Introduction
Masaaki Imai, author of Gemba Kaizen, states that companies, particularly in manufacturing field, can become more profitable by continuously looking for efficiencies. In Western style management it is more common to seek huge leaps. In Japanese style "Kaizen" businesses must try to eliminate anything that is inefficient thus cutting waste. Imai gives impressive examples from real world situations and supports them with case studies that show "Kaizen" in work.
Discussion
1) The theme. Gemba Kaizen is divided into two major parts. The first part is well organized and deeply explained, very easy to read and understand overview of lean management concepts. Author has done a great job of reviewing the key concepts of lean production. The second part is a series of case studies. They cover a wide range of businesses and author gives examples how different companies applied lean principles.
Masaaki Imai fully explains to non - Japanese managers the offshoot and use of "Kaizen" philosophy: continuous striving for improvement and periodically setting higher standards to be reached. This strategy will lead the companies to become more profitable and employees to better morale.
2) Importance of concept. "Gemba Kaizen" is a work discipline, philosophy that uses small but continuous improvements in the workplace to save money and increase the output instead of heavy investments into new technology. This concept is especially important for Western style management because today's managers often try to apply urbane tools and technologies to deal with problems that can be solved with easy to apply, common sense and, what is more important, low cost methods.
Authors proposed two approaches to gain this ...
... middle of paper ...
...yee's involvement in process will create more friendly working conditions and the feeling of working in a team will appear. Manufacturing will produce products of higher quality with lower rate of defects found. Services will become even more customer oriented and result in greater satisfaction by the customers.
Conclusion
In Gemba Kaizen Masaaki Imai focuses the result-oriented technique of "Kaizen" on the place where real production is done - "Gemba." Small "Kaizen" improvements in the key operations will multiply into greater profits and higher quality many times over. No complex and expensive technology or procedures are needed - the business philosophy of making continuous improvements is the only way to become the leader on the market.
References
1. Imai, Masaaki, 1997. A Commonsense, Low-cost Approach to Management. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Complete administration of cost is done by lean internal operational functions adopted by the Tesco. Record of accepted salespersons and organizing scheme are upgraded regularly and endlessly. Effectiveness and efficiency of such operations are maintained by these policies adopted by Tesco.
Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2009) Principles of management (version 1.0). Nyack, NY: Flat World Knowledge, Inc.
Leadership is contagious throughout the world and most importantly in the Army. It is not just my view, but of all leaders, at all levels, that organizations are responsible for setting conditions that lead to long-term organizational success. As I reflect on my experiences, through experience and observation, I realize how my values, beliefs, and perspectives about leadership continuously evolve over time. Recognizing these changes over time helps me better understand that people in organizations have different perspectives in life. This leadership narrative serve as important guiding principles for how I will lead at the organizational level and represents my thought, values and beliefs.
The company’s approach to motivate employees has been working in a positive way. The employees are satisfied with the family style community, and the productivity has increased as well. The company’s style of treating employees as important partners has been successful in other manufacturing companies too. For example, when Honda opened its first factory in the U.S., the CEO and employees shared the same cafeteria, just like Lincoln.
Next, researchers explained that a successful organization with good performance like good sales volume, market share, stock price and revenue all comes with a relationship within organizational culture as well as company performance. All at once, it is crucial that an organization fits the culture into the demands of the company’s environment (Kotter and Heskett, 1992). For instance, a high technology industry that supports its performance by having a strong culture that encourages adaptability and innovativeness will produce good presentation. On the another hand, imagine a same industry company that practice their culture by their tradition with high respect and strong precedence in procedures and upholding rules, this may affect the employees to suffer in such culture. In another way round, it will have a competitive advantage when an organization has the “right” culture, meanwhile it can also lead to responsible for performance failure or difficulties when the organization has the “wrong” culture, and this act might lead to the organization in taking risks as well as barrier of changing (Elvir and Savo,
My management philosophy includes appreciating every employee in the organization and leaving each achieves individual potential. Every business cannot succeed without having employees, and they need to feel that they are part of the total organization. Every employee needs to feel that they matter in the organization and doing this is part of my management philosophy.
