Kaizen in the office. Workplace Innovation

29.04.2010

Kaizen is a Japanese manufacturing philosophy pioneered by the auto giant Toyota and aimed at continuous improvement of all processes in the company. To improve means, first of all, to give up everything superfluous and inefficient that is in the work. Kaizen can be applied at any level: from the optimal organization of workplaces in the office and in production to building a well-thought-out system of strategic business goals. Pavel Belkin, head of the financial and economic planning department at RusHydro, talks about the experience of applying Japanese ideas in one of the largest Russian companies.

Tell us a little about your experience at RusHydro and how the company came up with the idea of ​​implementing the Kaizen philosophy.

I have been working in the RusHydro structure since 2001. Prior to moving to the Moscow office, he worked at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP as the head of the planning and economic department. After the creation of RusHydro, I was invited to the position of deputy head of the financial department, later I became the head of this department.

Before talking about how we came to the philosophy of Kaizen and lean manufacturing, we should probably say a few words about the features of the company's business, since they prompted us to look for new methods to increase efficiency. RusHydro is a state-regulated company, and regulators have constantly made demands to reduce costs, since until 2008 the tariff was formed according to the “cost plus” formula. Since 2008, the company has switched to the indexing method when setting the tariff, but the task of reducing costs has remained a priority. That is, we were constantly looking for ways to reduce costs, and this task has traditionally been within the competence of the financial department.

It must be said that various programs to reduce costs in hydro generation have been developed by RAO UES since 2005, and usually these programs ended with a simple cut in cost budgets and a reduction in the number of personnel. At some point, it became clear that such a “surgical” approach had exhausted its possibilities, and it was necessary to look for other management tools that would allow the company not only to reduce costs, but also affect the company’s efficiency - to increase productivity, improve the quality of services provided. In addition, we were often reproached for inefficient asset management: they say that the state is not the most efficient owner, and private companies are much more actively mastering modern management technologies. As an example of effective management, they cited, in particular, the experience of the aluminum industry, where Rusal achieved impressive results precisely through the introduction of Kaizen methods.

Kaizen methods are used in various industries - from manufacturing to the service sector. Was there an analysis of existing experience?

Yes, we have analyzed various efficiency improvement methods, including those used in foreign energy companies, and found that Kaizen is widely used in many industries and leads to positive results. As for the energy sector, Kaizen has been implemented at EON since 2006, there is also an example of application in the Russian energy sector - not so long ago, a project to introduce this philosophy was launched at Rosatom.

Taking a closer look at Kaizen, we realized that this is exactly the philosophy that is designed to increase the efficiency of all internal processes of the company. Moreover, the result is achievable without significant investment costs, which was also an important factor: the company's free investment resources are limited, since RusHydro is implementing many financially intensive projects - the construction of new stations, the technical re-equipment of existing facilities, etc.

There were also doubts, which primarily concerned whether it was possible to apply the Japanese methodology on Russian soil. Kaizen is based on a completely different mentality, which has evolved over the centuries and is fundamentally different from the Russian one. The applicability of Kaizen methods in hydropower was also questionable. Projects at EON and Rosatom, of course, were a motivating example, but Kaizen is just beginning to be applied in these companies, and it is too early to talk about any serious results.

How did the project for implementing Kaizen methods in RusHydro start?

Since the level of uncertainty was high, we decided to launch a pilot project - to test some of the Kaizen tools at the Saratovskaya HPP, and at the same time - in the subdivisions of the executive office of RusHydro. Center Orgprom, one of the leading companies in the implementation of Kaizen and lean manufacturing methods, with experience in cooperation with such large enterprises as KAMAZ, Rusal, Irkut Corporation and VSMPO, participated in these projects as consultants. -AVISMA. Even before the start of the pilot projects, Orgprom Center specialists worked for a week with a small group of technical personnel of the Saratovskaya HPP - taught the station employees to identify and analyze existing inefficient processes, and look for ways to eliminate the identified problems. In that one week, 49 proposals for ways to improve efficiency were born, and all of them concerned a narrow area of ​​\u200b\u200bwork: at the plant, one of the equipment often failed, and the hydroelectric staff focused on how to reduce the frequency of failures and increase the efficiency of repair work. The estimated economic effect from the application of the proposals received was estimated at 3 million rubles a year. I think this is a very good result for one week of spot application of Kaizen. In addition, the station manager and chief engineer, who were initially less optimistic about the new philosophy, changed their minds about Kaizen - after one week of experimentation, they concluded that lean ideas would certainly have a positive effect.

