Kaizen Workshops

Kaizen workshops, or Kaizen blitzes as they are often called, are the lean tool that is used the most by organizations in their lean implementation. This 1 week or less workshop is a highly effective tool to achieve significant measurable results in a very short time. It should not be considered a tool to affect cultural change; it is simply an event albeit a very powerful event. However, a secondary objective of any workshop should be to teach and learn.

The literal translation of Kaizen is "small improvements everyday". The applied translation is "huge improvement in one week". The approach is simple. Define the problem/opportunity, pick the best cross functional group of people, and fix the process or problem in one week or less using lean tools and techniques.

The principles and practices of a workshop contribute to the remarkable and quick improvements achieved. These principles and practices include: Just Do It-the bias is for action: creativity before capital-use our heads before the checkbook: work on the """, the 3 reals-work in the real place, on the real thing and with the real facts: use problem solving tools and a structure-not just guessing or relying on opinions: and lastly, rapid decision making-no time to wait in a one week event.

A 1998 Industry Survey of Kaizen Programs discovered that Kaizen practitioners reported significantly reduced costs, reduced lead times, less space required, improved workforce contribution, and an overwhelming awareness of waste. The more mature practitioners reported market share growth and entry into new market areas as their most significant gains.

ADI facilitators have lead hundreds of Kaizen events in almost every industry and almost every unit of an organization resulting in millions of dollars of savings and monumental productivity improvements. Two unique elements distinguish the ADI approach. First, we are fanatical about assuring a deep and common understanding of the current state using a variety of process mapping techniques not typical in a workshop. The ability to have a common lens and common understanding of the current stare is crucial to success. Second, we always describe and focus on an ideal state thereby facilitating the possibility of breakthrough results and not just incremental improvement.

ADI has designed an approach to use Kaizen events for a variety of application beyond just production process improvement. We can provide Quality Kaizen events, Pre-Production Kaizen events, Distractive Kaizen events and even Ideal State Kaizen event for when a process doesn't exist of if attempting to merge to process. We can also help you design and implement a Kaizen Facilitator Certification to develop internal resources to sustain Kaizen without outside intervention