Thursday, December 23, 2010

Understanding Kaizen Productivity Model: Tips for Youths

By Clive M. Siachiyako
Private sector driven economies are increasingly relying on the private sector and strategic institutions’ innovativeness to stimulate desired economic growth and development. Globally, countries are faced with the challenge of narrowing the gap between ideal (desired) and actual economic development. Economic policy makers from Europe to America to Asia and Africa are facing difficulties in applying strategies that facilitate continuous improved productivity and quality control to realise lasting prosperity and improved livelihood of the citizenry.

Despite the above challenges, Japan has often found a way of floating-over those economic blizzards. The country has continued to innovate to improve the rate of its productivity, technological progression as well as economic growth and development. The strategic success of Japan is as a result of a number of factors that combined together created positive conditions for actualising desired economic development. These factors are mostly anchored on the KAIZEN concept.

Kaizen is a Japanese term derived from Kai which means “continuous” and zen meaning “improvement”. It also refers to “change” for the “good.” It simply means "continuous improvement". It was created in Japan during the country’s reconstruction period following World War II. The philosophy is defined as making “continuous improvement”—slow, incremental but constant. It means doing it better, and making it better in all areas of life.

The concept involves every employee - from upper management to the cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. It is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. The philosophy is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, product quality, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.

Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production or marketing because Kaizen is about making changes anywhere that improvements can be made. “The Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, and improve it even if it is not broken, because if we do not, we cannot compete with those who do," says concept coach in Zambia Mr. Nobuyuki Ogiso. Mr. Ogiso said kaizen is about improvement that includes both home and business life. It involves setting standards and then continually improving those standards. It also involves providing training, materials and needed supervision for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain employees’ ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis.

The concept has been adopted by many countries and has spread globally and recently reached Africa. In 2008, Zambia Association Manufacturers (ZAM) adopted the concept to stimulate efficiency, innovation, improved service delivery and good management skills among its members and auxiliary sectors in order to achieve the necessary economic growth and development in the country. The association has extended the opportunity to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to enable them learn business efficiency and graduate into big businesses thus imparting greatly on the domestic economy. ZAM opened an MSE desk through which they (MSEs) could access the kaizen coaching-ups by the architects of the philosophy.

Kaizen brings a lot of hope to Zambia as it creates platforms through which effective analysis of productivity of each business becomes a trademark of the whole workforce, said ZAM CEO Roseta Mwape. The concept approach is paramount to national development and business management especially that most companies become pre-occupied with increasing productivity and deriving good returns at the expense of key pre-requisites for business efficiency such as safety, customer care and cleanliness among others, she added. Manufacturers are adopting kaizen to change the economic players’ mindsets, particularly manufacturers and MSEs to ensure overhaul improved efficiency to stimulate substantial domestic economic growth and development as well as product and service competitiveness in the region.

“Kaizen encourages value addition and use of scientific methods in production, monitoring and evaluation of production capacities of every entity,” says ZAM chairperson Mr. Chance Kabaghe. “It is about the core of an entity’s existence.” It promotes the creation of effective analysis systems that facilitate planning ahead of business/production challenges. It promotes quality control and production efficiency through continuous cleaning up of any ‘garbage’ in the system. Quality control is critical for any economy, something Zambia Development Agency champions in its export promotion and marketing missions to ensure quality standards are met by all exporters. The concept is valuable to the Agency’s mandates on promoting quality.

Companies that have integrated kaizen into their systems have ripped utmost profits from its insight. Zamshu general manager Richard Franklin said through the kaizen concept, the company managed to reduce the levels of shoe damages from 0.8 percent to 0.025 per cent per month. Zamshu improved its quality controlling system, increased production and reduced on wastage levels after the blending of kaizen initiatives in its operations. The concept also strengthened the company’s team work spirit.

Several economic benefits are foreseen from kaizen. The benefits are presumed in all sectors of the economy especially that the philosophy enhances improved production capabilities as well as market evaluation and monitoring. Most Zambian companies are expected to learn timely monitoring skills of business risks and integrate production methods that benchmarks international demands and maintain affluent returns from their business. Other returns will include improved business attitudes, safety, customer care, and other assortments that can help Zambia meet the set global product standards and then continually improving on them.

Being that kaizen involves providing training, materials and needed supervision for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis, Zambia Development Agency’s product quality challenges among its exporters may be narrowed. Producers will learn to do the right thing at the right time and take advantage of market offers prudently. Currently, ZAM is facilitating the trainings on kaizen with the help from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). ZAM is however, spreading Kaizen to other sectors especially agriculture, which could be pillar of growth for the manufacturing sector and other sectors. With Kaizen, it is presumed Zambia will become a haven of knowledge-based business and a well-groomed economic development base.



Zambia’s Diaspora Connect Strategy: Something for Youths to Know

By Clive Mutame Siachiyako
Today’s constantly changing business and economic environments require development strategies that embrace both the breadth and depth of those dynamics to strength national development. However, the velocity at which the changes are moving has caught many economies off-guard. This has often been exasperated by some policy oversight.

