Kaizen Blitz: Significantly Improving Performance in a Week or Less

Cover Sheet of Kaizen-Blitz - Significantly Improving Performance in a Week or Less

Researcher(s)

Larry Swanson
President of Manufacturing
World Competition Consultants
136 Danforth Drive
Clarksville, TN 37043
Tel: (931) 216-9630
Email: larryswan3@gmail.com
Website: www.wcconsultants.com

Topics

Summary

Owners and managers are constantly searching for production improvement applications. A Kaizen Event, when properly planned, coordinated, and executed, can increase performance, with little or no capital expense, in seven significant ways:

  1. Increased productivity
  2. Reduced inventory
  3. Lower setup times
  4. Less waste
  5. Space use reductions
  6. Quality improvement
  7. Order-to-delivery time improvement

To attain improved performance, management must commit to and support the outcome of an event, which is loosely described as the application of Lean using a prescribed methodology in a concentrated area of operations in a short period of time. That methodology is described in this report and includes steps to successfully manage a Kaizen Blitz, a quick review of Lean concepts, a sample time schedule for an event, sample forms for use in conducting an event, and finally, a review of the pilot event in a case study format.