Academic literature on the topic 'Continuous improvement (kaizen)'

No<br>Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to explore the results of implementing the Kaizen approach in a caravan repairing project near the Jordanian–Syrian border in the Zaatari camp. Design/methodology/approach. The study is based on the exploratory qualitative research approach. The data were collected through interviews and on-site observation with employees who were involved with the caravan maintenance project and have adequate knowledge and information about this project. In this process, a fishbone diagram, a quality control tool, is used to recognize and explain a causal-effect relationship under the selected Kaizen theme. Findings. The findings suggest that the Kaizen approach was economical in terms of both money and time. Also, waste elimination can be achieved through a variety of tools and easily combined with the Kaizen approach. Implementing the Kaizen approach is an effective and reliable system that allows for the tackling of all types of inefficiencies in the caravan repairing project. Research limitations/implications. The findings of this study will help policy makers and managers put together suitable and effective policies that will assist those firms in overcoming the demands of customers and competitors to deliver high quality, inexpensive products in less time through the application of the Kaizen approach. This, in turn, will lead to improved quality, efficiency and productivity in the most cost-effective way. However, these results should not be generalized since they are only confined to the context of caravan repairing project. Originality/value. Very little research has been done that takes into account the contexts of developing countries. Additionally, most literature presents the use of Kaizen applications only in the manufacturing or production sectors. This study is the first to implement Kaizen as a continuous improvement technique in a caravan repairing project – a job shop industry different from the repetitive batch work environment that is usually associated with implementation of Kaizen. The current research should be of great interest to researchers, managers and professionals who wish to apply Kaizen approach as it is sustainable over time in similar projects.

Currently, construction companies have shown a need to adopt process improvement systems in order to function competitively in the market. However, civil construction, compared to the manufacturing, still has deficiencies relating to the incorporation of new improvement systems. Thus, the use of Kaizen Events (KE) is one of the main mechanisms used to perfect processes during the production (execution) phase of a product, ensuring enhanced performance and added value to the client. The present research sought to evaluate a method for adopting KE in the construction sector. The data-gathering tools used were a questionnaire and a focus group where academics and/or experts who fit a specific profile participated. A methodological strategy for the development of the work was adopted under the approach of Design Science Research (DSR) and the theoretical referential was developed from a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Improvements were made to the method to improve its applicability and functionality in real life scenarios using the results obtained. Accordingly, the results show horizons for future research on KE in civil construction.<br>Revisión por pares

Mestrado em Gestão e Estratégia Industrial<br>A qualidade apresenta-se atualmente como um vértice cada vez mais fulcral, tanto para empresas como para consumidores individuais. Consumidores e mercados estão cada vez mais informados e exigentes, no que diz respeito à qualidade pretendida em cada oferta de valor. Porém, para que haja um aumento da qualidade, sem que ocorra um aumento de custos associados, deverá ocorrer uma melhoria de forma contínua - Kaizen. O presente trabalho ambiciona contribuir para um maior conhecimento da filosofia Kaizen. Para tal, pretende-se compreender o impacto da sua aplicação na indústria, identificando qual a perceção dos colaboradores da empresa portuguesa Tesco relativamente à mesma. Desta forma, foram recolhidos 30 inquéritos pelos trabalhadores da empresa Tesco, com o intuito de depreender qual o conhecimento geral sobre a filosofia Kaizen, e de que modo esta teve implicações no dia-a-dia da empresa e nas suas operações. Dos resultados obtidos, é de realçar que, de uma maneira geral, todos os trabalhadores da Tesco estão satisfeitos com o Kaizen e com o impacto que a sua aplicação teve nas suas tarefas diárias. A valorização de cada recurso humano foi claramente essencial para o sucesso desta filosofia.<br>Quality is actually viewed as a main structure - both for companies and individual consumers. Consumers and markets are increasingly informed about what they consider to be the component "quality" in the value proposal. However, for there to be an increase in quality that occurs without an increase in costs, an improvement should occur continuously - Kaizen. The present work aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Kai¬zen's philosophy. Furthermore, it wants to understand the application impact in the industry, through the perception from the employees of the Portuguese company Tesco. This way, 30 surveys were collected by the Tesco's employees, in order to deduce what the general knowledge about the Kaizen philosophy, and how it had an impact on day-to-day business and operations. From our results, in general, all of Tesco's employees are satisfied with Kaizen's philosophy and with the impact that its application has had on their dairly taks. The value of each Human Resource was clearly essential to the success of this philosophy.