Similarly, Zambians working abroad have been seen in terms of brain drain for decades. As a result, their contributions to national development have been overlooked and unrecognised. The added value in terms of insights, knowledge of local conditions and networks, cultural experience, empathy and sensitiveness, intellectual capacities and skills that they gain and subsequently could offer to the enrichment of the Zambian economy has been thus relatively substantial.

However, with the passing of the clause on dual citizenship by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC), government has tasked Zambia Development Agency and other relevant institutions to formulate a national framework to the engage Zambians living abroad to contribute to national development. Government plans to engage its nationals abroad in monitoring investment dynamics and help in promoting Zambia’s investment opportunities.

Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) was last year tasked to initiate the development of the concept paper that would be used to secure public support for the initiative of engaging the Diaspora to national development through remittance and shaping the development direction of the country based on their gained exposure to best development practices.

The formulation of the policy in being done in collaboration with the Bank of Zambia, Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology. The role of the Bank of Zambia is to develop an effective remittance system to create a pool of diaspora-driven national capital. The policy also mandates Ministry of Finance and National Planning to review the taxation system and address the diaspora requirements.

Government further created a Diaspora Desk at State House. The Desk facilitated the creation of a Zambia Diaspora Connect Initiative. The initiative provides a “one stop” station for members of the diaspora in interfacing with government and other entities back in Zambia over issues specific to national development. The window provides institutional capacity to Zambians abroad by bringing them together and collective contribute their proficiency to economic development.

To this effect, Zambians abroad have formed a Zambia Diaspora Connect (ZDC) Business network which presents Zambian economic interests at the World Bank’s African Diaspora Open House. ZDC Chairman Mr. Musaba Chailunga has indicated that one of the objectives of African Diaspora Open House and ZDC were to initiate projects that could be driven back home to ignite economic growth. It helps individual Zambians in the diaspora to identify roles they can play in enhancing Zambia’s development.

As part of the ZDC’s initiative to help close the skills gap between the decision makers in Zambia, be it government and/or Business, it will be offering a series of training courses on explorative tools for monitoring investment dynamics on the international frontier. The training initiatives are composed of the Human Capital Thematic Group, whose main role is to provide resources that can be drawn upon for policy advisory and consultancy.

Back in Zambia, institutions facilitating the engagement Zambians abroad into national development are repositioning themselves on how to develop systems that meet the diaspora dimension. They have proposed a framework which is being facilitated by the Bank of Zambia, Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology. The role of the Bank of Zambia is developing an effective remittance system, while the ministry finance is tasked to review the taxation system to address the diaspora requirement and prepare booklets on such taxation system for distribution through various networks.

Under that framework, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is mandated to educate Zambians living abroad on what this initiative is all about and to encourage them to save with banks in Zambia. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology on the other strand are addressing their training systems to include training for the international labour market in order to enhance the effectiveness of the diaspora policy initiative.

The diaspora development framework initiative is necessitated by the ZDC members who have been inquiring on how they can facilitate the exploitation of Zambia’s investment opportunities in the country. The initiative has been also dictated by economic dynamics which demand inclusive development approaches to meet the daunting poverty levels and development challenges.
Most African governments have realised the massive economic potential their citizens abroad possess. The framework is thus one way of engaging Zambians in the diaspora to take part in national development matters and encourage them to invest back home.

Planning and Policy manager for ZDA, Mr. Chola Mwitwa said the Diaspora Policy Framework included a Diaspora Bond, through which remittance money could be invested in specific projects. This strategy is meant to improve infrastructure development and broadening the country’s revenue base. Its net economic benefits will be more job opportunities and wealth creation and meaningful poverty reduction.

The ZDA diaspora concept paper notes that Zambians living abroad are important partners in the development process. “They are numerous and many of them are highly skilled. Some have capital to invest which can diffused into the national economy stimulate economic growth once the policy is effected.

Zambians abroad are part of a large-scale, worldwide diaspora or transnational community which is becoming one of the major global forces in shaping economic directions and trends in the 21st century. They have often influenced Western and Eastern government policy-makers in their strategies and activities implemented towards the country.

The Zambian diaspora build-up social, economic and political bridges that channel wealth, information, innovative ideas, intellectual capacities, skills and creative business practices from America, Europe and Asia. This is the highly-skilled resource the diaspora policy aims to tap to enhance national development. Such skills are cardinal to the enhancement of investment and export promotion and market development strategies for Zambia.

Research has shown that diaspora contribution to development in homelands is second to FDI in countries where there are effective systems integrated the diaspora into national development. Thus, joining forces with the diaspora in championing development is an important ingredient to meeting national development targets that the ZDA and partners are blending into economic development.

Therefore, as young people, we should remember to plant back home. Let's invest to create our own greener pasture back home.