Kaizen Events: How and when to use them

Written by

Erik Hansen

Kaizen Events – A fast way to execute changes

So by now you should know and understand that Kaizen is not a one time thing. It is something that we need to do every day, all the time everywhere. There is always room for improvement anywhere! Probably one of the first times you heard the word Kaizen was in connection with the term “event” or “blitz”. And this is a great way to make larger concentrated improvements. That is: using Kaizen events or Kaizen Blitz. I have even been trained in using Kaizen weeks.

Whatever the word or the term the concept is the same. In 3-5 days you analyze current practices, come up with new ideas on how to solve the issues, draw up a future state practice and begin implementing. The focal area of Kaizen and Kaizen events is on execution! Therefore there exists a rule of thumb: during the Kaizen event you need to implement at least 80% of the actions listed. The last 20% is typically things that are not so easy to implement. These could be organizational changes, technological changes, physical changes to buildings etc.

But then again if you have planned your event well you could very well do a lot of these things during the event. For instance you could already have booked the IT department to make changes in the system during the event. You could have spoken to HR and the participants on the event around organizational changes. You could also have contracted builders to make physical changes to your buildings.

So it all depends on the level of commitment and the willingness to cope with changes. But of course there is a time constraint so typically there are some actions that will have to wait. But again with the concentration on execution the last actions should be finished in no later than 3 months. So even if we are talking major changes it should be finished fast.

Kaizen events are a fast way to execute changes and improvements. They can be used to solve singular selected problems, for instance if you need to reduce your change over time. They can be used if you need to lift the OEE on a machine or a line or if you need to create a new route for a water spider. Or whatever the issue you are facing might be. Typically you would have an issue that you can’t find a way to solve and you don’t seem to find the time in the daily work to work on. Then a Kaizen event can be a great way to work concentrated on that particular issue activating the right resources.

Kaizen events used as catalyzer in larger projects

Another way to use a Kaizen event is when you are implementing a larger project. And perhaps this project is loosing a bit of momentum then you can use a Kaizen event as a booster. The beauty of Kaizen events is that it energises people, it makes it fun to work with other people and creates and immense amount of positive energy and creativity. So next time your project kind of stalls – think if perhaps one of your actions on the project plan could be executed as a Kaizen event.

An example of this could be that you are running a larger Lean project like implementing the future state in a Value Stream. One of the actions identified is that the up time on the machine or line is low, say 60% and that of course lowers the overall OEE. And to increase the up time to the wanted 80% you need to identify the major stoppages on the line and remove or at least reduce them.

One of the major stoppages is the Change Over time and the number of Change Overs. To satisfy the customers we can’t do anything about the number of Change Overs but you then pull out data on the Change Over time and find that it in average takes 25 min. To create an up time of 80% you calculate that you need to reduce the Change Over time to at least 10 min. So you set up a SMED exercise but can not find the time in the daily schedule. So what do you do?

You create a Kaizen Event and set a target for the Event to reduce the Change Over time by at least 60%. And then you plan for it, analyze, execute and harvest the fruits from a great event. And in this way you used the Kaizen Event as a catalyzer for the project. The organzation sees that the Change Over time has been reduced and begin seeing an up time getting closer and closer to 80%. This makes them motivated to keep working on the new Value Stream.

Planning a Kaizen Event

But Kaizen events is not something that you just do during a week and then its over. No, it takes planning! Depending on the level of involvement from outsiders it can start up till 3 months before the actual event.

3 Months before the Kaizen event: Begin discussing improvements areas, rough up a list of possible participants, consider how and where you want to begin collecting facts and data on the Gemba. And finally if locations or rooms are scarce book them well in time.

1 Month before the Kaizen event: Now is the time to decide on the improvement area and fixate it, the participants are decided on and invited, first review on data and facts gathered and decision on further needed data or facts, you visit the Gemba and understand the challenges there, we set the goals for the Kaizen event which are stretch targets and follow the SMART rules, you order needed components and materials needed, you book external resources such as specialists and experts to make sure they are available (even in-house specialists), you do the first wastes analysis on the Gemba and order catering for the Kaizen event.

14 days before the Kaizen event: The final list of participants is confirmed, all components and materials are ordered and has arrived, all external participants are invited and has confirmed that they will be on the Kaizen event, different analyses are done and the first countermeasures are considered. Consider using a Pre Kaizen Meeting where the participants meets for the first time and are presented with the goals of the Kaizen event and the purpose.

Execution of the Kaizen Event

In this paragraph I will describe a possible standard for how the Kaizen Event is executed. This is just an example and maybe a way to start if you are new to Kaizen Events.

The first day of the Kaizen Event

The first day of the Kaizen event is spent on getting to know the exact work that needs to be done. You go through the Lean theory and especially the 7+1 wastes. You define which role each member will play: some focus on spotting wastes. Others are focused on collecting the data we need to complete a picture of what the process looks like. This could be data like cycle times, throughput, change over times, number of operators etc. depending on what area is to be improved. Then you finish off the day with mapping the process and identifying improvement areas in the process.

The second day of the Kaizen Event

On the second day the participants are trained in the tools that they are going to use to improve the current process. Then with the new tools the ideal future process is visualized and afterwards build. It is important to remember to set the targets for the new process and make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Accepted, Realistic and Time framed). When you have the new process ready you can build an action plan for the remainder of the Kaizen Event. The plan is described so detailed that the team knows what has to be done, who will do it and by when.

