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Two Approaches To Progress and Innovation
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The
gradualist approach (favored by Japanese companies):
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The
great-leap-forward approach (favored by Western
companies)
Competitive Advantage: USA vs. Japan
U.S. and Japanese companies use quite different
manufacturing and
market leadership
strategies.
3 Strategies of Market Leaders
Comparative strengths and advantage of U.S. and Japanese firms
are:
The motto of U.S. firms: "It's not the
big that eat the small... it's the fast that eat the slow."
( a
book by
Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton)
The motto of Japanese firms: "O snail,
climb Mount Fuji with no hurry."
(a haiku by Issa)...
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Competitive Strategies: 2 Types
Kaizen – Japanese Strategy of
Continuous Improvement
Kaizen means "improvement". Kaizen
strategy calls for never-ending efforts for improvement involving everyone
in the organization – managers and workers alike.
Kaizen is an integral part of
corporate culture. It
requires continuous both conscious and sub-conscious thinking about
improvements from everyone. Nurturing and effectively integrating Kaizen
into corporate culture is not easy. It requires a sustained effort. But, as
Toyota has demonstrated, it offers a more
sustained competitive advantage...
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Toyota
Production System (TPS)
Implementation of Kaizen Strategy: 7
Conditions
One
of the most difficult aspects of introducing and implementing
Kaizen
strategy is assuring its continuity.
When a company introduces something new,
such as
quality circles,
or
total quality management (TQM), it experiences some initial success,
but soon such success disappear like fireworks on summer night and after
a while nothing is left, and management keeps looking for a new flavor
of the month.
This if because the company lacks the first
three
most important conditions
for the successful introduction and implementation of Kaizen strategy...
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Kaikaku and Kaizen
Kaikaku is breakthrough rapid improvement,
radical improvement of any activity, in particular to remove waste (or 'muda').
Kaikaku is also known as Breakthrough Kaizen, Kaizen Blitz, Flow Kaizen and
System Kaizen. Kaikaku is about large rapid improvement, similar to
radical
innovation, though innovation is not necessary for Kaikaku.
Kaikaku is sought in addition to Kazien, not in
place of Kaizen. Kaikaku is a rapid change event as opposed to Kaizen which
is smaller incremental improvements. Kaikaku is revolutionary while Kaizen
is evolutionary. When approaching a problem situation, it might require
radical improvement to start with (Kaikaku), then be continuously improved
(Kaizen).
Kaizen
Mindset
Thinking Creatively
The Japanese success in world markets was
focused less on products innovation than on innovative productivity and
marketing. Creative
thinking led to small, but highly powerful, improvements.
Yin and Yang of Entrepreneurial Creativity
Case
in Point
Canon Production
System (CPS)
Canon employees are offering around 50
improvement ideas per year per employee.
In some
Canon plants, the foremen are told to set aside the half-hour as
Kaizen time – time to do nothing but thinking improvement in the
workshop. The foremen use this period to identify problems and work
on Kaizen programs.
Each
Canon employee receives a 55-page pocket-size CPS Notebook that
explains the CPS, how to get Kaizen
targets, and the award system. These CPS Notebooks also have special
pages entitled "My Self-Development Goals – Method, Tools, and
Investment" to be filled in by the worker...
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