What is Kaizen? How Does It Work
06/06/2008
As a leading manufacturer of semi-custom kitchen and bath cabinets, OakCraft Inc. has made a commitment to our customers to provide them with a high quality and reliable product. We understand that in a very competitive business climate, we must provide our dealers with a competitive advantage over other non-OakCraft dealers. It is our intention to place our dealers above the rest by providing them with competitive pricing, a wide range of product offerings, outstanding customer service, quality complete kitchens and lower lead times. In order to achieve our goals of serving the customer to the highest degree, we have undertaken a complete redesign of the way we run our company. In order to achieve our goals as a world class manufacturer, we saw it necessary to become a continually improving company and implement lean management techniques.
In 2007, OakCraft Inc. began working with TBM Consulting Group to help it streamline the manufacturing and business processes using lean principles. TBM advised the company to implement the Japanese principle of "Kaizen," or continuous improvement, which allows production activities to easily be rearranged to improve workflow and productivity. Through the use of week long Kaizen events, TBM has helped OakCraft Inc. achieve significant improvements in our production and in our business processes. During the Kaizen events, cross-functional teams of employees study, develop and implement improvements in the area which the event is being held in. Teams are selected based on their involvement with the specific area. Employees selected for a team, may work the area itself, a supplying area or an area being supplied by the target area. Using experience and the Kaizen methodology training, the team of employees generates significant improvements in a relatively short amount of time. Kaizen events have proven to be a great tool for OakCraft Inc. in our journey to becoming a lean manufacturer.
During this lean journey of transforming OakCraft Inc. into a more competitive and successful company, we have conducted Kaizen events in wide range of departments within our company. Involvement in the events has included top management of the company, supervisors, hourly employees, suppliers and dealers. We have made significant improvement in our business processes and have reduced the lead time significantly, but as Kaizen states, we are in a process of “continuous improvement” and we plan to carry on our improvements and are continuously striving to provide our customers with the highest quality, most complete and accurate semi-custom kitchens and baths.