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 produc
tivity, 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.
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 produc
tivity, 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.
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