The third and fourth day of the Kaizen event

On the third and fourth days it’s time to execute! The team follows the implementation plan and executes. This is where outside resources will participate as well with the larger tasks or more specified tasks in the plan. This could be simple reconstruction of a machine, breaking down a wall, moving a piece of equipment or whatever task the team can not perform on their own.

This is also where you will replan if some activities has shown themselves to be more complicated or difficult than first expected. Then you might have to move some activities to a later time or you may have to call in extra resources.

It is paramount that you every day under the Kaizen event but especially under implementation make sure all employees know what is going on. In that way nobody is ever in doubt what is happening. That does not mean that they have to agree with everything that is happening. If that is the case you should listen to their suggestions and consider them. If they make sense then you should find a way to fit them in to your plans. If not you can discard them but remember to tell the employee that made the suggestion so they know the reason why.

This approach can really help you avoid a lot of confrontations. But you have to be honest and you some times also have to be bold.

The fifth day of the Kaizen event

The fifth day is where you complete the activities that still has not finished yet. This is also the day the team prepares presentation material and prepare the Gemba for the management to visit. This is the day of the so called “Report out”. This is the moment for the team to shine and show to the world what they have been up to the last 5 days.

The Report out should leave the team with happy feelings and proudness. In that way when they think of Kaizen events they will feel good and want to participate in another one.

The last part that is missing is updating the plan making sure that all remaining activities has deadlines and people responsible for them. And making sure that no deadline is further out than 3 months.

Up to 3 Months after the Kaizen event: Continuous follow up on the remaining actions with focus on execution so that we reach the target of actions not finished later than 3 months after the Kaizen event. Final meeting with the participants and celebration of the finished project and the reached results and targets of the Kaizen event.

If an action is slow in execution you could consider using an Implementation Kaizen event which will focus on executing a certain action (normally a bit larger action with the participation of different departments and a bit more complicated).

Examples of Kaizen events

Reduction of the change over time on an assembly line (SMED)

On an automatic assembly line the Change Over time was typically around 20-25 min from one product to another. This was not acceptable as we wanted to reduce the batch size of the products. So we set a goal of reaching the SMED target. SMED stands for “Single Minute Exchange of Die” which mean the changing of tools in less than 10 minutes. It is very common practice to set a goal of at least 50% reduction of Change Over time on a line. Often times you set an even higher goal so that the team will reach even further and challenge themselves even further.

Day 1

We decided to do the SMED as a Kaizen event and planned it accordingly. The first day we followed a Change Over process. We made sure that each participant on the team had different tasks. Some made spaghetti diagrams (drawing the path of the operator from machine to machine which when finished can resemble a bowl of spaghetti), others clocked the activities and listed problems, the technicians were concentrated on identifying technical issues and challenges on the line. At the end of the day we had made a process map of the whole Change Over process supported by spaghetti diagrams and a list of technical issues.

Day 2

The second day we applied the SMED methodology. To put it simple the goal of the SMED methodology is to reduce the time the machine stands still to a minimum. This means you try to push everything you can do when the machine is running either before the Change Over or after the Change Over of products. So we identified what is known as “external activities” (activities you can do while the machine is running) and put them before the machine had to stand still or after the machine began running again. We also identified the “internal activities” (activities where the machine has to stand still). Then we worked further with the internal activities to see if any of them could be moved either before or after the machine stood still. This meant of course also thinking in “if we could do it in this way we could move it but that would mean that we had to make these or those changes to the line or equipment”.

From this we could make a list of needed changes to the line process changes as well as technical alterations. These were put on our action list that we were going to implement and experiment on during the rest of the event.

Day 3-4

We worked in two different tracks in the team. One track was concentrated on creating a new standard procedure for the Change Over process including Job Instructions and Work Sequence Sheet. The other track was concentrated in simplifying the change of tools and eliminating the found waste in the Change Over process.

The technical improvements on the Kaizen event

The technical improvements were made and resulted in a reduction of the Change Over process at around 5 min. A nice improvement we made was replacing unbraco screws with magnets. First we thought of replacing with finger screws but then this alert technician asked “why not try with magnets?”. We did and after some hassle we succeeded.

Another great change we made was when the component had to travel through a very dangly contraption with a lot of adjustments. Here the same technician had an idea of replacing all the adjustments with a module plate. So instead of adjusting “the bridge” (as we called it) you just had to put a plate in the right dimensions – so simple.

Standardizing the Change Over process

We found a much more logical and efficient way of doing the Change Over and created a new standard for doing the work and how to move around the machine.

The result of the Kaizen event

The Kaizen event ended with a Report out for the management team and praise for the team. We got under 10 min in changing over from one product to the other on the line. And we learned not to settle with common known solutions but to challenge ourselves even more. Just like the replacement with finger screws (a very common solution) and then challenging and experimenting with magnets. Yes, we failed a few times with weak magnets, trouble with double sided tape etc. But after some PDCA experiments we found a solution that worked like a charm.

Wrapping it all up

I hope by now you see that Kaizen is not only using Kaizen events but also using Kaizen events. I hope you have gotten some knowledge about when and where to use Kaizen events. You should also have an idea on how to structure and execute a Kaizen event.

This concludes as such the articles around Kaizen but still one very important piece is missing. And that is: when you get all of these great results how do you make sure that the processes are still followed and that the results sticks? The answer is something called Process Confirmation which will be the subject for my next article.

As always I hope you have enjoyed my article and I welcome all comments or suggestions for subjects that you would like to know more about or perhaps hear my humble opinion upon.

Erik Hansen @erikhansen

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