Kaizen Events
Kaizen Events
A Kaizen Event is designed to support an effective, short-term brainstorming session that focuses on a single challenge and improves an existing process. The term is loosely translated from the Japanese to “change for the good.”
Are you are running many small projects that do not generate significant value There is a ‘going through the motions’ effect on improvement projects? or Is there a persistent operational issue that has yet to be solved -- that is annoying, costly, or even dangerous -- and there is frustration around it?
What are the benefits of Kaizen events?
- Bring together stakeholders from across the different functional
- Break the deadlock and bring clarity
- Allow disagreement + exploration of theories as a team (in an environment of psychological safety)
- Stay competitive with overseas competitors
- Be your partner to allow you to tap into thought partnership/fractional improvement team (without having to add overhead or additional )
- Leverage our expertise to run
- Re-energizes the team to a more positive and more hopeful vibe
- Moves the needle on the problem (can be anything from safety incidents to unplanned downtime, quality issues, customer services complaints, or time to complete a routine admin process like hiring someone or closing the books each month)
- Produces a breakthrough (often surpassing the expectations of employees and managers alike for what was possible)
- Identifies top followup items to maximize the impact of the time spent on the problem after the event
- Revitalizes ownership and improvement momentum of employees
- Helps managers identify and reward top performers in their employee base, and put them on a path to advancement (via their engagement in the process)
How are Kaizen events structured?
Here is an example of a typical setup:
- Phase 1: Setup
- Phase 2: Onsite event
- Phase 3: Event followup/setup
- Phase 4: Onsite event #2
- Phase 5: Event folowup/wrapup
History of previous event-based Client Wins
- Led three consecutive onsite Kaizen events to allow mining client to identify $19M in new value creation and cost savings. (2019)
- Designed and delivered standalone modules on Root Cause Analysis and Workplace Organization. Client self-reported savings of $500,000 six months later. (2018)
- Facilitated Kaizen event on parts manufacturing facility including new product development, sales and testing. Identified improvements to reduce development cycle by 30%. (2015)
- Led Kaizen improvement events in automotive manufacturing facilities, identified improvements worth $70,000, and reduced risk of customer rejects.
- Redesigned layout of manufacturing area to reduce wasted motion and improve process quality. (2011)
- Led Kaizen improvement events in African and South American Business Units; achieved improvements of 46% in hiring process and $171,000 of increased production time (2009)
- Implemented Technical Limits and Balanced Scorecard processes. Oversaw identification of operational improvements totaling $140 Million across mining company’s global operations (2007)
- Achieved Six Sigma Black Belt by leading cross-functional operational employees to reduce scrap rates and improve quality performance to annual savings of over $350,000 (2004)
- Completed Six Sigma Black Belt training; top student in company in test scores (2003)
- Redesigned employee suggestion program, tripling the number of implemented suggestions; ideas generated and implemented resulted in over $100,000 savings annually in plant of 400 employees (2002)
- Created new processes for manufacturing automotive components in powder metal processes. Participated in a continuous improvement team that reduced
- furnace-belt-breakage by 60%. (2000)
