Purpose of Education
| Book - Kaizen : the Key to Japan's Competitive Success published in 1986 by Masaaki of Japan Kaizen, a Japanese management philosophy, promises big rewards through continuous incremental change. Indian businesses are now adopting Kaizen to emerge as global competitors. Masaaki Imai of Japan introdced Kaizen to the western world. Kaizen is a means of continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life. At the workplace, Kaizen means continuing improvement involving everyone—managers and workers alike. The Kaizen business strategy involves everyone in an organization working together to make improvements without large capital investments." The operative phrase here is 'without large capital investments'. Instead of sinking more money in buying machinery or running them for a longer duration, Kaizen steers an organization towards paying attention to small but significant details. Managers are encouraged to improve the efficiency of existing infrastructure instead of investing in more of the same. And that can happen only if you are familiar with every inch of your gemba (workplace)". |
In essence, that translates into something of a corporate 'back to basics' philosophy. Gemba is where the product is actually manufactured, which could mean the assembly line in a manufacturing plant or the place where employees interact with customers in the service sector. It is "the place where the real work is done", as Imai likes to put it. Yet, most companies pay far more attention to sales, marketing, financial management and product development. it is a strategy that begins and ends with people. It requires the leadership to ensure sustained improvement to continuously improve the company's ability to meet expectations of high quality, low cost products and on-time delivery. |
