Are you tired of struggling with productivity issues? Do looming deadlines send your stress levels soaring? Fear not! Here’s a simple yet effective technique to help you streamline your workflow and achieve your goals.
What Is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy that places small and consistent changes as the key parameter to achieve success. It is made up of two Japanese words, kai and zen, which mean good changes. It says that victory is not a one-day wonder. Showing up and making incremental changes each and every day will help you reap the target. Due to its broad yet simple outline and timeless ideals, this technique holds a deep influence all over the world.
Source - Royal Tool Control
The Relevance of Kaizan in World War II
The origin of Kaizen is attributed to the era post World War II. Due to the adverse effects of the war, Japan faced severe challenges in rising up from the ashes. In 1947, Edward Deming, an American statistician, went to Japan to help the Toyota Motor Corporation to rebuild its sales. Deming took steps like quality control and PDCA cycles to ensure a significant increase in the productivity of the company. This was the first step made in creating the Kaizen strategies.Over the years, Masaaki Imai, a Japanese organizational theorist, published a book, ‘Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success, which made a significant impact on the technique internationally.
The Key Principles of Kaizan
Kaizen can be broken down to a set of key principles and practices. According to Masaaki Imai, they are-
1. Know Your Customer - For a company to achieve increased productivity, the customer should be made supreme. Understanding the needs and interests of the clients and continuously making changes in the designs to suit customer satisfaction are the foundational principles of achieving success.
2. Let it Flow - It ensures smooth flow of the work by eliminating all the inefficiencies in the product. Anything that does not bring value to the customer is removed, and the product is revised, and overall flow is improved.
3. Empower People - It means helping the employees to achieve the long-term goal by breaking it down into short-term solutions and implementing it. Employees are shown a new path to work and are encouraged constantly.
4. Be Transparent - The data and information need to be transparent between the employees and the managers. This would result in greater efficiency in work and thus become a long-lasting improvement.
The PDCA Cycle
This is a fundamental problem-solving tool used in Kaizen. It is a cyclical approach to continuous improvement. It includes-
1. PLAN - Planning includes identifying the potential problem and creating the objectives for the solution. Various measures to solve it are found.
2. DO - The measures that are found to have maximum benefits are implemented on a small scale in this stage.
3. CHECK - The impact of the above action is monitored continuously. The effectiveness of the action is studied, and necessary changes are made to increase the scope of improvement.
4. ACT - Based on the results of the above stage, the solution is implemented on a large scale. It is revised continuously to suit the rising needs of the particular environment.
How to Implement Kaizan in Daily Life
Even though the technique of Kaizen is mostly implemented in various business corporations, its general principles can be very useful to improve the individual performances of people in all domains. Be it a student who procrastinates while doing his homework or an overeater who mourns over his cheat meals, taking small steps each day can make a huge difference in their long-term goal.
Some general principles of Kaizen that can be implemented in our daily lives to increase productivity are-
1. Determine where you waste your time. Take a route map of your daily routines and know the domains that contribute no value to your goal. It could be the constant scrolling down of Instagram reels or unwanted shopping. Knowing them would help you to be more conscious of these activities and help you to dedicate that time to more productive activities.
2. Small Steps Daily - Small changes can be made in your daily routines according to your goals, and make sure you show up every day to implement these changes.
3. Review and Analyze the Results - At the end of the day, always make sure to analyze the results and check whether it is contributing to the betterment. Appreciate yourself for showing up every day.
Final Words
Kaizen is a journey and not a destination. It won’t change your life overnight. The process requires patience and determination along with a positive mindset. Always remember that every pebble creates a ripple. Thus Kaizen helps to change ourselves from being good to being great.
Written By Irene Elina Eldhose
This article has been authored exclusively by the writer and is being presented on Eat My News, which serves as a platform for the community to voice their perspectives. As an entity, Eat My News cannot be held liable for the content or its accuracy. The views expressed in this article solely pertain to the author or writer. For further queries about the article or its content you can contact on this email address - ireneelinaeldhose@gmail.com
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