It is interesting that the director and the engineer understood different things by the effect. The director saw a positive effect in the fact that people had increased motivation, which, as a rule, is not high for an ordinary employee of a multi-level large enterprise. The Chief Engineer appreciated another aspect of Kaizen - the ability to receive and systematize actionable proposals for improving efficiency, increasing equipment reliability, avoiding unnecessary repairs and standardizing technical processes.

The results of this "landing" were presented to the management of RusHydro. In addition, the consultants held a one-day seminar, the purpose of which was to acquaint the top management of RusHydro with the basics of the Kaizen philosophy. Only after that it was decided to start larger pilot projects. Based on the results of the experiment, it was supposed to evaluate whether it is worth extending the Kaizen methods to all stations that are part of the RusHydro structure.

Tell us about the pilot projects: what was their goal, what skills did the employees of the Saratov HPP gain?

The pilot project at the Saratov HPP lasted 9 months and was divided into several sub-projects covering the maintenance and repair of equipment. In total, three processes were selected that were to be improved by Kaizen methods: combining the maintenance of the BCA (brush-contact devices) with other maintenance works, the redistribution of work under maintenance and repair contracts, followed by the development of a procedure for interaction with the contractor, the creation of an integrated service service .

Every month for two weeks, training was held, seminars were held, then the stage of practical application of Kaizen methods followed. Over the course of 9 months, many of the tools of this system were studied, starting with goal-setting skills. Goal reversal is one of the main elements of Kaizen, which involves the creation of a system of goals that links the tasks of an ordinary employee with the strategic goals of the entire company. First, the general goals of the branch were formulated, then the goals of the functional departments of the station, then the detailing reached the level of the unit and its individual employees. Each employee must understand what he is doing and how it affects the results of the entire company. This principle also applies to the top management of the plant - the involvement of top management in the project is a necessary condition for success. The process of applying lean manufacturing skills at the Saratovskaya HPP "slid" until the station director began to actively participate in trainings.

The project participants, under the guidance of consultants, studied the existing problems, types of losses, ways to analyze and eliminate inefficiencies. Kaizen methods allow you to create an accurate map for any internal process of the company, identify and eliminate existing shortcomings, get rid of actions that do not create value for either the company or the end user. Actually, the entire project team was focused on this - on eliminating losses. The training covered the heads and key employees of the technical departments of the plant, in total, about 20 people working at the HPP participated in the project. In addition, on a voluntary basis, we also involved in the trainings employees of contractors performing repair work at the Saratovskaya HPP.

How easily did the project participants perceive the ideas of the Japanese philosophy of efficiency?

At first, people treat this as they would any initiative of the leadership: it is necessary - it means it is necessary. Everyone is counting on the fact that now the consultants will tell us what to do, we will do it, report back and go on working. But then it turns out that consultants do not say what to do, but only give methods that can be used to increase efficiency at all levels, but you need to apply these methods yourself: formulate the goals of various levels yourself, find non-optimally organized processes yourself, decide how to optimize them. Kaizen is, first of all, a breaking of consciousness. It is impossible to single out a certain moment when the consciousness of an employee begins to change - this happens gradually, slowly, with overcoming the inertia of thinking. From my own experience, I can say that over time, I began to “automatically” notice inefficiencies in my work and the work of my subordinates, and this began to bring discomfort, push for improvements.

After the pilot projects at the Saratovskaya HPP and in the executive office of RusHydro were completed, the employees directly involved in the training became independent agents of change - in fact, we ourselves have now become trainers who spread Kaizen ideas. Of course, there should also be a system of material motivation - it is necessary to build a system of incentives for employees who submit their proposals for improving the company's activities. At the Saratov HPP, such a motivation mechanism is already in place.

Tell us more about how Kaizen methods were taught in the executive office of RusHydro.

In the executive apparatus, the financial department, as you might guess, became an experimental platform. As a separate process, which we tried to improve at the level of the executive office of RusHydro, we chose the contractual service of the organization. Having created the so-called process map, we saw that when concluding contracts, some functions are duplicated at various stages, some actions can be waived in principle, thereby reducing the time for negotiating contracts. As a result, the process of concluding contracts has been improved and takes less time, not to mention the fact that the specialists of the finance department were relieved of unnecessary routine work by eliminating duplication of functions.

In addition, each employee found in his work a local point of application of Kaizen methods. So, one of the employees of the accounting department managed to optimize the process of closing the reporting period. Moreover, the optimization touched not only the internal kitchen of the accounting department - clear proposals were submitted to the IT department to change the accounting system. Now closing periods requires fewer checks, and the number of errors has been noticeably reduced. If earlier, during the closing period, the accountant often stayed at work until midnight, now the emergency mode is a thing of the past - work during these periods differs little from work on a normal schedule.

