| |
| |
|
Difference between Kaizen Theory and Lean Manufacturing |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
If you have any questions about our Quality Matrix, or wish to make any comments, please feel free to send a message to us at quality@artige.com. |
| |
| |
| |
| Overview |
|
This analysis is just one of many comparisons that are offered as part of the Artige Quality Matrix, which can be seen here in its original form. The definitions that are used in these comparisons are the ones that we at the Artige Company use internally and with our clients, derived from the research that we perform as a matter of due course. These definitions are derived from natural laws of physics and statistics, in order to screen our work from the effects of the business press. The original article where these terms are discussed appears here. In other words, we like to think that this work will withstand the scourges of time and not be categorized as "management du jour". |
| |
| |
| Kaizen Theory |
|
Definition |
| |
| |
|
One translation of the term Kaizen from Japanese is "to take apart and put back together in a better way". One will immediate recognize that we have a term that relates to quality, as Kaizen relates directly to improvement. This definition even comes with a recommendation on how to accomplish the improvement. Note that the definition does not have a subject, which means that it can be applied to any matter, such as processes, resources or people. |
| |
| (Continuous Improvement) |
|
For all intents and purposes, Kaizen is most often associated with continuous improvement. This is the improvement methodology where small steps are taken in an attempt to improve an existing process. Feedback is collected, and then these results are analyzed. If the review of the outcome proves successful (based on predetermined metrics), the small step change is accepted. Otherwise the process is rolled back to its previous state. This is not a radical methodology. Rather, many small steps are taken to produce desired process improvements instead of one big overhaul. Kaizen is seen by many business people to be a safe way to implement quality. |
| |
| |
|
Thanks to the folks at Toyota, the term Kaizen has been applied in a quality context to refer to a human based approach that requires feedback from the people that are familiar with the process and interact with it. The idea here is that the workers experience and knowledge includes both positive and negative aspects of the operation and would be best to know what changes could potentially work or not. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this line of thought, which is why Kaizen is applicable in certain instances. Obviously, the presence of workers with experience is a requirement, which means high turnover facilities will not be a good candidate. It is also well positioned for manual tasks, especially in the service sector. |
| |
| |
|
Another offshoot of Kaizen is the thorough use of the employee suggestion box. The Kaizen effort relies upon employee suggestions and cross-functional teams, where empowered employees are encouraged to speak up. Without human intervention, there can be no process improvement using Kaizen. As such, employees are expected to make suggestions in order to raise the quality of the processes they are responsible for. |
| |
| |
| Lean Manufacturing |
|
Definition |
| |
| |
|
The main concern of lean manufacturing design is to eliminate waste. The main desire is to reduce the production cycle, which eliminating waste should accomplish. Lean also has a focus on retaining tasks that add value, and eliminating non-value adding tasks. Other concepts having to do with time and waste are important to lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing is normally driven by customer demand. This brings up the point about what the driver of a business process should be. The two concepts are push and pull. Most concepts of lean involve a pull scenario. This is in comparison to the "traditional", "out-of-date", or "old-fashioned" push scenario. In the good old days companies manufactured to stock, filling warehouses with product that marketing was responsible for emptying out. The push method involves carrying costs and results in various types of waste, especially as the product lifetime came to an end. |
| |
| Pull-driven |
|
In a pure pull scenario, the customer demands the product, and the manufacturer creates or delivers the desired product at the moment the demand signal is received. Based on today's technology, the marketing department closely monitors the customer' needs, or the customers themselves can directly make their own demands, so the firm is able to react very quickly to market conditions. Note the word "react". It is a term that lean and TQM aficionados would like to eliminate from business vocabulary, as it foreshadows the waste to come. To accommodate pulling, minimal amounts of work-in-progress and inventory will be desired in the process design, otherwise there must be additional steps that are adding delay, which will result in waste being generated. |
| |
| Takt time |
|
When considering Lean manufacturing, one also has to take into account the concept of flow, which is driven by a production beat, that being called "takt time". Flow reinforces the notion that lean manufacturing requires constancy and cannot tolerate interruptions, otherwise additional amounts of waste will be generated. The term "takt time" describes the average amount of time it takes to manufacture a product or deliver a service, expressed in terms of a cycle. In other words, one might be able to manufacture one unit of a certain part in 120 seconds. However, if one needed to manufacture 2000 units of the part, will it still take 120 seconds per part? Takt time takes into account the flow of production, and requires that a process to run at a consistent rate, to the constant beat of a production clock. The concept of takt time recognizes that many business processes need to run at a consistent rate in order to maintain the highest quality and still deliver product at a particular volume. With takt time, one can visibly see when a problem might be brewing. If the production rate becomes erratic and inconsistent, or changes from a given norm, then some aspect of the process has failed. However, a period of erratic production may occur when the takt time period was purposefully altered. |
| |
| Lean Management / Lean Thinking |
|
One will see the terms of lean manufacturing, lean management and lean thinking used interchangeably. From what we have found, there is no difference between these terms. They are all driven by the same methodology of cutting waste. The vast majority of lean manufacturing implementations have been applied to manufacturing, but there is no reason why it could not also be applied to service processes. Lean manufacturing would be considered incremental in the rate of change being applied. |
| |
| |
|
This last concept of purposefully altering takt time helps explain an inconsistency that one might think exists at first glance between pull-driven manufacturing and takt time. If a lean manufacturing process was based upon a consistent, never-varying takt time, how can it deal with changes in demand? The answer lies in the fact that a takt time system does not react to every demand whim on a first order basis. Rather, a second order function is used, that watches the rate of change in demand. This rate change will manifest itself in a change to the takt time period of the production line. The takt time change may result in some waste (time, resources, cost, depending on the situation). In the end the total cost of operating the production line with a takt time is supposed to compensate for the waste that may occur with individual takt time period changes. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| The Difference |
|
The Differences and / or Similarities |
| |
| |
|
At first glance, one would think that Kaizen and Lean principles have a few things in common, in addition to the fact that they both deal with the topic of quality. They are both methodologies that can be used to implement changes that could potentially improve quality in a firm's offerings. The two methodologies take different approaches, resulting in different outcomes. |
| |
| |
|
Lean Manufacturing offers a direct approach to improving quality in an existing system, through process design changes that are aimed at reducing waste. It also imposes the constraint that the business processes should be driven by customer demand, and provides the hint that a process runs with better quality when it can be run at a consistent rate, according to takt time. In summary, the lean principles offers the benefit of higher quality if one is willing to perform some process redesign and then operate them with the customer and clock in mind. |
| |
| |
|
Kaizen also offers a direct approach to improving an existing system, through the application of continuous improvement, using a human based approach. Although Kaizen does not provide details to every specific situation, it does offer the optimism that an organization will operate better if process improvements are continuously attempted and applied. One could consider this method a direct attempt at improving the lot of an organization. |
| |
| |
|
So on one hand with Lean Manufacturing we have a methodology that provides specific guidance on how to improve processes that should result in improvement in quality. These are direct steps that one can take, but may not be simple or trivial to implement. One must realize that any time process redesign is suggested, effort must be exerted, and probably capital funds will need to be spent. On the other hand, Kaizen brings us improvement ideas that are related more towards the people running the processes, and allowing them input into the design and improvement of those processes. Both methodologies should result in changes to the underlying operating processes. So the main difference between these methodologies is that Kaizen is open ended with the improvements that could be implemented, while the lean principles declare that elimination of waste is the one way to accomplish improvement in quality. |
Legal