For an increase in productivity a firm should focus on increasing its revenue and reducing its cost. This will lead to the longevity and success of a business. In the manufacturing industry, this means efficiency in internal processes. The knowledge and skills of people contributes to innovation and productivity improvement. Increasing pressures on the manufacturing sector stem from skills shortages and growing competition for talent. Well-connected people who are capable of collaborating and have access to peer knowledge can contribute to the success of a
Gemba takes the general concepts of system and processes and extracts the system of processes directly involved in producing value on behalf of a customer. An organization needs to have a purpose for providing a product or service and that purpose is directly related to the customer. When an organization can clearly see the value it is adding to the customer, the organization is “Beginning with the End in Mind. By “Putting First Things First”, an organization is able to use priorities and steps for providing the product or service. These priorities and steps create a hierarchy of importance. For example, raw materials need to attach to other parts before they can be painted. Another habit that Covey discusses is “Being Proactive”. A company that is proactive instead of reactive is able to work much more efficiently within the system. By working more efficiently within the system the company is able to utilize Gemba as a priority.
A person’s behavior at one specific point in time usually controls their attitude at that time. Managers must be able to understand these basic needs of their workers. If these needs are not dealt with in a certain correct way than workers will not reach their maximum potential. If the lower order of needs is not met than people are not happy. The same can be said of the higher order.
The lean manufacturing techniques have also been named as the post Fordism system of job that is democratic, humane and more efficient. A central tenet of lean manufacturer is the concept of “Kaizen” that is continuous improvement in the manufacturing process. The lean manufacturing philosophy seeks to integrate efficiency with quality of work life. The concept of “Kaizen” looks for eliminates all activities that do not add value, referred to as waste or “muda” in Japanese. This looked at excessive size inventory, excessive setup time, and work in process. The “Kaizen” process also removes defects or flaws in the production process and finds the cause of the problem. This involves employee participation that can monitor and sense any difference in products and processes. The employees also contribute to the improvement of production and organization. The productivity improvement is accomplished through incremental innovation.
This style focuses on the end goals and gives freedom to employees in the ways they can achieve it. It is popular in organizations where explicit guidance is not required. These leaders inspire entrepreneurial spirit and display enthusiasm for the goals (Benincasa, 2012).
Scientific Management also has a relationship with today’s environment because it has two advantages. Firstly, compare to the past, management is getting more scientific. How to improve production efficiency is the starting point of Scientific Management, and also is the final destination. It aims to unearth and cultivate workmen’s endowment, let them have the best performance in their work ---to obtain the highest efficiency farthest. Taylor said that the enormous increasing in production efficiency was the evident distinction to differentiate which a nation was civilized one or not. Moreover, it is the huge progressive emblem of human’s community. To change the production efficiency, he focused on management and labor. It based on “co-operation between the management and workers” (4) close together. The most quick and effective way is to import scientific analyses and knowledge into management practice, using scientific method instead of experienced way in various categories of work. “Bring everyone’s production efficiency into full play to accomplish maximum profit.”(5)For example, nowadays in the situation of teem of two workers in the factories, the fact is clearly identical. To understand that a worker and his helper, their workmanship become a extraordinary skill .The worker and his helper can produce two TV sets in one day, meanwhile, their competitor and helper can only produce one. After selling, the worker and helper can earn more money; the management can make more profits. In the same way, two competitive companies, different areas in a country, even between two nations, they will have the same situation while they in the same competitive market.
This dedication of Japanese employees to their work contributes greatly to the strength of the economy of Japan. They feel like they are part of a big family (the company). Employees work together for the benefit of the company as a whole. They truly feel that their hard work and success contribute to the company's success and growth. Companies also have special programs and classes for the employees, who are the children, to make them feel at home. There are company athletic clubs and cultural classes, such as flower arrangement and the tea ceremony. Since everyone is a member of the "family" in Japan, decisions that the company must make are circulated among the lower echelons of the work force for their opinio...
The ultimate goal of any human being on earth is to be able to live a purposeful life. The human race experiences the restless need to become better from personal level, corporate level, nations, continental associations and the world at large, they all seek to improve at something. Partly this has seen the rise of human development institutions in an effort to try and meet the demand of an emerging market on personal development. Kaizen, a Japanese word that is derived from Kai which means (change) and Zen which means (for the better) has gained popularity and become a common philosophy in the world (Popovich, 2011). It means continuous improvement and in our perspective it stands for the ideal to always seek on improving oneself no matter the level of achievement in life.
From this initiative, Toyota managed to widen its competitive edge by employing fewer employees in the car production with a small number of flaw products. The main idea is to fulfill the internal or external customer’s wants. Through lean thinking, it is hoped that nonmanufacturing company’s can provide value to the customers with minimum cost, effort and can save time. Thus, it will lead to improved performance and optimum utilization of the company’s additional capacity and resources. Lean Thinking Category Waste Health Care Examples.