Page 52 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

38 B u s i n e s s - I n t e g r a t e d Q u a l i t y S y s t e m s A p p r o a c h e s t o Q u a l i t y 39

Top management Innovation
Middle management Kaizen

Supervisors
Workers Maintenance

Figure 3.1 Responsibility for KAIZEN and KAIZEN’s role in process improvement
(Imai, 1986).

process to produce better results through innovation and KAIZEN. When
an improvement has been identified, the SOPs are changed to reflect the
new way of doing things. Imai (1986) illustrates the job responsibilities as
shown in Figure 3.1.
The figure illustrates both the shared responsibility and the limited role
of KAIZEN in excluding radical innovations (sometimes referred to as
reengineering). More detailed responsibilities for KAIZEN are provided
in Table 3.1.
Another rather considerable contribution from post-war Japan is the
set of lean practices documented by Taiichi Ohno of Toyota. The lean
methods are sometimes referred to as the Toyota Production System
(due to their origins), and include principles and methodologies for
improving cycle times and quality through the elimination of waste
(also known by its Japanese name of muda). Lean distinguishes between
activities that create value, and those that don’t, with the objective to
improve cycle times and efficiencies, reduce waste of resources, and
increase value to the customer.
Taiichi Ohno of Toyota defined the following five types of waste
(Womack and Jones (1996) added the sixth):

1. Errors requiring rework. (Rework refers to any activity required to
fix or repair the result of another process step. In service processes,
management intervention to resolve a customer complaint may be
considered rework.)
2. Work with no immediate customer, either internal or external,
resulting in work in progress or finished goods inventory.
3. Unnecessary process steps.
4. Unnecessary movement of personnel or materials.
5. Waiting by employees as unfinished work in an upstream process
is completed.
6. Design of product or processes that do not meet the customer’s
needs.

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