QUICK

AND
EASY
KAIZEN
BY NORMAN BODEK

C apitalize on
the creative
power in every
worker

IIE Solutions • July 2002

43
Quick and easy kaizen
Dana Corp. did something very unusual in
American industry — the company devel-
oped a methodology to ask every single
worker four magical words: What do you
think? Then management listened to
employees’ improvement ideas. And in con-
trast to traditional suggestion systems in
which someone else installs workers’ pro-
posals, the people who come up with the
ideas at Dana implement them, sometimes
individually and sometimes as part of their
work team.
Instead of looking for the big idea that
will save the company money, Dana wants
lots of small ideas to keep innovation flow-
ing. They do this by getting all employees
involved in the improvement process. Last
year, Dana, with 75,000 employees, received
an average of 24 improvement ideas per
employee — close to 1.8 million — and
boasted an 80 percent implementation rate.
This methodology is known as quick and
easy kaizen.
Last November on a Saturday morning I
ran a training workshop for around 35
employees of Silicon Forest Electronics in
Vancouver, Wash. Silicon has a little over
100 employees. On the following Monday
morning, Silicon employee Linda Nash built
a fixture similar to a drummer’s pad topped
with sandpaper. The device was an
improvement over an old method. Instead
of rubbing sandpaper on a small integrated
circuit board, her invention allowed her to
rub each board against the sandpaper. This
method was not only easier, it also elimi-
nated occasional nicks and cuts on the
boards that occurred by using the old
method. Silicon CEO Frank Nichols was
so thrilled with Nash’s idea that he showed
it to others and rewarded her with a mon-
etary gift.
Another Silicon employee, Linda Tody,
has seen more than 70 of her improvement
ideas implemented in a span of three
months. One result is that quality on her
processing line has improved 70 percent in
that time.
Imagine the powerful effect of getting 24
ideas per employee every year.
Kaizen of a different stripe
What is quick and easy kaizen, and how is
it different from traditional suggestion sys-
IIE Solutions • July 2002
tems?
Many of us are locked in the old para-
digm that it is the worker’s job to do as told
and not to think too much. Thinking is the
job of supervisors and engineers, whose
44
work it is to solve problems and suggest
improvements. Just imagine what a
headache it would be for supervisors if
workers were forever suggesting new ideas.
It would be a headache if supervisors had
to implement the ideas.
Quick and easy kaizen takes a different
route to improvement. It is a mechanism
to get all employees involved in generating
and implementing creative solutions.
Instead of looking for the big idea — the
homerun — let’s concentrate on imple-
menting many small ideas — lots of singles
— to keep the team moving forward and
the individual players excited.
The old suggestion system was difficult
to manage, feedback was slow, and it
encouraged competition among supervi-
sors for control and recognition of improve-
ment ideas. The suggestion box represents
a cost-saving system, and you’re lucky to
get one idea per worker every seven years.
Quick and easy kaizen can draw 24 ideas
per worker every year. It empowers them
to become responsible for solving problems
and take ownership of work issues.
Kaizen means continuous improvement.
It is used in a number of ways. For exam-
ple, the kaizen blitz has become very pop-
ular in recent years. This technique puts
small teams on the factory floor to improve
processes. This form of kaizen is explosive
and brings big changes to the work area.
Quick and easy kaizen is different. It
involves:
• Changing the method. When you
make a change, don’t go back to the old
way of doing things. If you clean up a stack
of paper, for example, you can’t allow
another stack to accumulate again. Kaizen
dictates that you devise a method to move
the paper forward immediately without
accumulating.
Courtesy Dana Corp.
• Making small changes. The goal is to
make a lot of small changes on a sustained
basis. In fact, the smaller the better. Big
ideas are difficult to conceive, so most peo-
ple don’t contribute many. If you ask peo-
ple for small ideas, they’ll be able to par-
ticipate, which not only means lots of ideas
but also people who are involved and
excited about their work.
How often do you misplace your keys?
I know people who have wasted countless
hours looking for their missing keys. If you
