Tina Rossi had been preparing for her company’s first kaizen blitz and wondered if she had thought of everything. The process they had chosen to kaizen had been the subject of numerous customer complaints and employee grumblings. Tina’s list of reported problems, goals for the kaizen process, and team objectives were stated in the team charter. Tina had planned for the group to review the charter first, then tour the process, measure overall cycle time, and complete a process map. From there the team would break up into four subgroups to perform a muda walk and 5S scan, conduct gripe interviews, and analyze process fl ow. Tina provided forms for each activity and a digital camera for visually documenting the current process and future improvements.
The second day of the blitz was less directed. Team members would regroup to go over the data collected in the previous day and suggest improvements to be tried out on the third day. This is when Tina would have to prod the team to take action—to transform the process or the layout, to improve quality or safety—to make a change and analyze the results. On day four, the team would observe the new process in action, review cycle times, identify problems, and make adjustments. After agreeing on the parameters of the new process, the team would record their kaizen results by drawing standard operation sheets, training operators, and establishing visual control tools.
All those things in one week. Tina was ready and anxious to begin.
Take Tina’s challenge and perform a kaizen blitz at your school or work. An excel file with kaizen blitz worksheets is provided on the text website.