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Jeffrey B. Cloutier
Internship - Avery Dennison Office Products Co.
Project Kaizen
Custom writing service can write essays on Kaizen
Spring 00
Kaizen
Many observers consider kaizen-a philosophy of ongoing improvement involving everyone, from top managers to the lowest level worker-to be the single most important element in Japans competitive success in manufacturing. One commentators characterization of kaizen distinguishes Japans process-oriented view of thinking from the Wests innovation-and results-oriented view. In practice, kaizen is a system for communicating ideas up and down the company hierarchy; everyone is encouraged to seek out and exploit new opportunities, and institutional barriers to the information flow are dismantled.
The kaizen attitude helps to explain why Japanese firms are so adept at exploiting new technology, even when they are not its originator. Kaizen-driven firms do not suffer from not invented here syndrome. Ideas are not the exclusive preserve of R&D, corporate planning, or market research; every new idea is welcomed and channels are forsaken.
An example of Kaizen's effectiveness is at Avery Dennison Office products were the simplest of just having areas cleaned and organized has improved the uptime of the machinery. These gains were achieved through a series of kaizen programs that searched out improvements that cut time by as little as two to three physical steps or even to seconds.
The logic of kaizen is that breakthroughs result not from massive reorganizations or large-scale investment projects but from the cumulative effects of successive incremental improvements. Rebuilding a factory, wrote William H. Davidow and Michael S. Malone (The Virtual Corporation [New York Harper Business, 1], 118), requires replacing almost every brick in the old plant. Do that too quickly and the structure will collapse. The only practical way is through kaizen.
To be sure, quality programs and reengineering share a number of common themes. They both recognize the importance of processes, and they both start from the needs of the process customer and work backwards from there. However, the two programs differ fundamentally. Quality programs work within the framework of a companys existing processes and seek to enhance them by means of what the Japanese call kaizen, or continuous incremental improvement. The aim is to do what we already do; only to do it better. Quality improvement seeks steady incremental improvement to process performance. Reengineering, as we have seen, seeks breakthroughs, not by enhancing existing processes, but by discarding them and replacing them with entirely new ones. (Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation A Manifesto for Business Revolution [New York HarperBusiness, 1], 4.)
The difference between kaizen and business process reengineering is fundamentally a difference in duration and magnitude of change; kaizen posits change as a sustained series of incremental adjustments, reengineering as an all-out commitment to wrenching reconstitution. Kaizen charges management to prioritize, standardize, and improve. Standardization and measurement are the keys to kaizen. Without detailed and specific metrics of quality and performance, there is no basis for moving forward; goals that cannot be measured are just rallying cries.
Characterizing kaizen as simply continuous improvement trivializes the concept and portrays it as cautious and lacking in imagination, a criticism frequently leveled by advocates of business process reengineering. More typically, the implementation of kaizen reflects a radical commitment to an entire way of operating that requires floor-to-ceiling change in management, work, manager-worker relationships, discipline, decision-making, and the organization of knowledge that transforms an organization into a federation of problem solvers. Continuous improvement treats every variance from target as a problem to be solved and everyone as a responsible contributor.
At my current employment, there are many types of Kaizen's in the workplace. At Avery Dennison Office Products Co. located in Chicopee, Ma. I had the privilege of working on an event that took place in the maintenance crib. The first 40 hours of the internship were based on the following
· Kaizen and 5 "S" Training.
· Team building for the event.
· Working in the "crib".
· Presentation to the Plant wide Leadership team.
· Team lunch at Adelphia's in South Hadley.
After the initial kaizen blitz, the reaming hours were spent working on the organization of parts, counting parts, updating the PMC 000 inventory and establishing a bar code system.
During the remaining hours I had the privilege of working with other members of Avery Dennison. These other members consist of group-leaders form various departments. The departments were paper, electrical, o. & p. (sheet protectors), binders, and the printing press department.
The reason for these meeting was so each individual could help me identify parts, properly label them and enter them into the PMC 000 computer. Each member helps with explaining a common nomenclature for the parts. If you enter a part into the computer system that you think is called one thing and members from the floor go and look for it under a different name then you have a part that can not be found, thus you are wasting time.
I also was given the opportunity to work with an outside vender. The vender was Festo Co. Festo Co. is a manufacturing company that deals with pneumatics. Such parts well deals with are air regulators, unions between different size air hoses, and fittings, ect. During my dealings with Edward Sullivan I was given the opportunity to price negotiate. Working with Edward I learned a lot about parts that we need and do not need. Edward was very helpful and understanding when it came time to deal with my inexperience.
Things that learned from this internship were that the maintenance department is not one of my strong suits. I feel that since I am a young adult and some of these machine parts were older then I am, I struggled at times. Plus the scope of this internship was to big for the period of time I had to work with it. Remember that Avery Dennison is my current employer, so working 16 hours a week on this project plus during the week doing my normal group-leaders job was stressful. Thankfully I was able to hand over the project of implementing a bar code system to another individual who works on this project about 16 hours a week also. About 60% of the project was completed during my internship.