Separately, I want to mention the 5C system, which allows you to rationally organize the workplace both in production and in the office. These are five simple steps: sort, create their own places for everything you need, keep clean, standardize, keep the standard and improve it. Despite the apparent simplicity, the experience of using "5S" turned out to be quite painful. Even if the employee thought that his workplace was rationally organized, then at the first examination it turned out that the table or tool cabinet was full of unnecessary items.

Training in the "5S" system began with a fifteen-minute introduction on how and what to do. As examples, the consultants showed photos of workplaces "before" and "after" applying the five steps that I mentioned. In the "before" state, the accountant's workplace looked like a table littered with papers, in the "after" state - only a few documents on the table, everything is clearly organized. And then the group, led by the trainer, goes to the workplace and tries to evaluate all the items according to their degree of need: what is used every day is in the quick access zone, once a week - goes to the desk drawer, once a month - on the shelf. If the document is used less than once a month, then it must be sent to the archive. The next step is the obligatory visualization of the “ideal” state of the workplace. In the office, we just took pictures of desktops and then tried to maintain just such an order.

The application of the 5S principle gave a quick and measurable result: if earlier it took more than 10 minutes to find the right document, now it takes less than a minute. In addition, we scooped out two huge boxes of various stationery from two rooms - it was possible to work on these stocks for another six months without ordering new pencils and pens, or some other items.

The same thing happened at the Saratov hydroelectric power station, only instead of documents there were tools, spare parts, etc. Visualization in production consisted in the fact that the tools were outlined with contours - it is always clear which tool is missing, what is out of place. One of the contractors involved in the Saratov project said that when they began to apply "5C", they managed to reduce the number of repair worker's inventory by 70%. Simply put, seven wrenches out of ten are either a completely unnecessary tool, or a spare one, or a broken one, but still lying in the workplace.

What is the future of Kaizen at RusHydro?

The results of the pilot projects were presented to the board of the company. The monetary effect and other quantitative parameters were also evaluated. The Board made a decision in principle that a program should be developed to disseminate Kaizen methods at all RusHydro stations. This program was ready by the summer of 2009 and assumed the introduction of the principles of lean production at five more RusHydro stations, at several repair enterprises, and from 2010 it was planned to apply the mastered methods at one of the HPPs under construction. The fact is that the experience of using Kaizen in construction gives stunning results - there are statistically confirmed data that in some cases the construction period can be reduced by a third. For hydropower, where plants are built for more than one year, such a reduction in terms would give a huge economic effect. Unfortunately, these plans remain unfulfilled so far: after the incident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, all the company's efforts are focused on eliminating the consequences of that accident, there has been a change in leadership, and the new management is still busy analyzing the economic activities of RusHydro. The distribution of Kaizen ideas has been suspended, but I think that after solving the most pressing problems, the new management of RusHydro will return to the project.

Alexander Zubanov

The practice of kaizen is based on shrewd frugality and the participation of all employees in the enterprise in a process of continuous improvement. Its popularity is largely due to the fact that similar processes existed in our country for a long time, although they were not called a beautiful Japanese word.

Anton Ganzha, Deputy Head of Regional Sales Department of Toyota Motor Company:
- The system of rationalization proposals, widespread in the Soviet Union, is, in fact, the same kaizen, only called differently.

The effectiveness of the method, which manifested itself in Soviet times, is confirmed today. In enterprises that use elements of kaizen in their work, innovations initiated from below by the workers themselves become commonplace. Before the start of the master class by kaizen founder Masaaki Imai, a representative of Toyota said that an average of five rationalization proposals come from the mechanics of dealerships per month, of which one or two are implemented. Moreover, such innovations bring real income to companies.

Dmitry Spitsyn, Development Director of Klyuchavto Management Company:
- I can give you an example: in just one of our dealerships, four projects have recently been implemented, the profitability of which amounted to 7 million rubles.
Innovations offered by employees can be applied to almost any stage of the production process. But here's a sign of modernity: many of the proposals now relate to the functioning of the information system in the enterprise.

Anton Ganzha:
- One of the most interesting and effective innovations was a suggestion from a master inspector at one of the dealerships, who developed an easy-to-implement mechanism for transferring information from one shift to another electronically.

Dmitry Spitsyn:
- We implemented a system for monitoring the stages of repair, which made it possible to track the progress of work in real time, thanks to which the manager was able to keep the downtime under control and quickly take action when such a situation arises.

Often the proposals even go beyond the scope of the actual production process, touching upon the issues of organizing the life of employees or, for example, protecting their health.

