🚀 go-pugleaf

In view of the major contribution that TQM has been making to the US and
Japanese electronics industry, the following "Quality" article which just
came out this week should be of a lot of interest:

                  Kaizen (continuous improvement)

Many of us in the West focus our attention mainly on quality assurance
through measurement, inspection, testing and management practices.  In
Japan, however, more attention is now being paid to a philosophy--or
perhaps better, an attitude--they call kaizen.  Literally, it means
gradual, continuous improvement, mainly in small matters, in all
aspects of working life.

This practice is explained in a book called Kaizen: The Key to Japan's
Competitive Success, by Masaaki Imai.  The English version is published
by McGraw-Hill, New York.

MOST IMPORTANT

"Kaizen is the single most important concept in Japanese management,"
Imai claims.  "It is the key to Japanese competitive success.  It means
ongoing improvement involving everyone-top management, managers, and
workers."

Kaizen begins with the recognition that any corporation can have problems.
Kaizen solves problems by establishing a corporate culture in which everyone
can freely admit to these problems.

"Kaizen movements are going on all the time in most Japanese companies,"
Imai states, "and most of them contend that management should devote at
least 50 percent of its attention to kaizen,"  He says that Japanese
managers are always looking for ways to improve systems and procedures.
This quest extends even into labor relations, marketing and supplier
relations.

"Engineers in Japanaese plants are often warned.  There will be no progress
if you keep on doing things exactly the same way all the time."

WEAK IN WEST

Imai adds that after studying Western business practices for many years,
he concludes that the kaizen concept is non-existent, or at least very
weak, in most Western companies.  "This lack of kaizen helps explain why
an American or European factory can remain exactly the same for a quarter
of a century."

Imai points out that at the same time, some Western companies are
enamoured of innovation.  He characterizes this as rapid, radical change,
usually in large matters.  Kaizen, on the other hand, consists of many
small, ongoing improvements in the status quo, as a result of continuous
efforts.

In Japan, he reports, employees are involved in kaizen through suggestion
systems, quality circles, and TQM or TQC programs.  An important point is
that once an employee's suggestion is adopted, the standard for the
activity is changed.  Thus kaizen involves flexible, changing standards,
not a lack of them.

Michael.Willett@OFFICE.Wang.com