
Bite-size question
Bite-size question
Offering intensive in-class training on continuous improvement strategies – like the Kaizen approach to production management and quality control – doesn’t seem to help manufacturing firms to be more efficient. However, it can lead to efficiency improvements when targeted at light industry firms and complemented with follow-up consulting sessions.
Process innovation is a key driver of growth and productivity, but businesses can often struggle to identify and successfully implement effective strategies for improving their ways of working. Continuous improvement strategies focus on improving in a regular and incremental fashion the way things are done in a business. Among such strategies, one which is nowadays widely used in manufacturing firms in both developed and developing countries is Kaizen.
Kaizen is a methodology aimed at reducing inefficiencies in the production processes of manufacturing firms, based on the idea that small but continuous changes can help to reduce costs and lead to important increases in efficiency. It’s a collaborative and proactive approach in which both managers and workers have important roles. Workers are encouraged to spot inefficiencies in the day-to-day production processes and propose solutions for reducing them. Managers are expected to stimulate workers to do so and to foster coordination among them.
Kaizen production practices include designating an area within the workshop for each production process, having a well-defined workflow line, keeping the workshop clean and tidy, having tools and materials well stored, separating defective materials and products from good ones, doing machine maintenance work on a daily basis and holding daily meetings with all workers to organise the workday.
Small business owners and managers
Production practices, production efficiency
This summary is based on experimental evaluations of the following programmes and tweaks: