Kaizen Chap 1&2

Kaizen the most important concept in Japanese management is the key to Japanese competitive success.Kaizen means continuous improvement involving everyone which broadly includes top management , managers and workers.In order to survive and grow in the competitive business environment a company has to be quick in adopting both latest technology as well as improved management techniques.Both innovation and KAIZEN are required for long term sustainance in the market successfully. Chap 1 KAIZEN, The Concept KAIZEN is an umbrella concept covering most of those uniquely Japanese practices that has recently achieved worldwide fame such as customer orientation, Total quality control, suggestion system, kamban, just-in-time, zero defects, productivity improvement, new product development, etc. The message of kaizen strategy is that no day should go without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company.the difference between the Japanese perception of job function and western perceptions of job functions is that in Japanese way the innovation, improvement and maintenance is the role of everyone in the organization including topmanagement middle management supervisors and workers whereas in western way innovation is the role of only top management and middle management and top management shows relatively more im portance in maintenance when compared with that of the Japanese style.and improvement is hardly found in western style and they feel contended as far as things goes well as usuall. The need of improvement is not been identified.The chapter also explains the hierarchy of kaizen involment in an organization by the top management, middle management supervisors and workers. The starting point for improvement is to recognize the need . this comes from recognition of the problem.therefore kaizen emphazises problem awareness and provides clues for identifying problems.Thus kaizen is also a problem solving process.Building quality into the process is the crux of Japanese quality control.Total quality control(TQC) concentrates on the improvement of managerial performance such as quality assurance, cost reduction, safety, supplier management and most recently it also includes marketing , sales and service as well. Japanese management also takes efforts to involve employees in kaizen through suggestions.Whenever a suggestion yields savings , management rewards in proportions to savings realized.It believes that workers willingly follow the new standards when it is been framed considering their inputs.kaizen also generates process oriented thinking because processes should be improved first inorder to get better results. And this in total contrast towards result-oriented thinking of most western managers.However the process-oriented thinking runs the risk of lacking long-term strategy, missing new ideasand innovations.One of the distinctive features of Japanese management is that it has made conscious effort to establish a system that supports and encourages process oriented thinking while giving full

recognition to the result oriented thinking.The process oriented way of thinking bridges the gap between ends and means and helps people to see the whole picture without bias.

Chap 2 - Improvement East and West. There are 2 contrasting approaches to improvement namely, the gradualist approach epitomized by the term Kaizen and the great-leap-forward approach epitomized by the term innovation.Innovation is generally a one shot phenomenon and hence dramatic whereas KAIZEN is continuous process and hence results are seldom Immediately visible. The difference between the two opposing concepts can be compared to that of staircase and slope.Innovation strategy is supposed to bring about progress in a staircase pattern but usually does not.This is because a system established as a result of new innovation is subject to steady deterioration unless continuous efforts are made to maintain it and then to improve on it. Kaizen , on the other hand means a constant effort not only to maintain but also to upgrade standards.The strength of Japanese management lies in its successful implementation of a system that acknowledges the ends while emphasizing the means.Thus kaizen is people oriented whereas innovation is technology and money oriented. Kaizen is better suited for the slow growth economy which is been characterized by high cost of energy and materials, overcapacity and stagnant markets.Another strenghth of Japanese technology is the close connection between development, design, and the production line.And the quality of products have always been better than those from US or European nations because the French designers do not fully understand the problems encountered on the jobfloor. Hence the management should be supportive and should have rapport with the workers.Thus kaizen requires different kind of leadership which is based on personal experience and conviction and not necessarily on authority, rank or age.It is believed in japan that improvement brings many truly satisfying experiences in life – identifying problems, tackling and solving difficult tasks, and thus being elevated to new heights of achievement.