Vladimir Mozhenkov, General Director of Audi Center Taganka:
- In order to combat smoking during working hours and the resulting downtime, we have introduced a simple innovation: now you can only go to smoke strictly one at a time. For many, after this innovation, the very meaning of smoking disappeared. And thanks in large part to this
12 people quit smoking this year.

In order to motivate employees to make rationalization proposals, various methods are used at different enterprises. Many include "innovation" in the payroll system.

Anton Ganzha:
- We believe that an employee should receive money from everything he does. Therefore, at Toyota enterprises, the dealer pays the employee for useful rationalization proposals.

In other cases, methods are used that are not directly related to wages.

Dmitry Spitsyn:
- In the personnel reserve, we include only those employees who work in expert groups on innovation. Now we are introducing expert competence levels, in addition, there is an annual bonus that is awarded to the top three groups.

Methods of peculiar coercion can also be used.

Vladimir Mozhenkov:
- Kaizen boxes don't work on their own. For line management to think, I used an original idea: at Ferrari, there is a rule that all vacationers returning to work must bring with them one suggestion for improving work. Such a system makes you think, makes you offer. I modified it a little and now I have at least two offers from each employee a year. I even sign a vacation only if I have a piece of paper from a vacationer with his rationalization proposal on my desk. As soon as you want to relax, people begin to think.

In network companies, the motivation for innovation may concern not only individual employees, but also dealerships as a whole.

Dmitry Spitsyn:
- We evaluate the dealer center by indicators, among which is participation in the process of self-development. One of the criteria includes evaluation of the implementation of seven projects. If more is sold - for this bonus. But we approach each one individually, in some cases we ask you not to rush - three projects are better, but implemented to the end, than ten “hanging” in an unfinished form.

Most innovative projects are directly related to production. However, kaizen technologies can be successfully extended to office workers.

Anton Ganzha:
- In the office, kaizen is also used, although taking into account the specifics. In production, the system serves to optimize processes. If we are talking about kaizen for the office, then here the purpose of use is to satisfy the needs of customers, in our case, the needs of dealers who are customers for us as a representative office. An example of an innovation aimed at improving interaction with them is a special delivery planning procedure. Whenever we plan them, there is a temptation to bring more cars. But this is dangerous: the market is immediately saturated, cars cannot be sold without discounts, dealers lose margins, after which a snowball of unpleasant consequences begins to grow - sellers receive less wages, the quality of services decreases, and so on and so forth. As a result, all this negatively affects the customers themselves. Therefore, for the past five months we have been using a new procedure - individual discussion of orders based on the dealer's indicators: the number of staff working for him, marketing costs, and so on.
According to the kaizen theory, quality circles should support the innovation process in the team. Associations of this kind, albeit in a peculiar form, also operate at some domestic enterprises.

Dmitry Spitsyn:
- We try, whenever possible, to use Russian terminology. Therefore, we do not talk about kaizen and quality circles, but we call such teams working groups of experts. Their task is to involve the dealer centers of the group of companies in the process of optimizing business processes. Experts working in such groups are employees of dealerships, ranging from managers to ordinary workers. Their basis is the heads and top managers of dealerships. The working group must necessarily include the heads of different departments. It is also fundamentally important to invite ordinary employees. Group members are not exempt employees, but they solve problems that are acute for them, which encourages participation in the work.
In general, the purpose of the groups is to respond to the real problems facing the business, to find their solutions. The result of the work is the creation of standard procedures and their implementation in the life of the enterprise. The advantages of such working groups common for the entire group of companies - the decisions of some apply not only to their own enterprise, but also to other dealer centers.
The results of the activities of the working groups are summed up monthly.

In some cases, the functions of quality circles are performed by structural divisions of the company.

Vladimir Mozhenkov:
- We don't have quality circles. What for? Everyone works in teams and shifts anyway. Inside them, people discuss innovations and make their own proposals. And at the front office level, we created five cross-functional teams, 14 people each. They meet every month and talk about how to resolve issues of interaction.

Getting employees to come up with innovative proposals is only half the battle. A much more difficult task is to make sure that interesting proposals are introduced into the business. It is also desirable that the innovations themselves should not be spontaneous. The activity of the staff should be directed to those problems that require solutions in the first place. And in order to achieve these goals, companies use technologies to implement innovation.

