Updated kaizen manual now available
By Plant Engineering Staff -- Plant Engineering, 10/13/2006 10:00:00 AM
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers recently published the fifth edition of the KaizenEvent Implementation Manual by Geoffrey L. Mika.
Revised and expanded in its fifth edition, the Kaizen Event Implementation Manual has seen use in many industries, for a range of applications. It provides workers at many levels of an organization with a how-to guide for planning, organizing and implementing kaizen events. Its hands-on presentation, including reusable charts and forms, brings a level of competence and understanding to event teams and participants as they become self-sufficient in the application and use of kaizen.
A "lean" advocate and implementer for more than 20 years, Mika received his formal training on the Toyota Production System at Toyota Motor Co. and Shingijutsu in Japan. A Black-belt and Master Kaizen Sensei, he began his own consultancy in 1987. Now known as Kaizen Sensei (formerly World Class Management Consultants), his consultancy has facilitated more than 360 kaizen implementations in 27 countries. He is a graduate of Wayne State University, certified by the American Production and Inventory Control Society and a member of SME and the American Society for Quality.
Originally used by Toyota, kaizen is a results-oriented tool that fosters continuous improvement. In the United States, kaizen is usually an event that runs three to five days and is comprised of intensive improvement activities directed at specific areas of a business. The main goal of kaizen is the elimination of non-value-added activities, or waste, through the implementation of one-piece flow, working to takt time and instituting a pull system. The mantra is to manufacture only what is needed by the customer, when it is needed in the quantities ordered. Kaizen has been shown to collapse lead times, dramatically reduce work-in-process and reduce scrap and defects while minimizing the need for capital expenditures.
