One of the key elements for the implementation of the good philosophies of Lean Manufacturing is without a doubt the "Kaizen Event". Kaizen is, as many of you know, a Japanese word meaning "Continuous Improvement". We at MORA Consulting have developed this kind of environment in many plants and the most diverse industries with a 100% success rate. 

Actually, a Kaizen Event can be set in a few hours or a few days, but the results are so fulfilling, that the people directly involved in it will keep doing their best in order to increase the good results. It is a matter of conditioning to the rewards.

My friend Bob Rosinski explained to me how a 3 ton. whale can jump 20 feet out of the water with astounding precision. She is conditioned to the rewards of success. The first jump was just a few inches when she was a baby, but the piece of fish the trainer offered as a reward was delicious. Then, she kept finding out that in order to keep getting rewards, she should have to jump higher and higher all the time. Later, there is the fish and the applause, double reward! If the bar she has to jump goes 1 or 2" higher each time she will just not notice. Of course there is a limit to everything. 

Well, in these times of global competition, all the people who want to stay in business are having to learn the very same lesson. The marketplace is the bar that we have to jump and reach in order to keep getting the rewards. And there is no doubt, the bar is raised constantly by the fierce competition. If we want to play in the big leagues, if we want to keep our share in the market, our performance must be among the highest standards possible. 

We create in your site the correct challenge that will make the efficiency grow to fit the demands of your market, so you do not lose your share of participation in it.

Kaizen is the answer. If nothing else, focus on one product, say one of those products you sell the most. Womack & Jones in their book "Lean Thinking" (Click on the title to read more about it), show the case of an Indiana factory which president Joe Day made a very interesting discovery. In his implementation of lean disciplines, no matter how many times his employees improved some operation, they will always find some new way of improving the improved. The search for perfection.  In three and a half years they accomplished improvements of about One Thousand per cent, that is ten times as good!!! One of our customers in California saw the sales raise in more than 10,000 times per year compared to the investment in our services. That is, if they only have a profit of 20% in their product, a cumulative return on investment of  more than TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND PER CENT EVERY YEAR!!!

Kaizen Events when repeated have three effects equally beneficial: They generate PROFIT, SAVINGS and perhaps the best of all, they BOOST THE MORALE OF THE TEAM AND GENERATE A HABIT OF SUCCESS. The habits create a culture and that is what lean manufacturing and other best practices are all about.