea and on land." All the usual approaches do not pull on an efficiency higher than that of a steam locomotive, and this, you yourself know, is about 3%. To ensure collective decision-making mechanisms in Japan, special methods have been developed, such as, for example, "hoshin kanri" (policy deployment).

Now we have some idea of the situations in which the characters in this book operate. Now we can talk about its content. In the West, it is commonly believed that you first need to design and build a perfect business, and then competently operate it. Then success is guaranteed. In itself, this idea is not rejected in the East, only they believe that designing a perfect business is an illusion. No matter how hard you try, it's still the most perfect business, once you build it, it will immediately require further improvement. Moreover, the process of further improvement threatens to become eternal. Well, maybe not completely eternal, but, in any case, until new generations of products, new technologies, new equipment, or all of these are invented at once. And if this is the case, then it is necessary from the very beginning to foresee an approach that would ensure the implementation of the mechanism of continuous improvement. This approach arose during the evolution of Japanese industry after the Second World War. The author of this book called it "kaizen".

However, options are possible. The author actually identifies kaizen with total quality control (TQC). Until recently, this term was used in Japan instead of total quality management (TQM). It can be assumed that such conservatism was due to the fact that initially the problem of quality was considered primarily as a human problem. In Japan, they like to say that quality is "passed from heart to heart." And in the West, only in connection with the realization of this fact, they switched from "management" to "management". So, it turns out that kaizen is equivalent to quality management? So it is, but not entirely. Here, quality is associated with competitiveness through the triad: quality, price, delivery discipline. The task of management is to set priorities, the task of kaizen is to continuously improve this triad, taking into account the set priorities.

What does a person want at work? -

respect,

Creativity and

Decent reward.

Respect is created by the sincerity of the relationship, and reinforced by the system of proposals. This system assumes that each employee can always make a proposal aimed at further improving any aspect of the company's activities. And although it is clear that group offers are on average much more profitable for business than individual offers, nevertheless, the system of individual offers is carefully supported and encouraged by everyone. possible ways. And the sheepskin is worth the candle.

Creativity is the very essence of the kaizen concept. Notice that the meaning of going to work has changed. Now we walk not in order to fulfill the “norm” and earn our daily bread, but in order to constantly think, together with friends, about improving what we do together. The very concept of the norm seems to disappear, which, of course, does not mean that today it is not necessary to produce the amount of good products that is in demand by the market.

We have already talked about remuneration, but still we will add that now it is not the manager who determines my material remuneration, but we in the team agree in advance on the share in the wage fund for each for a certain period of time. Then, if the improvement leads to a reduction in costs, then the value of the wage fund itself automatically grows and, accordingly, my personal income. Therefore, continuous improvement is not only an exciting creative activity that I enjoy doing at work, but it is also a tool for the constant growth (within market conditions) of my personal income. This is how harmony is achieved.

Of course, we must not forget for a moment about radical innovations that can fundamentally transform our business. As the author rightly notes, in this matter the Americans are still stronger than the Japanese. Therefore, contrary to Kipling, the West and the East have much to learn from each other in order to eventually come together in creating a single concept of a perfect business. And our country can play an important role as a link in this process. The world yearns for a new synthesis.

Perhaps, the construction of business built here seems to you, dear reader, “too ideal” and, by virtue of this, unattainable. It seems that this is not so. This is the guiding star that should help your business pave the way for long-term success in the rough waters of the ocean. modern business. This is the best that can be offered today. That is why there is confidence that the book lying before you can specifically help you in your difficult task.

Now, finally, we can talk about kaizen more specifically. Speaking about the origins of kaizen, the author emphasizes the contribution to Japanese development of two great American gurus: Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. Thus, improvement is seen as a cyclical process driven by the famous Shewhart-Deming cycle or wheel. It is seen as a guiding principle.

Other sources of development arose directly from Japanese industry. First of all, this concerns the automobile company Toyota, where for more than 30 years Taiichi Ohno created what later became known as the Toyota Production System. Many years later, the concept of lean manufacturing was built on the basis of the Toyota system in the West. (Alpina Business Books published the monograph Lean Manufacturing by Womack and Jones in 2004.) Interestingly, its creators consider kaizen as one of the elements of their system, while the author of this book includes almost all the content of lean manufacturing in kaizen. , including kanban, just-in-time, pull principle, customer focus, jidoka concept. A familiar collusion. Can a part be greater than the whole? Can “a day last more than a century”? The question is pointless. Although the book of Womack and Jones mentions kaizen many times, you still need to read this book first to give yourself an accurate account of what it actually is.

Of course, the matter was not limited to one, albeit famous, firm. Many important improvements that have become public knowledge in Japan have been made by companies such as Matsushita, Canon, Nissan, Honda, Komatsu, Ricoh, and many others. As usual, the Japanese modified the methods they borrowed from abroad.