Dmitry Spitsyn:
- Leaders should know what to do when faced with a problem, there should be simple algorithms for their actions. Efficiency always depends on this, plus the skills of the staff and motivation. Any problem is in these three components: either in processes, or in skills, or in motivation. Improvement must begin with processes. We have developed a technology of six stages. Stage 1 - situation analysis and goal setting. In order to avoid problems with him, we, through training and motivational measures, ensured that all directors possessed the technology of analysis. After the goals are defined, the 2nd stage is the brainstorming of the experts of the working groups. Stage 3 - an experiment during which the viability of the innovation is locally tested in practice. If it demonstrates its usefulness, a description of the process is produced - this is the 4th stage. Then training is carried out, all procedures are incorporated into the testing and training system. And finally, changes are made to the motivation system.
In order to coordinate the innovation process, our company introduced the position of lean expert - a specialist in lean and optimization. The control of innovations across the network is carried out using a matrix of processes, which reflects all the processes implemented in dealerships, and shows their status.
In order for the adopted innovations to take root faster in the company, original master classes are very effective. For example, the technical director comes out personally to conduct an interactive acceptance. Demonstrates its technology to others and at the same time understands what else can be improved in the process - for example, arrange racks differently so that they are always under
hand.

An important moment necessary for the introduction of innovations is the determination of the exact date of their launch and control over its observance.

Vladimir Mozhenkov:
- Third Tuesday and third Thursday of each month - discussion of projects. We have been discussing since the morning for two hours, if there are practical proposals - they wrote it down, appointed a responsible person, and launched it. In a month, we start work by listening to how the plan was fulfilled.

Innovations, in the development of which the staff of the dealership participates, is an important, but not the only component of the kaizen mechanisms used by domestic dealers. In some companies, within the framework of this theory, work is underway to optimize the staffing table.

Anton Ganzha:
- We encourage our dealers to work on optimizing personnel. In this regard, I always remember an anecdote about how Russian and Japanese businessmen who run a similar business meet at some conference. The Japanese says that eight people work at his enterprise, and asks how many workers work at the Russian plant. It becomes somehow uncomfortable for a Russian to say that he employs 300 workers, and he lies, saying that he has nine people on his staff. On this they part. The next morning, the Japanese comes sleepy, with red eyes: they say, he could not fall asleep at night, he kept thinking for what kind of purposes the Russian uses the ninth employee.
In fact, many dealerships in the state have a lot of people who do not work at full capacity and without whom the dealer could easily exist successfully.

To optimize the staff, the dealer must constantly "monitor" the staffing table to identify inefficient positions. Also, before introducing a particular new position, it is worth considering what functions the new employee will perform, whether one of the already working specialists can perform them, and whether it would be profitable to outsource this function. The final decision on the introduction of a new staff unit can only be made by the head of the enterprise on the basis of a reasonable proposal made by the head of the unit that will include the new employee.
Visualization

Another principle of kaizen, which was successfully used in the Soviet economy at one time, is the principle of visualization, which is also used in many modern enterprises.

Anton Ganzha:
- One of the important principles of kaizen is visualization. To start changing something, you must first describe it, and then visually convey it to all interested employees.

One of the most striking manifestations of this principle is the balanced scorecard, which is widely used in many dealerships, even if their management has never heard of any kaizen. Balanced indicators allow you to concretize and visually, usually in numerical terms, determine those parameters, changes in which characterize changes in the business itself.

Dmitry Spitsyn:
- Balanced Scorecard allows all managers to track problems and suggest solutions.

In many companies, the principle of visualization manifests itself in conveying important information to employees in a visual form.

Dmitry Spitsyn:
- All procedures are combined into a book of knowledge, which can be obtained by any employee of the holding. Another know-how of ours is that all processes are presented in the form of comics.

Vladimir Mozhenkov:
- We do not draw comics. On the other hand, we widely use visual propaganda in the spirit of Soviet times, like the same posters that are well known to everyone.

Another principle of kaizen, which is no less widely used in the domestic auto business, is the principle of standardization.

Vladimir Mozhenkov:
- The enterprise should have at least a clear system of planning through the production task for each employee. For a month. To see what he has to do. We went beyond the standards and made standards for everyone. For example, according to the standards, a person must sell 9 cars, this is a “commitment” that is not discussed. The standard is not met - a person falls into the laggards with all the ensuing consequences. The standard will be
12 sales. For achieving the standard, super-motivation is required.

The fight against losses - the notorious "kaizen muda" - did not bypass domestic companies.

Vladimir Mozhenkov:
- How do we deal with losses? For example, we work at night, otherwise the equipment and square meters are idle. No need to look for a penny when millions are under your feet. And in order for the employees themselves to take care of the task of dealing with losses, it is important to draw their attention to this problem. To do this, I sent a question by e-mail to each of the leaders: “What is muda?” He achieved his goal - these letters really attracted attention, primarily because of the dissonant analogy with the Russian word. People began to look in dictionaries, to think, why am I asking about this.
The issue of dealing with losses for the back office translates into a solution to the problem - how to load idle hours. For the warehouse, it's a matter of reducing inventory. It is necessary to optimize stocks and sell illiquid assets. But at the same time, it is very important to keep track of the satisfied demand ratio, otherwise the losses will exceed the savings.

