Implementing Kaizen: How Late Should Kaizen Teams Work?

Great Lean practitioners and change agents know the same thing about implementing kaizen that a carpenter does about his trade. You have to use the right tool for the right job. When building cabinets, a woodworker relies on tools other than his hammer.

Lean companies should look to tools other than the week-long kaizen project when implementing Lean. Unfortunately, for many people, kaizen, has become synonymous with ‘five day improvement event’. These projects may also be known as Kaizen blitzes, Rapid Improvement Workshops, or something similar.

Common sense dictates that there will also be some projects that need more than a week to resolve; some will need less. It follows that a single tool won’t be right for every situation.

In truth, the term kaizen doesn’t just refer to week-long projects. It also means the practice of making a change for the better. Week-long projects are one way of implementing kaizen. On the spot improvements, or individual projects are others. Perhaps a work area is chronically messy. Simply marking a location and placing a trash can in the area is kaizen.

Week-long kaizen events, though, are popular because they create big gains in a short time. They also are outstanding educational tools and are great for building up improvement networks. Employees meet people who can help with later improvement efforts—tooling people, engineers, programmers, maintenance workers, and the like.

So what’s the problem? When a company ignores other methods, and only uses week long kaizen weeks, the importance of these projects to Lean success becomes exaggerated. As a result, the project sponsor, or Lean champion, tends to push for huge gains. These expectations greatly exceed what can be done in a 40 hour work week, often leading to long nights.

Is there anything wrong with working late like that? For some people, the answer is no. When a project is clicking, and you are moving machines around late at night, the time flies by. For other people, though, it can be a problem.