Kaizen Events

Kaizen Events- Kaizen – Make people’s jobs easier by taking them apart, studying them, and making improvements.
• “KAI” – take apart and make anew
• “ZEN” – think, make good the actions of others, do good deeds and help others

A kaizen event is a five-day team workshop with a specific goal or set of goals for an area that needs improvement. Kaizen events are traditionally short-term brainstorming and implementation sessions intended to improve an existing process. Employees, managers and even C-level owners get together to map out existing processes, discuss ways these processes can be improved and determine action items within the scope of the operators.

Kaizen tips (VAL, M&A, QPM, CAR, OPP)

• Get rid of old assumptions.
• Look for ways to make things happen now.
• Say “NO” to the status quo.
• Don’t worry about being perfect.
• It doesn’t have to cost money.
• If something’s wrong, fix it on the spot.
• Ask “WHY” five times to get to the root cause.
• Look for wisdom from many people rather than one.
• Never stop improving.
• Full-time participation of team members.
• Keep all affected employees informed of changes.

Kaizen Events are commonly referred to as a tool that:

1) Gathers operators, managers, and owners of a process in one place
2) Maps the existing process (using a deployment flowchart, in most cases)
3) Improves on the existing process
4) Solicits buy-in from all parties related to the process

Kaizen Events are very efficient in quickly improving a process with a low Sigma score. Kaizen Events are also useful for convincing organizations new to Six Sigma of the methodology’s value.