It should be noted that the kaizen system in itself is not a magic wand. Moreover, in its crystal clear form, it is not used in almost any dealership. But this is not required. It is more important that each of the leaders knows the main provisions of the system and can choose for himself what is closest to him. This also applies to the provisions of other management theories and practices, which, in turn, implies familiarity with them and the constant expansion of one's own horizons. As a result, you can thoughtfully use the elements of different systems and, on their basis, create your own, which is most suitable for a particular company or business.

When I read descriptions of the Japanese kaizen system in management textbooks, it seemed to me like some kind of lightning game: quality circles, five steps to maintain order ... The attitude changed after the original source fell into my hands - the book “Gemba kaizen: A way to reduce costs and improve quality”, Masaaki Imai, Alpina Publishers, 2009. In fact, we need to talk about a special Japanese approach to management. What is its essence?

1. Kaizen is commonly referred to as a quality improvement system. Indeed, quality improvement is one of the cornerstones of kaizen, but it is much more interesting what exactly quality is understood in kaizen and how it is improved. Consider the output (result) of any process within the company. Being always a random variable, this result can vary widely. The result of the process is recognized as satisfying the quality criterion if it falls within a predetermined range of values. With this approach, improving quality means organizing the process in such a way as to minimize the likelihood of a result falling outside a given interval. In the language of probability theory, the variance (scatter of values) of the distribution is minimized. In terms of management theory, this means that kaizen, through optimization management, minimizes the need for situational management as much as possible - if all processes give the expected result, non-standard situations do not arise. This is how M. Imai describes this task: “Every time problems or malfunctions appear, the manager must investigate them, find the root cause and revise existing standards or introduce new ones to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future.” Other elements of kaizen are also aimed at solving the problem of reducing the likelihood of problems. For example, preventive maintenance of equipment has as its main goal to minimize sudden breakdowns. Of course, the human factor remains - workers can get sick, be late or miss work, but manufacturing defects are sharply reduced, with all the ensuing positive consequences.

2. No less important is who exactly is engaged in optimization management. In kaizen, this responsibility is assigned primarily to the personnel directly involved in the production process. Quality circles are just one form of organizing the work of these personnel. Of course, ideas for changing work processes are discussed and agreed with the foremen and higher authorities, but it is the workers (line personnel) who develop and propose them. This approach is good because many independent responsible persons are involved in the search for a solution. Therefore, several alternative options are offered, which can be compared and the best one can be chosen. After the choice is made, the best option is implemented as a mandatory standard in full compliance with the principles of process management, with the writing of instructions, training in new operating principles, etc.
The task of top management in the kaizen system remains the development of a long-term strategy, setting goals for improving performance and bringing these goals to each employee. Management must demonstrate to workers its high motivation, self-discipline and kaizen thinking - only then will the staff be really involved in optimization management.

3. The transfer of optimization management to the very bottom, in full accordance with the dependence of the amount of financial responsibility on the level of the manager, does not imply investment in optimization measures. This is an amazing feature of kaizen - the "free" transformation for the company. Optimization is carried out by the simplest methods: rearrangement of equipment, proper arrangement of tools, maintenance of order and cleanliness, exclusion of actions that do not add value to the client, and other similar steps. In fact, the basis of all improvements in kaizen is common sense. The result, however, is more than tangible. So, from 1986 to 1995, the introduction of the kaizen system at Aisin Seiki made it possible to increase labor productivity by 4.5 times and gross revenue by 1.8 times. The number of different types of products the company manufactures has risen from 220 to 750, while inventory turnover has fallen to 1.8 days, one seventeenth of its original value. The introduction of kaizen in the American company Wiremold led to the fact that for four years labor productivity increased by 20% annually, scrap production decreased by more than 40% per year, an increase in inventory turnover amounted to 367%, and the lead time for product orders was reduced by 67%. How much did it cost the company? “We have made virtually no capital investment. It may have been a small amount of money spent on some aspects of the business, but mostly it went to pay employees' time” (Arthur Byrne, President of the company).

