Sunday 23 December 2018

Kaizen for quality and productivity improvement



Kaizen is one strategy in implementing Lean Manufacturing at a company. The term Kaizen is derived from the word KAI Japan [改] and ZEN [善]. The words "KAI" which is translated into the language of Indonesia has the meaning of "change" while "ZEN" which means "good". So if translated directly, then the meaning of Kaizen is "Change for the better".



In the industry, Kaizen is a strategy to be used to constantly make improvements towards a better towards the production process, product quality, reduced operational costs, reducing waste to increased job security.



The application of Kaizen Strategies in a company requires effort and cooperation from all levels of employees of the company starting from the lowest level to the top management. The application of Kaizen Strategy more focused on improvements of medium-small-scale so that improvement projects can be done quickly and right on target.

Average Kaizen projects completed in a short time like in a matter of weeks and doesn't cost a major improvement. The methods used in the identification of projects of Kaizen include DMAIC Method and method of PDCA.

The purpose and advantages of the application of Kaizen


Purpose and Benefits after implementing Kaizen Strategy Activities, among others:

  1. Avoid the hidden costs that come from 7 (seven waste) waste in the production process

  2. Add value to production operations so as to improve the quality of the product with the lowest costs and shorten delivery time to the customer.

  3. Can make changes in a relatively short time and low costs.



Kaizen is not only to identify processes that need to be repaired or upgraded, but also doing evaluation of procedures and standardization of existing jobs or to set a new standard in work.

Standardization on the application of Kaizen


To support the implementation of the strategy of Kaizen, required the standardization in the process of production or work procedures. The following are some of the things that is important to conduct Standardization:

Standardization of Techniques or methods of machining process


After doing a repair to a process, then the necessary standardization of work nor the tools and methods of work so that it can perform predictions against workmanship and time can be forwarded to other workers with the same work methods.

Standardization of Work Time Cycle (Standard Cycle Time)




Need to be held against the cycle time calculation in a process so that it can know the process which needs to be done. Example than the cycle time is the time between other components, time doing the inspection, time Machine, loading time soldering and even time transportation such as the path to a particular process or time laying the components into the box component. The cycle of working time must be less than or equal to the Takt Time of a process. If the cycle time is more than the Takt Time is specified, then it should do a redistribution of the workload in order to balance (Balance).

The Standardization of Working Order (Standard Work Sequence)




To be able to maintain the cycle Time require for Workmanship standards and working methods sequence. Until all work on the same thing though people (workers) and the engine. Keep in mind that the strategy of Kaizen is a continuously improve. So that the specify Standards will be evaluate again for further improvements.

Standardization of number of WIP (items in Process) (Standard WIP)




Sometimes a stage production process requires minimum amount to transfer. To the next process as it takes a long warming or cooling. So that it requires the storage of a number of units to proceed to the next process.

Therefore, it should be determined when the required amount of WIP waiting for the next process. If there is an excess or deficiency of WIP. Then it is indicative of the problems that need to be investigate in the cycle time or working methods.

A simple example of the determination of the amount of the WIP.




To ensure the quality of a product, the necessary cooling for 10 minutes before doing the next process. Cycle Time in completing one unit of product is 0.5 minutes (or 30 minutes). How many WIP need to ensure production running smoothly?

The solution:




The cooling time = 10 minutes
Cycle Time/unit = 0.5 minutes
10/0.5 = 20 units

So the required minimum number of WIP is 20 units. To ensure production can run smoothly on the process in question.

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