Kaizen implementation and other continuous improvement practices can be used by companies to lower manufacturing costs and increase product value. Kaizen activities are one way that wood products companies can increase their competitiveness. Being able to measure the effectiveness of Kaizen events is important to factors that contribute to Kaizen effectiveness as well as identifying the success of Kaizen implementation. However, little research has focused on the implementation of Kaizen and other continuous improvement methods within the wood products industry or on the perceptions of employees within this industry regarding either the motivators for, barriers to, and effectiveness of perceptions of Kaizen, or the drivers affecting Kaizen implementation. The goal of this research is to develop a tool to measure the effectiveness of Kaizen and to apply this tool to companies within the wood products industry. To accomplish this research goal, a case study approach was used in examining how two U.S. wood products companies implemented Kaizen and other continuous improvement initiatives and how employees at these companies viewed such implementation. As part of this case study, interviews were conducted with staff in each company and surveys were administered to production and non-production employees at each company. A tool was developed to measure the perceived effectiveness of Kaizen events, and this tool was tested using the survey data were collected from each company. The results from these analyses show statistically significant differences in how production employees across companies viewed the following: motivators related to cost and quality outcomes, as well as the success of other companies, as motivators for Kaizen; and barriers related to middle management, time, money, technology, and poor past experiences. Poor past experience with Kaizen were also viewed significantly differently by production and non-production employees in one of the companies studied. The results also show that perceptions of productivity improvements were the most significant predictor of the perceived effectiveness of Kaizen implementation. These results and the development of a tool to measure Kaizen will help guide and improve future Kaizen and other continuous improvement efforts within the wood products industry and provide insights for future research.<br>Master of Science

Mestrado em Ciências Empresariais<br>A metodologia Kaizen, no âmbito da melhoria contínua, visa criar mais valor para o cliente, através do aperfeiçoamento de processos e da eliminação de tarefas desnecessárias (Mudas). Obedecendo aos princípios lean, são utilizadas várias ferramentas para melhorar os resultados e promover nas empresas uma cultura de organização. Este trabalho prendeu-se com a análise da aplicação dessas ferramentas Kaizen, num departamento de Desenvolvimento e Projetos, de uma empresa de Rent-a-cargo<br>The Kaizen methodology, regarding continuous improvement, aims to create more value to the client, by perfecting the processes and eliminating unnecessary tasks (Mudas). According to the lean criteria, several tools are used to improve the results and promote organization in the companies. This project dedicates itself to the study of the evolution of the Kaizen tools, having been implemented in a Development and Projects department.<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Mestrado em Gestão de Recursos Humanos<br>A metodologia Kaizen (melhoria contínua) pretende através do envolvimento e desenvolvimento do capital humano melhor os sistemas organizacionais que devem ser dinâmicos, ágeis, e flexíveis, permitindo uma rápida adaptação às mudanças dos mercados. Este desafio é transversal a toda a organização, sendo importante a aplicação da metodologia Kaizen aos processos de recursos humanos. O Recrutamento e Seleção (R&S) é um processo complexo e de elevada importância, que tal como outros processos organizacionais pode ser melhorado através da metodologia Kaizen, para responder mais eficaz e eficiente às necessidade organizacionais. Este trabalho pretende analisar a implementação da metodologia Kaizen ao processo de recrutamento e seleção da Worten PT. As atividades desenvolvidas durante o diagnóstico, a implementação e a avaliação deste projeto serão posteriormente analisadas à luz do enquadramento teórico referente à metodologia Kaizen e ao processo de recrutamento e seleção. Os resultados demonstram que o objetivo do projeto - redução do tempo de resposta dos processos de R&S - não foi alcançado. Contudo, Kaizen não é só sobre a redução dos desperdícios, mas também sobre o aumento da qualidade, algo que é evidente neste caso, onde é visível o aumento da qualidade do processo de R&S.<br>The Kaizen's methodology (continuous improvement) intends to change and improve the organizational systems that need to be dynamic, agile and flexible, through the involvement and development of human capital, allowing a rapid adaptation to the changes imposed by the market. This challenge is transversal to the whole organization, and consequently it is important the application of the Kaizen's methodology to all human resource processes. Recruitment and Selection is a complex and highly important process that like others organizational processes can be improved through the use of the Kaizen's methodology. The present thesis aims to analyse the implementation of the Kaizen methodology in Worten PT's Recruitment and Selection process. The activities developed during the diagnostic, implementation and evaluation of the project will be analysed based on the theoretical framework of the Kaizen methodology and of the Recruitment and Selection process. The results show that the project's objective - reduction of the R&S response time - was not achieved. However, Kaizen is not only about waste reduction, but also about increasing quality, being that evident on this case, since there is a visible quality increase on the R&S process.

