Kaizen stands for continuous improvement. It is actually a general life philosophy, but Toyota successfully implemented it in the organizational sphere in the 1960’s. Kodo Yokozawa, PhD candidate at the University of Twente, explains: “In Kaizen, companies improve in small steps without investing a lot of money. It is a never-ending process. After Toyota’s pioneering, many companies have started to use it. It is now wide-spread in Japan and has led to significantly higher performance. Especially in the car manufacturing industry.”
Few investments, amazing results. That sounds like an incredible management approach that should be adopted everywhere. Then how come that not all companies use it? Yokozawa’s dissertation explicitly discusses the transferral of Kaizen to the Netherlands, and the problems that accompany it.
“Many Dutch managers do not understand that Kaizen is not a tool or a method. The Dutch know all about systematic analyses, but in Kaizen it is essential to motivate people. Managers need to identify an issue to improve, such as quality. Then, it is of utmost importance to create a sense of urgency to this specific issue throughout the whole company.
The first step towards this direction is to compose the right team from all layers of the organization. Also operators need to feel committed, and a friendly culture should allow them to suggest ideas and to even fail.” According to Yokozawa’s research, Dutch managers are not always able to transfer this feeling of ownership to operators.
Kodo will defend his doctoral dissertation on Kaizen today.
Omron is one of the Dutch companies that understand the concept well. They were able to convey the need for improvement by comparing themselves to other companies. They sent a clear message that when things would not change, other companies would outcompete them and everyone would be without a job. Now, they are masters at Kaizen and even practice it better than several Japanese companies do.
One of the challenges is to keep motivation high when improvements are made, and less room for more improvement remains. Yokozawa offers a solution: “The trick is to focus on one point at a time. So when room for quality improvement runs out, management may decide to focus on another issue, such as cost efficiency. This will result in renewed energy. Kaizen is never finished.”
But motivation is not the only determining factor. “Kaizen can only be successfully implemented when operators have the right capabilities. These are initiative and discipline,” Yokozawa found. “In the Netherlands, employees generally take initiative, which is necessary for out-of-the box thinking. However, they lack discipline to follow work standards. They often think they have a better idea and deviate from prescribed processes. In Germany, the situation is opposite. Employees have much discipline, but lack initiative. Yokozawa laughs: “Perhaps Dutch and German companies should work together more often, to create really devoted teams!”.
After defending his thesis today, Kodo Yokozawa will continue to research Kaizen. He has accepted a post-doc position at the Manufacturing Management Research Centre at The University of Tokyo. “The University of Tokyo is a true gatekeeper for major Japanese companies. I am looking forward to testing my hypotheses and develop case studies at companies like Toyota and Honda.”
Mariska Roersen
