One day or multi-day events can help you with immediate tactical improvement or as part of a annual strategic improvement plan. The goal of the strategic improvement plan is to flow-down improvement to the lowest level in the organization.
Improvement can be rapid or be a major element of a sustained improvement culture. I was fortunate to work for a company that had a strong continuous improvement culture. Every year we were expected to improve cash flow, profitability and sales growth. Continuous improvement can be used as a strategy to improve near-term and future cash flow, profitability and sales growth. This has enabled me to participate and/or lead over 40 improvement projects also known as kaizen events as well as many smaller improvement projects.
“Simplexity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo De Vinci
Improvement/Kaizen events
Multi-day event is typically 3 to 5 days. Train and coach your employees so that they can lead and manage these valuable rapid improvement events. Kaizan events can be developed to solve any problems you have or to make current processes or products better. All materials, training material, and templates can be provided. The following is a typical kaizen process:
5S Workplace Organization-Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain
5S-The foundation of improvement. Depending on your needs this can be a two hour project or a muliti-day project. 5S should be suplimented with standard work. Many options are avaialbe to meet your needs. 5S actualy started at the Ford Motor Company with the “CAN DO” process: Cleaning up, Arranging Neatness, Discipline and Ongoing improvement.
Lean events
Lean events can take hours or days and are intended to remove waste from any process or location. Workplaces and workflow typically have the following 8 wastes:
