Kaizen is Like Climbing a Mountain: Drive Stakes in Along the Way

The team leader of a kaizen project, we’ll call him Tim, was very disappointed in the weeks immediately after the kaizen. During his routine check-in with the machine operators, he discovered that inventory was accumulating once again. To his disappointment, he also noticed that some of the improvements made during the kaizen had been reversed.

Maintaining Kaizen Improvements: Strategies for Overcoming Post-Kaizen Regression

The team had made great progress during the kaizen week establishing standard procedures, cutting down on WIP, and identifying and eliminating wasteful steps, all in all cutting out 25% of the hands-on time. Most of these gains were achieved most of the time, but there was some slippage. It’s not rare that a kaizen team achieves a lot during the kaizen week, and fails to sustain all of the gains in the following weeks. There are many reasons for this:

1. Lack of management attention
2. Lack of buy-in or involvement from area workers
3. Lack of follow-through on action items

Sustaining Kaizen Improvements and Addressing Unforeseen Challenges

In Tim’s case, the reason for the inventory buildup and undoing of some kaizen changes was not due to any of the reasons mentioned above. Rather, it was a case of having implemented more improvements during the kaizen week than the team could effectively sustain. This led to the proverbial “water level” being lowered, exposing areas of weakness. A similar analogy would be climbing a mountain without securing stakes along the way. Without proper measures in place, slipping on loose gravel could result in a significant setback. To prevent this, it’s crucial to maintain gains even if there is some backsliding, ensuring that any losses are limited to a certain point and don’t result in a complete fall back down the mountain. Everyone agreed with the math and with the demonstration improved process, but not everyone had a chance to work on the new process before the kaizen week was done. Some of the parts that were not included in the top 80% analyzed during the kaizen week also caused problems.

Strategies for Maintaining Kaizen Improvements: Timing, Training, and Visual Controls

In this case some of the ‘stakes’ that needed to be driven in included additional timing of the 20% items, additional time for workers to train and become comfortable in the new method, and visual controls to help the new methods become a habit. In addition to providing the time and attention needed to complete kaizen action items, it is often necessary to put in visuals that help indicate how things should be run and when things begin to go awry.

Celebrating Success and Staying Resilient

What’s most important is that you celebrate the gains, remain positive, and be prepared to take a step back and take another run at the mountain.

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