Just as lean manufacturing assumes that the reader is familiar with the concept of kaizen, so in a book on kaizen the author implicitly assumes that the reader is familiar with statistical methods. For the conditions of Japan, this is natural, since for many years there they systematically taught everyone in statistical methods. In our country there has long been a large statistical school, respected throughout the world, but as far as broad training or implementation is concerned, our achievements here are much more modest. This is especially true for those methods that have become widespread in quality systems. Therefore, the reader may need Additional Information in this regard, since it is statistical methods that underlie kaizen. Not the only one, but one of the best possibilities, in our opinion, is the book by H. Kume "Statistical Methods for Quality Improvement". It was published in 1990 in Moscow by the Finance and Statistics publishing house. In the early 1990s, Standards and Quality magazine published a magazine version of this book. We have given up on attempting to provide interlinear comments of a statistical nature, as this would take up too much space. Of course, those who are not familiar with statistics will lose some information, but this will not prevent them from reading the entire book and understanding all the main ideas. By the way, in applications in a condensed form, along with background information, provides useful guidance for further improvement of the reader.

It so happened that after the publication of the original of this book, a whole movement of its supporters arose in the world. The author created a consulting firm, which to this day successfully operates around the world. A society of kaizen supporters appeared in Europe. 10 years after the publication of this book, the author, relying on his vast experience, published a new book that raised the concept of kaizen to a new level. It examines kaizen in relation to those places in the firm and those activities that create added value for customers, both external and internal. We hope that the Russian translation of this book will be published by our publishing house as early as this year, 2004. Kaizen continues to develop rapidly, which means that its relevance remains.

I am pleased to express my gratitude to two people who constantly strived to ensure that I continued to improve in my work on editing the Russian translation of this book - V.L. Shper and S.V. Turko.

As for perfection, of course, it does not exist in our world, and only constant improvement leaves hope for approaching it.

...

Yu.P. AdlerJune 10, 2004Moscow city

I express my deep gratitude to the following authors and publications for permission to reproduce previously published materials:

excerpt from quality progress. October, 1983, copyright American Society for quality control, Inc. Reprinted with permission from the publisher.

Kaizen - the key to the success of Japanese companies "Kaizen. The key to the success of Japanese companies" Gemba kaizen: A path to reduce costs and improve quality "Masaaki Imai

The essence of kaizen is very simple: improvement. Moreover, it is a continuous process of improvement in which everyone participates - both managers and workers. The philosophy of kaizen suggests that our way of life, whether it be work, social or family life, deserves constant improvement.

Kaizen and Japanese Management Top Management Innovation Middle Management Masters Maintenance Workers What is improvement? It can be broken down into kaizen and innovation. Kaizen means making small improvements in ongoing work that do not change the status quo. Innovation is a fundamental transformation that changes the status quo and is the result of a major investment in new technology and/or Kaizen equipment.

EffectLong-term, steady, but not conspicuous Short-term, but impressive PaceSmall stepsLarge stepsTime interval Constant incremental increments Intermittently, spasmodically ChangesGradual and continuous Abrupt, transient nature ParticipantsAll A select group of "champions" Approach Collectivism, group work, systems approach Strong individualism, personal ideas and efforts Course of action Sustain and improve Break down and rebuild Driving force Traditional technology and ordinary state of the art Revolutionary technical solutions, new inventions, new theories People Oriented Technology Enabling environment Works well in a slow economic development Effective in a rapidly developing economy

Kaizen and TQC (Total Quality Control) in Japan In the West TQC activities in Japan are aimed at improving management efficiency at all levels: Quality assurance Cost control Achieving production quotas Maintaining delivery discipline Safety New product development Productivity improvement Supplier management The concept of TQC is mainly related to technical verification finished products and is the responsibility of the quality manager. The top management of the West does not pay as much attention to this, unlike the Japanese.

The Ultimate Goal of the Kaizen Strategy Because kaizen is all about improvement, we need to know which aspects of the business are most in need of improvement. The answer to this question is QCD Quality: not only of the finished product or service, but also of the processes that create that product or service. Cost: The total cost of designing, manufacturing, selling, and maintaining a product or service. Delivery: timely delivery of the required volume of products or services. When the three conditions defined by the term QCD are met, consumers are satisfied.

The foundation of the Kaizen system Value Action Quality comes first Enter the market within the company. The next operation is the client. Staff development Involve people. Don't judge, don't blame, do teamwork. Process and result To the result through process improvement. SDCA/PDCA cycles. GEMBA KAIZENGo to Gemba, look for the root of the problem there. "Speak" to data. Exclusion of losses Eliminate 3M: (muda, mura, muri), 7 unnecessary things, other types of losses. Visual standards Develop standard work methods, visualize standards. Pull and flow Create material and information flow based on pull, acc. with consumer requests.

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