Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Chapter 13

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing ‘Strive to improve work procedures and think through solutions to simplify them’

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Kaizen is the combination of two Japanese words: –‘kai’ means ‘little’, ‘ongoing’, and ‘good’. –‘Zen’ means ‘for the better’ and ‘good’. –Pronounced ‘k-eye-zen’

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Kaizen improvement efforts are little ongoing good improvements that make things better. Kaizen events are short, highly focused projects that improve the activities in a work area.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Kaizen –Guiding words Combine Simplify Eliminate –Kaizen seeks to standardize work processes while eliminating waste.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Dr. Deming’s 14 points as a continuous improvement efforts foundation: –Create a constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business and to provide jobs. This first point encourages leadership to constantly improve their products or services through innovation, research, education, and continual improvement in all facets of their company. –Constantly and forever improve the system of production and service. An organization cannot remain truly competitive unless it strives to continually enhance its business processes that provide the products and services their customers want. –Remove barriers that rob people of their right to pride in workmanship. Barriers are any aspect of a job that prevents employees from doing their jobs well. By removing them, leadership creates an environment supportive of their employees and the continuous improvement of their day-to-day activities. –Institute training on the job Continual education and training creates an atmosphere that encourages the discovery of new ideas and methods.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Kaizen activities may take two forms: –flow kaizen focus on value stream improvement Flow kaizen events study the value stream associated with providing a product or a service. –process kaizen focus on the elimination of waste.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Poka-yoke = foolproof mechanism. –Poka-yoke or error proofing is used to counteract human variation or error. (Shigeo Shingo)

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Poka-yoke –Kaizen events often focus on error proofing by developing simple methods of preventing human errors from occurring in a process. –Error proof designs do not hinder worker performance, instead they eliminate the chance for error by putting mechanisms in place that prevent wrong action.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Kaizen and Error Proofing Error Proofing (Poka-yoke) –Error proofing has five principles: Elimination Replacement Facilitation Detection Mitigation –Error proofing seeks to improve a worker’s ability to do their job by improving how they do their work.