So what is kaizan and the 5 "S" lean manufacturing?
The Japanese word KAIZEN is now well known on the floors of factories all over the world. It is written with the two kanji characters at left. KAI means alter, renew, reform, or to be corrected, among other meanings, and ZEN means simply good (source The Kanji Dictionary, Spahn & Hadamitzky). In everyday Japanese, KAIZEN means improvement. For people in factories, though, KAIZEN means a lot more than that. It means the relentless process of finding and eliminating MUDA (or waste). That is why KAIZEN is sometimes translated in English as Continuous Improvement, because experts felt that saying merely improvement gave the wrong impression. MUDA is everywhere. Eliminate it and you will find it in new places. And so KAIZEN is endless.
A common misunderstanding of the word KAIZEN is that it refers to Japanese factory management practices in general. This may be due to the fact that often people learn about these practices in a KAIZEN EVENT, or Continuous Improvement
Remember what Henry Ford once said
"Time waste differs from material in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes, and the hardest to correct, is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material."
This is one of the reasons why manufacturing plants in the U.S. are serious and commented to Kaizen and the 5 "S" of lean manufacturing.
Essential in the Lean Manufacturing Structure is
The 5S Philosophy
Seiri Seiton Seiso Seiketsu Shitsuke
The use of the 5Ss in our Kaizen Workshops is a basic part of the process. This is the finest piece of easy information about this subject that I have ever seen. The 5Ss are explained here as a very simplified but thorough and feasible process.
How can I improve efficiency, work organization, quality, safety and housekeeping and protect my investment at the same time? Avery Dennison Office Products Co. decided that the 5S process could effectively impact the way his company does business.
Based on Japanese words that begin with 'S', the 5S Philosophy focuses on effective work place organization and standardized work procedures. 5S simplifies your work environment, reduces waste and non-value activity while improving quality efficiency and safety.
Sort (Seiri) the first S focuses on eliminating unnecessary items from the workplace. An effective visual method to identify these unneeded items is called red tagging. A red tag is placed on all items not required to complete your job. These items are then moved to a central holding area. This process is for evaluation of the red tag items. Occasionally used items are moved to a more organized storage location outside of the work area while unneeded items are discarded. Sorting is an excellent way to free up valuable floor space and eliminate such things as broken tools, obsolete jigs and fixtures, scrap and excess raw material. The Sort process also helps prevent the JIC job mentality (Just In Case.)
Set In Order (Seiton) is the second of the 5Ss and focuses on efficient and effective storage methods.
You must ask yourself these questions
1. What do I need to do my job?
. Where should I locate this item?
. How many of this item do I really need?
Strategies for effective Set In Order are painting floors, outlining work areas and locations, shadow boards, and modular shelving and cabinets for needed items such as trash cans, brooms, mop and buckets. Imagine how much time is wasted every day looking for a broom? The broom should have a specific location where all employees can find it. A place for everything and everything in its place.
Shine (Seiso) Once you have eliminated the clutter and junk that has been clogging your work areas and identified and located the necessary items, the next step are to thoroughly clean the work area. Daily follow-up cleaning is necessary in order to sustain this improvement. Workers take pride in a clean and clutter-free work area and the Shine step will help create ownership in the equipment and facility. Workers will also begin to notice changes in equipment and facility location such as air, oil and coolant leaks, repeat contamination and vibration, broken, fatigue, breakage, and misalignment. These changes, if left unattended, could lead to equipment failure and loss of production. Both add up to impact your company's bottom line.
Standardize (Seiketsu) once the first three 5S's have been implemented, you should concentrate on standardizing best practice in your work area. Allow your employees to participate in the development of such standards. They are a valuable but often overlooked source of information regarding their work.
Sustain (Shitsuke) this is by far the most difficult S to implement and achieve. Human nature is to resist change and more than a few organizations have found themselves with a dirty cluttered shop a few months following their attempt to implement 5S. The tendency is to return to the status quo and the comfort zone of the old way of doing things. Sustain focuses on defining a new status quo and standard of work place organization.
Once fully implemented, the 5S process can increase morale, create positive impressions on customers, and increase efficiency and organization. Not only will employees feel better about where they work, the effect on continuous improvement can lead to less waste, better quality and faster lead times. Any of which will make your organization more profitable and competitive in the market place.
The following PowerPoint document is the presentation that was put together for the plant leadership team at Avery Dennison Office Products Company. This presentation concluded the first 40 hours of the internship.
Work Cited
Kaizen Training Material-Avery Dennison
www.fredharriman.com
The Virtual Corporation
Reengineering the Corporation A Manifesto for Business Revolution
The Kanji Dictionary
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