Kaizen is the fourth and final part of my Lean House for the Shop-Floor (next to 6S, Standard Work and the Communication Cell). Kaizen is the Japanese term for Contiuous Improvement which should be performed by everyone, at all time, at all workstations (Imai, 1986). To facilitate continuous improvement, all communication cells should include a Kaizen-loop. Using this loop everyone can participate in the improvement process and improvements are communicated, structured and documented.

Lean is a philosophy based on a cultural aspect and a tool aspect. The tools used to implement Lean are traditionally visualized using a house format. Many academics preceded me and developed their own version of the Lean house, which included a combination of tools, looking something like this:

There is a lot of misconception about the principles of the Lean philosophy . In the past 30 years, the term Lean was implemented in different ways within organizations and described in literature various ways. After 2.5 years of learning and experimenting at my current employer, I would describe the Lean philosophy using five basic principles which should prevent lots of confusion, questions and disappointments during a Lean implementation: Lean is a culture (1), the goal of Lean is to satisfy your customers (2), Lean focuses on reducing Mura, Muri and Muda (3), Lean improves task autonomy and responsibilities for operators (4) and Lean transforms the entire organization (5).

For each Value Stream or workstation which needs optimizing, finding the big fish or low hanging fruits are the best ways to start. Time studies facilitate finding these big fish by timing how much time a certain activity takes, and how often the activity is done. This information, which can be used for both man and machines, help to show where the highest potential for improvement can be found. In this article, two types of time studies are described: the Elemental time study which maps the time it takes to perform a task and Work Sampling which describes how much time is spent relatively to the total workload.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is on itself an approach for continuous improvement, which roughly describes the implementation of Preventative- and Autonomous Maintenance. Implementing TPM results in less Muda (waste) and a reduction of Mura (variation) which explains why it can complement a Lean program. In both Lean and TPM, 6S and Standard Work form the foundation of implementation. To elaborate: anonomous maintenance consist of seven steps, which include the cleaning of machines, keeping the machines clean, creating standards for machine cleaning and standards for machine inspections (Tajiri & Gotoh; 1992).

Kamishibai is the Japanese tool used for mini-audits. The goal of the mini-audit is to check if the current standards are still valid, kept and help the team in finding the next improvement (Niederstadt, 2013).

The kamishibai is in my opinion one of the most important lean tools, because it can support a lean culture in various ways. It can be used by management at gemba walks, help sustaining 5S efforts, check on implemented improvements and measure performance on behavioral level (Panneman, 2017).

One of the most difficult discussions that an organization has is: how do we measure performance of a line, a department or a site? Especially when we want to measure whether the lean or six sigma initiative has a positive impact on our performance, we need some good measures, some key performance indicators. One of the most widely known measures that can help us here is the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). This measure shows us from a machine perspective, how well the machine runs.

The second building in the Fortress of Change is the Postoffice. Managing communication flows within the organization is one of the most important ways to align all employees with the company goals. Communication can go one way, where departments only inform each other on ongoing matters (Theory-E), or they can go both ways, which include the control and responsibility meetings discussing the aligned KPI (Hoshin Kanri) at the communication cells (Theory-O).

To encourage employees to work together in improving business processes bottom-up, tools need to be introduced to facilitate them. This is what the market of methodsstands for for. The Lean philosophy includes both technical and cultural aspects. It is important for the organization to choose the right tools fitting the specific situation the organization is in and encourage the right cultural aspects necessary to use the tools properly. Simply copying implementations of other factories seldom leads to extraordinary results. The Lean tools need to be built from within the organization, bottom-up, to make sure all employees learn how to use them properly.