Continuous Improvement - Using Kaizen to Your Advantage

 

What is Kaizen?

Toyota's Production System is established on Continuous Improvement. This fresh strategy is actually just the Western version of the Kaizen scorecard. Kaizen, interpreted from Japanese, means quite literally "Good Change". In English, people employ this to indicate continuous improvement, flawlessness, and continual expansion. Essentially, Kaizen is an improvement program for any work area. To assist Japan's devastated post-war economy, The War Department's "Training Within Industry" program contacted expert statisticians to improve their chances in the global market.

Toyota Motor Corporation has taken process improvement methods that arose in the fifties and then introduced its own technique called the Toyota Production System. Juran's statistical approach, Deming's Shewart cycle, and Kaizen are only three illustrations of developments Toyota Motor Corporation based its method on. Although past strategies relied on instruction and education of their employees, Toyota Motor Corporation journeyed many degrees further by demanding production lines to be shut down if a defect had been discovered. Once that transpires at Toyota, the line laborers, executives and the employees having administrative responsibilities work together to discover and overcome the reasons why production needed to be stopped.

Kaizen is a great way to save on spending in manufacturing. Kaizen is being used more and more around the world. By using this program, less proficient tactics will be weeded out, leading to increased employee morale, reduced waste and increased productivity. The advantages will not only benefit the owners but also the employees as well as the stockholders. The Kaizen concept can be implemented on a large, small or personal level.

Why Kaizen Fails

Putting this strategy into place requires evaluating every level of production. One of the first tasks is to time the entire process from start to finish, allowing executives to see what part of the production process is taking longer than it should. Improved time management by cutting delays and slowed actions delivers bottom line efficiency results. The Kaizen system streamlines communication at all levels, which also results in better efficiency. Until every bit of extra time and wasted effort has been pulled from the process, the strategy cannot be called a success. However, once you have, you can be sure you've created a first class production process.

For the purpose of supervision and administration, it is very necessary to use a Kaizen Scorecard, which indicates the implementation of continuous improvement in day to day work of the company. Since Kaizen is expanding continuously, review and adjustment when required are essential. Eventually, Kaizen can increase productivity, cash flow, workmanship and total success

 Abraham Maslow's Workforce Motivation Wizardry

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was written as he tried to convey the basics of human concern and desire. He based his research on the more intellectual people of his era. Abraham Maslow's Needs Hierarchy has five different tiers. Included in these five tiers are Physiological, Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self Actualization. In his theory, Maslow says that lower tiers must be reached before one can attend to the higher levels. It's important to know where your team sits as a whole, as well as knowing the placement of each person in the group.

The lowest level is a human's physiological concerns. In order to survive, we must feed ourselves, quench our thirst, breath, use the bathroom, and procreate. If we did not do these things, then we could not survive. A leader must make sure that his employee's basic concerns and comforts are met in order for them to reach their full potential. For example, if an employee is freezing cold in the work place, then she will not work as quickly and efficiently as if she were in a comfortable environment.

Safety and security occupy the second tier of needs that humans have to fulfill in Maslow's Needs Hierarchy. For adults, safety is achieved by having employment and monetary security. At work, employers should create a secure environment for the workers. Employees who fear layoffs or termination will not invest as much care or effort as they could. Without job security, employees might do sub-par work. Even worse, insecure employees might resort to causing harm to the company as a form of revenge.

The third step covers a person's desire to belong and feel loved. By helping employees establish friendships with one another, an employer can help create an environment in which employees enjoy working. Scheduling social events or pairing compatible individuals on tasks are ways an employer can provide bonding opportunities.

The fourth level involves a person's esteem. Humans have the desire to feel as though they are part of a group. In group situations, we have the ability to feel emotions of achievement and confidence. We start to gain the respect of others which in return boosts our self esteem. An employer can create activities outside of work to help engage his employees. Whether it is a team sport or relay picnic event, co-workers can bond over the activities, have a great time, and boost their confidence in themselves.

Self-actualization is the last level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. This level includes our ability to solve problems, reach moral decisions, and use our creativity. This tier cannot be reached until all of the previously summarized levels have been accomplished. Once we have achieved self-actualization, we become fully mature adults.

Motivation, McGregor, and Management

When I'm asked about the topic of employee motivation, I describe the nature of work and human nature and share my belief that people don't come to work so that they can fail. While this may seem odd, I have worked with managers and leaders who don't fully believe this statement. Applying Douglas McGregor's theory of motivation, these folks belong to the Theory X camp which asserts that the average worker dislikes work and will avoid it at any price. Theory X managers aren't positive thinkers. Based on my life experiences, I have reason to believe in Theory Y and my perspective is that that no one wakes up saying, "Gosh, I hope to fail miserably today," or "Let's hope I perform with overwhelming mediocrity." Everyone wants happiness, success and meaning in their lives.
"If we lived in a perfect world, there would not be a need for managers."
- Bryce's Law
"Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere."
- Ronald Reagan (1986)

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion about Theories X, Y, and Z in management; whereas "Theory X" is autocratic, "Theory Y" is more of a "carrot and stick" mentality and "Theory Z" promotes individual participation. Remarkably, despite the many years of promoting the rights of the worker, today we primarily live in a Theory X world. Employees are told what to do and when to do it, without any interest in their input. Today, this is commonly referred to as "micromanagement." With this approach, even though the work will get done eventually, there is no company loyalty from the worker, mistakes are made and quality suffers, and productivity slides since there is no personal sense of pride by the employee. In other words, the company works, but certainly not like a well-oiled machine.
The people that run many non-profit groups have the best intentions, but they seldom know how to actually manage. Sadly, some people get involved with such organizations to satisfy a petty power trip they are on. Consequently, they have little regard for organization and adherence to existing policies and rules. Instead, they try to micromanage everything. People, particularly volunteers, have a natural aversion to micromanagement and quickly lose interest in their work.

