Book Summary: Kaizen: The key to Japan's Competitive Success

Book summaries are a little different because they are only the information I find useful from a book and less commentary than a review.

Kaizen: The key to Japan’s Competitive success
By Masaaki Imai

“Gentlemen, our job is to manage change. If we fail, we must change management.”

Kaizen: Ongoing improvement, including everybody from management to floor worker in work, social and home life.

Design > Production > Sales > Research

Sumo awards: outstanding performance, skill and fighting spirit award.

Process oriented manager
Discipline
Time Management
Skill development
Participation and involvement
Morale
Communication

An infusion of capital is no substitute for this investment in time and effort, it means investing in people.

Kaizen best suited for slow growth economy.

Western managers often refuse to establish rapport with workers which is needed for Kaizen.

Japanese axiom: Quality control starts with training and ends in training

When you see data, doubt it. When you see the measuring instruments, doubt them.

Do stage: morale is improved through Kaizen activities as everybody masters the art of solving immediate problems.

American suggestions based on economic benefits and financial incentives. Japanese stress morale-boosting benefits of positive employee participation.

Suggestions fill the gap between the workers capabilities and the job.

Prerequisites for policy deployment:
1. There must be a clear understanding of role of each manager in achieving the predetermined business result and improving the processes.
2. Managers of different ranks must have a clear understanding of the control points and check points established to realize of goals.
3. The system of routine management must be well established in the company.

Before coming to Washington, I stopped off in Chicago to see the CES. There were many comp products on display at the show. When they arrived packed in crates it was the work of the carpenters union to remove nails from the crates. However, simple taking out the nails was not enough to remove the entire wooden frame, since there were some nuts and bolts remaining. The man from the carpenters’ union said that is was not his job to remove the nuts and bolts and that he would not do it. Finally the frames were removed, but again the work stopped because the rest had to be done by a worker from another Union. Then we learned that pamphlets ordered from Japan had arrived. I went to see about them but there was nobody there from the right union to unload the packages. We waited for two hours, but no one showed up. Finally the truck driver who had delivered the packages gave up and went back, with the pamphlets still on board.

We call some societies primitive because of their desire to remain in the same state in which gods or ancestors created them at the beginning of time, with a demographic balance which they know how to maintain and an unchanging standard of living protected by their social rules and metaphysical belief.

While this book was primarily focused on production lines and warehouses the management logic is not that hard to adapt to executive team management. The core principle is to look at wasted efforts, continual improvement and what each individual can contribute to make the entire organization function better. In my environment this is better monitoring tools and communications software.