Lo scopo del seguente lavoro di tesi è stato illustrare un’applicazione pratica della filosofia adottata da Ducati nell’approccio ai problemi, ossia lo schema Plan Do Check Act (PDCA), costituito da una sequenza di fasi per la pianificazione di una soluzione, l'esecuzione di quanto pianificato, il controllo dei risultati la verifica della compatibilità con il piano e l’implementazione delle soluzioni che hanno superato le verifiche. Questa è la metodologia che viene portata avanti in ogni GMK per il miglioramento continuo della produzione e che è valsa a Ducati la vittoria del premio “Kaizen Award” proprio nell’edizione 2018. Per ottenere risultati quantificabili in termini di riduzione delle attività non a valore aggiunto, la metodologia corretta da sola non basta per l’ottenimento del successo, è necessario bensì l’utilizzo degli strumenti adatti. Ed è per questo che gli strumenti Lean sono perfetti per raggiungere gli obiettivi preposti.

A continuous improvement project (CIP) is a structured improvement project using a team of people "typically representing different departments or units in the organization" working to improve a process or work area over a relatively short period of time, such as a few days or up to several months. A CIP may use different improvement methodologies and tools, and may thus be defined according to the improvement approach. For instance, an organization adopting Lean as an improvement approach is likely to have CIPs implementing Lean tools, such as 5S or value stream mapping. These projects may be referred to as Lean projects in general, although they may also represent accelerated improvement projects such as Kaizen events, Kaizen blitz, or rapid improvement projects. Alternatively, an organization utilizing Six Sigma as an improvement approach may have Six Sigma projects that use the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) process and statistical tools. Some organizations adopt an integrated improvement approach, such as Lean Six Sigma, and therefore may have CIPs with an even broader set of tools from which to choose. Lastly, many organizations may have an improvement approach not characterized by any single set of improvement processes and tools, and thus, may be thought of generally as process improvement, or quality improvement, projects using a traditional methodology as plan-do-study/check-act (PDSA or PDCA). In this dissertation, all of these types of improvement projects are referred as CIPs. Since the 1980s, hospitals have been using CIPs to address some of the problems in hospitals, such as quality in healthcare delivery, internal process efficiency, communication and coordination, and the cost of services. Some hospitals have achieved significant improvements, such as reducing the turnaround time for clinical laboratory results by 60 percent and reducing instrumentation decontaminations and sterilization cycle time by 70 percent. However, as with many other companies, hospitals often experience difficulty achieving their desired level of improvements with CIPs. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) related to CIP success. In order to achieve this goal, five objectives were achieved: creating a methodology to assess the maturity or evolution of a research field (manuscript #1), identifying a comprehensive list of CSFs for CIPs (manuscript #2), assessing the maturity of the published literature on CIPs in hospitals (manuscript #3), identifying the most important factors related to CIPs in hospitals (manuscript #4) , and conducting an empirical investigation to define the CSFs for CIPs in hospital settings (manuscript #5 and #6). This investigation was conducted in three phases: research framing, variable reduction, and model development and testing. During these phases, the researcher used the following methodologies and data collection tools: systematic literature review, maturity framework (developed as part of this dissertation), expert study, retrospective survey questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis, partial-least squares structural