Some of the most productive organizations are those where management succeeded in aligning the individual workers with the running of the company. While management is still in control, they have stimulated employee interests by encouraging their participation and feedback.
Even in this model, management still has some top-down responsibilities, including:

1. Delegate - prioritize and assign tasks to qualified employees.
2. Control work environment - minimize staff interferences and provide a suitable workplace to operate with the proper tools to perform the work.
3. Review progress - study employee reports and take corrective action where necessary.

Determining the current situation of the organization, the current status of the employees, and the organizational cultures are just a few additional responsibilities of a leader. Changes in cultural and organizational structures have caused every organization to change their management styles every now and then. Some prefer to use the authoritarian style which focuses on the concept of teamwork and empowerment of employees and there are some who uses the managerial style which focuses on technical aspects of the leader who controls all the activities within the organization.

Complex Organizational Structures

The Family & Children's Services division of the San Francisco Human Services Agency is a complex organization, but it can be easily understood through the Bolman and Deal's four frames.

Bolman and Deal's Structural Frame involves these core assumptions:

1. Organizations exist to achieve specified goals and objectives.
2. Organizations use specialization and a clear division of labor to increase efficiency and improve performance.
3. Coordination and control make sure that the diverse efforts of individuals and units align.
4. Organizations work most effectively when rationality wins over personal preferences and external pressures.
5. Structures must be designed to fit an organization's circumstances (including its goals, technology, workforce, and environment).
6. Problems and performance gaps arise as a result of structural deficiencies and are best remedied through root cause analysis of these deficiencies and restructuring appropriately.

FCS exists to achieve established goals and objectives. Some of these goals, for example, are to protect San Francisco's children at risk of neglect and abuse, preserving their families through assistance via a wide range of services. This is achieved through investigations of child abuse and, in some situations, by putting children in foster care.

FCS has internal specialization and a clear division of labor. For example, the emergency response units are trained to interview children, parents, and others to determine if child abuse allegations are true, whereas the specialized teen units are trained to work with adolescents in foster care to stabilize placement and prepare the teenagers for successful adulthood.

Coordination and control of the agency's various activities is provided by the presence of managers at various levels, who supervise all the employees and all the projects.

Rationality prevails - For example, workers must be objective and put aside personal perspectives when reporting to the courts, which operate under rational laws, policies, and procedures. Furthermore, decisions about how to deal with families, including whether or not to remove children from their homes, are made collectively by the agency, not by individuals, who may have personal motives at stake.

The organizational structure at FCS is designed to fit the organization's circumstances, in the sense that the agency recognizes that its budget and workforce are limited, and so it cannot propose goals that are beyond its means. For example, the agency cannot investigate every home about which a complaint is made. The truthfulness of the complainant must be taken into account, as well as the seriousness of the charges.

There are problems and performance gaps in the agency that arise from structural deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring. For example, recent studies have shown that the agency places a disproportionate number of African-American children in foster homes. Some people would argue that this is connected to the fact that most social workers in FC are, as are most social workers in the US, Caucasian women. The federal government has taken an interest in this situation, and has recommended, among other things, that there be fewer removals of children from homes and more assistance to homes in the way of services.

Human Resources - According to Abraham Maslow (1954), humans must first satisfy their needs for well-being, including food and shelter, and only then can they address their higher needs, such as belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization. To Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McGregor (1960) added two notions, which he called Theory X and Theory Y, that apply to organizational contexts. According to Theory X, most organizational managers assume that their subordinates are, in the words of Bolman and Deal, "passive and lazy, have little ambition, prefer to be led, and resist change".

According to McGregor's Theory Y, a managers essential task "is to arrange organizational conditions so that people can achieve their own goals best by directing their efforts toward organizational rewards".

Maslow's ideas and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y play out heavily. The administrators make sure that each employee is provided with his or her basic needs-a workspace, office supplies, and office equipment-so that they can meet their potential in delivering services to clients. However, many of the managers operate out of the assumption that workers are lazy, lack ambition, and do not favor change (Theory X). This is manifested in micro-management actions as section managers require workers and supervisors to submit compliance logs and weekly reports to make sure the work is being done. At times, the actual acts and times of completing these reports prevent quality contact with families. On the other hand, Theory Y is played out at FCS in various ways, such as when an employee is cited as "employee of the month" for outstanding service.

The political frame is also apparent at FCS. Within this framework, organizations are seen as political arenas that host a complex web of players and interests. In this context, coalitions are established, people fight for scarce resources, and decisions are made by bargaining and jockeying for position.

At FCS, it is easy to see the complex web of players and interests. Beside its organizational structure, with administrators and employees fighting for resources and jockeying for position, there is the court system that the agency has to deal with, sometimes antagonistically, and the families that the agency serves, also sometimes with resistance. The agency has a union, which fights for the employees' rights, and many staff members belong to various professional associations. In addition, many of the foster parents belong to a foster parents association. The conflicts among all of these players serve as a check and balance system to protect the needs of society at large and all the various individuals involved.

The symbolic framework clearly applies to FCS, for this agency, like every other social agency in the country, is dedicated to noble causes: in this case, protecting children from harm and helping families to survive and prosper. The agency does these things literally, but there is a sense in which everyone in the agency is united under the symbol of doing good in the world.