Kaizen Events

Description

Kaizen Events (also known as Kaikaku, Kaizen Blitz, Kaizen Burst, Gemba Kaizen) are focused, intense and short-term projects in which a cross-functional team makes rapid improvements in a short period of time. Kaizen Events normally takes 3 to 10 days and the intensity and urgency overcomes the intellectual resistance to a new paradigm as people have little time to think of reasons for delay. It is common to completely re-engineer a process in a Kaizen Event week.

Kaizen Event benefits include:

• Streamlined processes
• Reduced waste and/or non-value add activities
• Reduced cycle time
• Reduced cost of operations
• Removes bottlenecks
• Improved throughput
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Improved productivity

Common Kaizen topics include:

• 6S/Workplace Organization
• Direct Observation
• Process Improvement
• Process Layout
• Lean Office
• NPI Process Optimization
• Root Cause Analysis
• Set-up Reduction
• Standard Work
• Statistical Process Control (SPC)
• Supply Chain
• Systems Inventory Control
• Tool Crib Process – Root Cause Analysis
• Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
• Value Stream Mapping
• Visual Factory
• Work Environment