4. Kaizen does not try to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the measures taken and reward the authors of the ideas accordingly. In this regard, the views of Japanese management contrast sharply with the orientation of Western leaders almost exclusively on the cost of change and its economic payback. In kaizen, it is believed that by participating in activities such as maintaining order, eliminating non-value-adding activities, and reviewing standards, people begin to understand how much kaizen benefits them and become the first to welcome such changes. When people propose new and improved standards, they develop a sense of ownership of those standards and therefore have the self-discipline to follow them.
Kaizen provides an answer to the question of how Japanese enterprises with a lifetime employment system remain efficient. The standard "Western" approach to recruiting is simple: you need to find such employees who will bring the company the maximum profit. That is, those that will be most effective at minimum wages. Usually, everything ends with the endless intensification of the labor of workers, forcing them, in turn, to look for companies with maximum pay at minimum workload - everyone defends his own interest. In the short term, this approach is quite effective, but in the long term it begins to lose to the Japanese, based on the involvement of workers in kaizen, on their self-discipline and training. Turning to generalizations, individual competition loses to group interaction (provided that the latter is competently organized).

5. There is another important component to kaizen - the just-in-time system. The essence of this component is the transition of production to work on order. Purposeful reduction of equipment changeover time and other organization of production processes makes it possible to achieve labor productivity characteristic of in-line production in small-scale or individual production. Given the dramatic reduction in storage space requirements and costs associated with storage and unsold inventory, the net cost is even lower than with flow. This allows you to make production more local - instead of trying to occupy a narrow niche in the entire world market, you can limit yourself to customers in your country (region), offering them a much wider range. Low transportation costs will make these products much more competitive compared to imported products, including those manufactured at large specialized factories.

In the long term, this allows at least thinking about building an economic system that is largely untethered from the world market. The advantages provided by the international division of labor can be offset by the advantages of development isolated from the influence of world crises.

Kaizen, (改善 kaizen) is a Japanese philosophy or practice that focuses on the continuous improvement of manufacturing, development, supporting business processes and management, as well as all aspects of life.

"Kaizen" in business is continuous improvement, from production to top management, from the director to the ordinary worker. By improving standardized activities and processes, the goal of kaizen is lossless production.

In Japanese, the word "kaizen" means "continuous improvement". Based on this strategy, everyone is involved in the process of improvement - from managers to workers, and its implementation requires relatively small material costs. The philosophy of kaizen suggests that our life as a whole (work, public and private) should be focused on continuous improvement.

The Kaizen program allows each employee to realize their potential and turn good ideas into changes that help to do work better, more convenient, easier, more efficient.

The Kaizen program at JSC OKB Zenit offers each employee the opportunity not only to implement an idea, but also to earn money on it. Everything is described in detail in the Regulations on the Kaizen program, which can be viewed at the program stand or in the network folder "Program_KAIZEN" on the company's server.

The main stages of work on the KAIZEN program.

First what you need to do is to take a blank form from the Kaizen program booth at the entrance in front of the security post.

Second- fill out one side of the form, as shown in the figure below. This can be done alone or with colleagues.

Improvement proposal form (front side). Filled in by the author(s) of the proposal

If several people participated in the development of the idea, write down everyone and set the percentage of remuneration so that the sum of the percentages of all authors is 100

An example of filling out a form:

Third and the last step - put the completed form in the box "Your ideas" at the booth of the Kaizen program.

Further, the Kaizen program works like this: the production system development group takes the form from the box on the stand, registers the proposal, checks that it is correctly formatted, contains a specific solution, and does not contradict the requirements of external standards, moral and ethical norms, and legislation.

If the proposal meets the requirements of the Kaizen program, it receives the status of “accepted for consideration”. The production system development group determines which process, area of ​​activity the proposal belongs to and submits it for consideration to the head - the owner of the process. If the proposal affects the work of one department, the manager within 5 working days decides to implement or reject the proposal, organizes the implementation. If the proposal concerns several departments, organizes a meeting within two weeks at which a joint decision is made to implement or reject the proposal, and an implementation plan is developed. If the proposal has an economic effect, the planning and economic department calculates the expected economic effect. After the implementation of the proposal, the manager writes a conclusion on the results, the production system development group photographs the improvements, the planning and economic department calculates the actual economic effect.

Example

Before sleeve installation

After fitting the sleeve

Reward.

200 rubles - for initiative, after the proposal has been assigned the status "accepted for implementation". 800 rubles - for performance, after the proposal is implemented and the manager wrote a conclusion on the results. If the proposal saves, instead of 800 rubles, the author receives a reward depending on the amount of the actual annual economic effect: the effect is up to 100 thousand rubles - a 10% reward, the effect is from 100 to 250 thousand rubles. - remuneration 8%, effect from 250 to 500 thousand rubles - remuneration 7% and so on. The remuneration is paid together with wages.