equation modeling, and regression modeling. A maturity framework with nine dimensions was created (manuscript #1) and applied in order to identify a list of 53 factors related to CIP in general, involving any organization (manuscript #2). Additionally, the maturity framework was used to assess the literature available on CIPs in hospitals, considering only the authorship characteristic dimension (manuscript #3). Considering the frequency of new authors per year, the relative new integration of research groups, and the limited set of predominant authors, the research field, or area, of CIPs in hospitals is one with opportunities for improving maturity. Using the systematic literature review from manuscript #3, the list of 53 factors, and the list of predominant authors, a review of the literature was conducted, along with an expert study to more fully characterize the importance of various factors (manuscript #4). A conclusion from this particular work was that it is not possible to reduce the list of 53 factors based on these results, thus, a field study using the complete comprehensive list of factors was determined to have stronger practical implications. A field study was conducted to identify factors most related to CIP perceived success (manuscript #5) and CIP goal achievement (manuscript #6). The final results and practical implications of this dissertation consist in the identification of the following CSFs for CIP success in hospitals: Goal Characteristics, Organizational Processes, Improvement Processes, and Team Operation. These CSFs include several specific factors that, to the researcher's knowledge, have not been previously studied in empirical investigations: goal development process, organizational policies and procedures, CIP progress reporting, and CIP technical documentation. Practitioners involved with CIPs, such as CIP leaders, facilitators, stakeholders/customers, and continuous improvement managers/leaders, can utilize these results to increase the likelihood of success by considering these factors in planning and conducting CIPs.<br>Ph. D.

<p>Continuous improvement is one of five principles in General Motors – Global Manufacturing System (GM-GMS). GM-GMS has been used by Saab Automobile AB since 2003 and is a central component for realisation of GM’s vision. Internal audits have discovered problems with one of the tools, practical problem solving (PPS), which needs to be improved. The department manufacturing of press and body (PK) wants to survey the problems and initiate a process of improvement. The purpose of this thesis work is to develop a foundation for future re-designs of the PPS process. Employees have been interviewed and observed in order to explore possible difference theoretical and practical problem solving with PPS. The result of the investigation shows 4 different and interrelated problem categories. 1. Information transfer, PPS hand over to product quality engineers (PQE) department cause problem when general assemblies (GA) are excluded from the improvement work. General assemblies do not get any feedback information from (PQE) about planed countermeasures. 2. Problem solving, team leaders has difficulties with identifying the true problem. Using “five-why” during the analysis work causes problem, since team leaders do not have the knowledge of how to use the tool in a proper way. 3. Documentation of PPS, the content in the PPS-form is a problem according to team leaders. Lack of knowledge and understanding of how to use the PPS-document leads to incomplete and incorrect analysis. 4. Coordination of involved people, support and help are missing from the management and quality engineer according team leaders. PPS from Global Costumer Audit are imposing time stress according to team leaders. Recommendations for further work is to investigate the opportunities with a web based PPS and process to improve information transfer and documentation of PPS. A second recommendation is to train and coach team leaders in problem solving and improve coordination of involved people and skills in problem solving.</p>