Kaizen The Secret behind Japanese Productivity

visitors to factories in Japan often remark how carefully and neatly the tools and working materials are arranged this is actually the key to efficiency when tools are laid out clearly and conveniently no work time is wasted looking for them and logical pre positioning of materials reduces time spent transporting them to work spaces lessening the danger of collisions on route such techniques for improving work efficiency and safety are known as Kaizen a Japanese word that simply means to do something better our workers on the shop floor are always thinking of ways to improve the workflow revising procedures so they take two steps instead of three or need five seconds instead of 10 many tiny improvements add up to give a big result that's Kaiser the idea of Kaizen began in automobile plants about 70 years ago workers sharing their knowledge to revise and improve work procedures made a great contribution during the years of Japan's rapid economic growth and the Kaizen philosophy is still firmly embedded in Japanese industry let's look at how Kaizen works in this sandwich factory which has a mostly female workforce their old way of doing it was for each worker to handle a single process as the materials move past them on the line but one process cutting the bread always took more time and interrupted the flow keeping the next worker waiting we'd been doing it that way for years and never saw it was a problem once they realize the weakness in their system they decided to change from a linear flow to one where small groups of workers each complete batches of sandwiches after rearranging work benches and assigning multiple processes to each worker the time required fell sharply and productivity went up now we rarely have to stand about waiting for materials it's really improved the job this factory employs a large number of workers with disabilities the Kaizen approach paid off here to a major goal of our Kaizen effort was to make it easier and more comfortable for the workers to do their jobs trash receptacles were redesigned for easy transportation and various assistive devices allow people with visual impairments to operate equipment this worker devised the Kaizen idea of stabilizing hanging screwdrivers with flexible cords his improvement reduces wasteful movement and since the drivers are used thousands of times a day saves as much as 200 minutes of work time a month it really feels like you've accomplished something when you come up with a new technique like this we all enjoy thinking and working together to make our job better spares and supplies are arranged for easy handling by the visually challenged for example these tapes are arranged by type and large paper discs indicate by touch when only one is left and the disks bright printed design delivers the information clearly to sighted people to carjacks allow work tables to be raised and lowered to match the height of each wheelchair this idea was so helpful jacks have been fitted to all the work Taylor's ideas intended to make things easier for people with disabilities often simplify everyone's work improving productivity quality and working conditions and all with no need for new equipment Japan's Kaizen approach is winning followers around the world

Channel: Japan Video Topics - English

Views: 320,160

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Id: fcBXtwGexNc

Length: 4min 16sec (256 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2016