The author(s) can find out about the stage of consideration and the status of the proposal at the Kaizen program booth (updated once a month), in the log of proposals in the KAIZEN Program network folder on the company's server (updated once a week), or call by phone.

Program implementation.

The Kaizen program was launched in February 2016. To date, a total of 69 proposals have been registered, of which 13 have already been implemented, 38 are being implemented. In October alone, Zenith employees submitted 26 proposals. For comparison, in the 2nd quarter of 2016, 21 proposals were submitted.

There is an economic effect on two implemented proposals. The technologists of the ground support facility worked out a change in technology when performing an operation for one of the parts, which led to a reduction in the cost of manufacturing while ensuring the required quality due to the transfer to a waterjet machine. And the assistant director for general affairs initiated the conclusion of a contract for the refilling of fire extinguishers instead of purchasing new ones.

Tatyana Shustova

He works as a marketing communications specialist for a large pharmaceutical company. Also interested in internal communications.

Imagine that you are a creative person who needs his own small, cozy, inspiring mess for comfortable work. So that important records are interspersed with beautiful postcards from the countries where you spent an unforgettable vacation, or flyers from the nearest cafe, and your favorite dirty mug was always standing next to the monitor.

What can you do, that's the kind of person you are. The ideal order bores you and kills all the desire to create, and you simply have no time to understand the papers. Now imagine that you are suddenly placed in the strict framework of an outlandish Japanese system.

What is kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement and change for the better. Kaizen is what in simple words can be called lean manufacturing. The right object in the right place in the right amount. Order, sorting, accepted standards, maintenance and cleanliness.

Documents, materials, means of production - all this is stored, maintained in order and systematized in such a way that any worker can quickly find everything he needs. In large companies, kaizen is about production processes, and for office workers, it is reflected in the work environment around them.

This also applies to the workspace on system drives (standard file names), and office supplies (their place for paper or printer cartridges), and document storage (folders signed in a standard way).

Advantages of the kaizen system

If we consider kaizen at the company level, then this system turns out to be useful and productive. I will give a simple example. I was lucky to work in a large factory where kaizen was used to the maximum. For example, the suggestion of one of the employees to load four more boxes on pallets led to the fact that the competent distribution of products made it possible to save a significant amount on the warehouse rental.

Or an example of using kaizen in . The place for storing paper is marked with a scale. If the amount of paper decreases to a certain notch, then it's time to think about ordering a new batch. This helps to foresee the situation when something will be missing.

As for the personal space of an office worker, you should always have a clean desk. All folders with documents must be signed and brought to uniformity.

In this case, you will know where and how much office supplies are. It is very comfortable.

Personal experience of using kaizen

I first encountered the philosophy of kaizen when I got a job in a Japanese company. In the office, every thing had to stand in its place, marked with a green sticker. There was a photograph on my desk that showed a monitor, keyboard, and mouse standing on an empty table. And the caption: "This is what my desktop looks like at the end of the working day."

Everything would be fine, but in this “sterility” I suddenly began to miss myself. Being a creative person, I used to surround myself with things I love. I needed "order in disorder": the case when from the outside your table seems to be a cluttered place, but you know exactly what and where it is.

It seemed to me that it took a long time to arrange the work accessories in their places. And one day a protest woke up in the soul of a deprived artist. And now your favorite mug, which there is simply no time for, is hidden in a drawer for personal items. And my heart is happy from such a rebellion.

Before that, I worked as a designer in a small advertising agency. On my desktop were movie flyers, and all sorts of funny pictures, and a bowl of nuts, and even an anti-stress ball, on which every week a new costume was put on, which we made out of paper. And it was good.

But is it so good? It took about the same amount of time to find a really important piece of paper as it did to put things in perfect order. Being distracted by a newspaper with a horoscope lying around was a common thing, and time was wasted on this too.

What is still worth choosing?

My decision was simple: I chose the best of the two approaches. I combined the systematization and order that kaizen offers with my vision and favorite things.

The main rule is not to overdo it with either kaizen or mess.

In my cabinets, drawers and documents, everything is laid out in a clear system. But there is always a corner on my desk dedicated to inspiring things: drawings, a flower in a pot, and an elephant from Thailand.

Do not be afraid to make an effort on yourself and sort out important things on the shelves. Once you get used to it a little, you will realize that it is very convenient. And for your mess, take a separate corner.

Kaizen is good until you start paying more attention to the form than to the content. Creative clutter is good as long as it doesn't just turn into clutter.

I brought three things to my new workplace. First, a mug. Secondly, a block with replaceable checkered leaves instead of a diary. Thirdly, a flower in a pot, which I affectionately call George to myself. In honor of George Harrison. Everything else is complete kaizen.