put a nail in the wall and hang your keys
there every time you get home, you’ll never
have to hunt for the keys again. It’s a small
idea that saves you time and frustration.
• Acknowledging realistic restrictions.
If you don’t have enough money, then
kaizen. If you don’t have enough time, then
kaizen. If you don’t have enough people,
then kaizen. Kaizen is about small ideas,
and there is always enough money, time,
and staff to implement small ideas.
Implementation
There are three essential elements to quick
and easy kaizen. First, it is an implemen-
tation system, not a suggestion system. The
worker who comes up with the idea is
actively involved in the solution. Second,
the person who devises a solution to a prob-
lem writes it down in a simple way. All that’s
needed is a summary. It should be written
in three minutes with only 75 words.
Include the problem, the solution, and the
benefit. Third, share the idea. Idea sum-
maries can be posted on a bulletin board
for everyone to read and talk about. People
from diverse areas of the company may be
able to put these ideas to use in improving
their own work. It’s also important to rec-
ognize people for their effort, and posting
their ideas is an easy way to do that.
Prior to the workshop for Silicon Forest
Electronics, I visited their plant floor and
took 50 photographs of the worksite. The
day of the workshop, I hung up those pic-
tures around the training room and asked
all the attendees
Quick and easy kaizen in to get up and
practice: Silicon Forest look at them.
Electronics employee Their task was
Linda Nash devised a
simple solution to the to find two
problem of sanding small problems, devise
integrated circuit boards.
solutions to those
problems, and
describe the benefit to themselves and the
company. When people look at pictures
of their work areas, they see things dif-
ferently. Try it and you’ll see how effec-
tive it is.
On one of my first visits to Japan, I
toured the offices of JUSE (the Union of
Japanese Scientists and Engineers), which
was the organization that created the
Deming Prize for quality. JUSE also
launched quality control circles, which
taught all workers to use the basic quality
tools that previously had been employed
only by quality managers. A quality man-
ager working alone can’t come close to
achieving zero defects, but when everyone
becomes responsible for quality, improve-
ment happens.
Quick and easy kaizen is an amazing tool
for industrial engineers. Instead of just a
few engineers looking for improvement
ideas, the entire workforce is enlisted in
productivity and quality improvement.
The following is posted on the Toyota
Web site: “Every Toyota team member is
empowered with the ability to improve their
work environment. This includes every-
thing from quality and safety to the envi-
ronment and productivity. Improvements
and suggestions by team members are the
cornerstone of Toyota’s success.”
Frederick W. Taylor started the improve-
ment revolution, and Shigeo Shingo
advanced Taylor’s work. Shingo gave indus-
trial engineering a new focus — eliminate
waste. While traditional IEs were improv-
ing the efficiency and effectiveness of indi-
vidual machines and people, Shingo
focused on improving the productivity of
the entire process. Excess inventory, not
idle machinery, was the biggest waste, he
said. Getting people involved in improve-
ment ideas was a key to making Shingo’s
Courtesy Dana Corp.
Toyota Production System
work. Dana Corp. makes it
their business to get
Recognize that every improvement ideas
single worker in his or from every worker.
her 25 square feet of space
is an expert. Each one has lots of good ularized many Japanese quality tools, tech-
improvement ideas if you just ask. niques, and technologies for use in
I predict quick and easy kaizen will American industry. Most recently, he co-
sweep North America just as it swept Japan. authored a book with Bunji Tozawa titled
It is fundamentally right to respect all work- The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen
ers’ ideas and use those ideas for the (PCS Press, 2001).
improvement of the organization and the
enhancement of individual workers.
Norman Bodek, president of PCS Press in
Vancouver, Wash., was the founder and
CEO of Productivity Inc.’s Productivity
Press. He discovered and published the
works of Japanese manufacturing leaders
such as Shigeo Shingo, Taiichi Ohno, Yoji
Akao, Hoshin Kanri, and Seiichi Nakajima.
Through newsletters, books, and 50 indus-
trial study missions to Japan, Bodek pop-