The document discusses the concept of kaizen, a Japanese term for continuous improvement which emphasizes the involvement of all employees in making incremental changes for better performance. It explains the kaizen blitz approach, a focused short-term event aimed at rapid improvements, and outlines the principles of mistake-proofing (poka-yoke) to prevent errors in processes. Additionally, it touches on statistical process control (SPC) as a method for monitoring process variations and improving overall quality management.

1. 1
Lean-Insight.com
Lean Six Sigma Training
Part 14
Training Centers: Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad

2. 2
Kaizen Ki-zen a
continuous improvement
mindset. Everything that
we do today can be
improved. Kaizen has no
end.
A Healthy Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo
Kaizen
Lean-Insight.com

3. 3
Kaizen – Continual Improvement
 Most successful implementations use Kaizen as their base approach for
Continual Improvement.
 Kaizen stands for “Change for the Better”
 Kaizen is also known as the PDCA cycle, spoken about first by Dr. William
Edwards Deming.
 One Kaizen variant is Kaizen Blitz or Kaizen Burst.
 Kaizen Blitz emphasizes on Rapid or Breakthrough improvement and it is a
focused activity on a particular process. Example, McDonalds inscribing
the temperature regulations on their water carrying glasses.
 Masaaki Imai credited with popularity of Kaizen.
5 elements/tenets of Kaizen
 Teamwork
 Personal Discipline
 Improved Morale
 Quality Circles
 Suggestions for Improvement
Lean-Insight.com

4. 4
Kaizen Cycle
Lean-Insight.com

5. 5
Kaizen & Kaizen Blitz
Kaizen is a Japanese term made famous by Massaki Imai in his book Kaizen: The
key to Japan’s competitive success(1986) It refers to a mind-set in which all
employee are responsible for making continuous incremental improvements to
the functions they perform. The aggregate effect of this approach is the cost
effective and practical improvements that have instant buy-in by those who use
them.
Kaizen is an approach to process and enterprise management that
recognizes the importance of each employee creative ability & interest in
continuous improvement. Barrier includes adversarial attitude & feeling that “its
not my job to make my job better”. In some situation this may be overcome by
demonstrating successful kaizen blitz events.
A Kaizen Blitz is performed by a team in a short amount of time, usually a few
days. The Team focuses on a specific work area with the intent of making low
cost improvement that are easy to implement & are often installed during the
Blitz.
Lean-Insight.com

6. 6
Kaizen & Kaizen Blitz (contin..)
The Team should consist of people from the work area, others from similar work
areas, technical support, supervisory personnel with decision making
responsibilities, and outsiders who can see with “ Fresh Eyes”.
The Blitz begin with some training & team building activities and quickly proceeds
to the work area where each function is observed & explained in detail. A side
benefit of blitz events is that employees begin to see that their input is valuable &
valued, which may lead to more support for the incremental kaizen mindset.
The term Kaizen is used to describe the gradual but continuous improvement
process that extends overtime. It has been found to improve processes, products &
morale.
Kaizen Blitz describes a short term event design to make quick & easy
improvement & set the stage for the mindset require for the long term Kaizen
approach.
Lean-Insight.com

7. 7
Mistake proofing (POKA YOKE)
What is Poka Yoke?
The real world
-People make mistakes
People are human
Mistakes are inevitable
Murphy’s Law: “If something can go wrong it will”
The old way to prevent mistakes
Reprimand worker
Retrain worker
Motivational talks
Tell them to “be more careful”
Tell them to “pay attention
Lean-Insight.com

8. 8
Mistake proofing (POKA YOKE) Conti.
A better way to prevent mistakes
Remove the opportunity for error
Improve the process
Make wrong actions more difficult
If you can’t remove the opportunity for error
Make it easier to discover the errors that do occur
Shigeo Shingo invented the Japanese concept called Poka-Yoke (pronounced
POH-kah YOH-kay) Poka-Yoke means to mistake proof the process
The essential idea of poka-yoke is to design
your process so that mistakes are impossible
or at least easily detected and corrected
Lean-Insight.com

9. 9
• SPC (Statistical Process Control)
• SPC is the use of control charts with statistically derived response limits.
• It is better than inspection in that it provides insights into trends and
process variation.
• SPC’s effectiveness is lessened when management will not empower
workers to stop for investigation.
• Effective SPC requires proper training in how to interpret and act on the
charted information. Else, we are just creating wallpaper.
• Inspection
• Inspection is never perfect in that some defects go undetected and slip
through.
Mistake Proofing – SPC & Inspection
Lean-Insight.com

10. 10
Mistake proofing (First Poka-Yoke Device)
Shingo suggested a solution that became the first Poka-Yoke
device
In the old method, a worker began by taking two springs
out of a large parts box and then assembled a switch
Problem: Sometimes the worker failed to put both
springs in the switch
In the new approach, a small plate is placed in front of the
parts box and the worker's first task is to take two springs out
of the box and place them on the plate
Then the worker assembles the switch. If any spring
remains on the plate, then the worker knows that he or
she has forgotten to insert it
The new procedure completely eliminated the problem of the
missing springs
Empty plate
Lean-Insight.com

11. 11
Mistake proofing (Categories of Poka-Yoke)
Poka-yoke devices fall into two major categories:
Prevention
Detection
A prevention device engineers the process so that it is impossible to make a
mistake at all
Prevention Example :
A classic example of a prevention
Device is the design of a 3.5 inch
computer diskette Impossible to
put in upside down
Lean-Insight.com

12. 12
Lean-Insight.com
If you are looking for Six Sigma Course training in Bangalore along with certification
visit:
http://lean-insight.com/six-sigma-training-bangalore/