This article aims to drive the fact that even though lean and Kaizen principles could have standard features, yet they are distinct. In that sense, it would not take an approach of lean Vs. Kaizen, because the spirit is not to split but bring about the uniqueness in each of them. In the process, it would bring about the merits and limitations of each of them.
You can decide which one suits your business the best or choose a sophisticated of the blending of the positives of both based on the competitive landscape of your business. The importance is of choice lies in the fact that you need to deal with external competitors by bringing about internal changes that would drive your revenue and profitability.
What lean is all about?
The lean manufacturing process concentrates on the total elimination of waste. From an operational and or business process point of view, it is essentially a philosophy whose origin could trace to the Toyota Production System (TPS), wherein the underlying elements formulated from the Japanese culture and practices with a focus on the commitment to quality.
For a reason, these practices differ from western cultural values. To succeed, it is not just the ‘hard side’ of application of manufacturing tools suffices but the ‘soft side,’ as well, understood to be the values, roles, and behaviors of the workforce and the management that counts as much as the ‘hard side.’
Salient features of Lean
- Lean management stresses on a bottom-up approach to achieving business efficiency.
- Failure is not related to the individuals and should not hide from others. They instead take to be resources, which paves the way for further learning.
Limitation of Lean
- It is culture-centric and may not on its fit with the western culture.
- Since it is the system that considered to be responsible for the success and or failure of lean manufacturing, those who are working in a lean environment should have prior knowledge of the system before they can teach it to others.
- Implementation of the lean face with challenges as traditional behaviors cannot be guaranteed to work always for the reason that individual traits cannot easily be changed.
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen can view as a holistic system. Supports continuous changes in the act of disposing of wastes in any framework and methodologies adopted by an organization.
Kaizen starts and ends finishes with individuals formed as a team in a business setup. Wherein its chief role is aiding those individuals to continually enhance their capabilities to meet the aspirations of the firms(s).
Two salient features that are unique to Kaizen are:
- It is base on the premise that not even a single day should pass without a change taking place in some part of your business for better.
- It strives to make organizations ready for facing global competitors, and in that respect, your business acquires universal characteristics.
Limitations of Kaizen
From an administration point of view, Kaizen poses difficulties in execution. It is because Kaizen is intrinsically linking with the individuals within the team. Including the helm of affairs are not tuned to the realities of the working environment prevalent in set up. It is likely to result in faulty execution and wasting away of the precious resources.
Practical Take Away
To conclude and articulate the practical take away of this article, it would make sense to adopt a business approach. Not from a mindset of lean vs. kaizen, but understand that they are distinct but related.
Lean, as well as Kaizen’s approaches, are geared towards the elimination/reduction of waste, both the schemes. The issues impacting quality would have to identify. It can be related to the individual(s) working in a system or the system itself.
It is the result of garnering revenues and enhancing profitability, which is what that matters. So long you can achieve your business matrices of quality, safety, etc. It makes no difference, which one you apply to your business.
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Keywords: KAIZEN, BUSINESS, INDIVIDUAL, Lean and Kaizen, APPROACH, WASTE, RELATE, MANUFACTURE, CULTURE, QUALITY, Kaizen Vs. lean
