Abstract
Kaizen is a practice of continuous improvements in manufacturing, assembly, quality and engineering. In this paper author have discussed the problems faced by a leading automobile manufacturing organization on quality of interior parts of the automobile like plastics and rubber. During study author used a new technique called “Global Customer Audit” which is basically a vehicle audit from final customer point of view for interior parts of automobiles. During this audit, author has observed various defects and by using different quality control tools like pareto charts, histograms, check sheets and arranged defects according to their intensity or magnitude of occurrence i.e. finding useful one from trivial many. In this paper, the author found the root cause of defects by using different quality control tools. Kaizen is done to remove these defects and continuously improve products and production processes. Kaizen helps in making manufacturing process leaner, simple and fitter. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of Kaizen, its application in case organization for solving problems raising big quality concerns on a day to day bases.
Highlights
The word Kaizen is a Japanese word, which means continuous improvement
Secrete behind success of case organization is its philosophy and adoption of Japanese techniques like Kaizen, 5S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke meaning Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, Selfdiscipline respectively), 3M (MUDA, MURA, and MURI meaning inconvenience, inconsistency and wastage respectively), 3G (Genchi, Genbutsu and Genjitsu meaning go to actual place, see the actual thing and take necessary action respectively) etc
The case study has been done in Quality Assurance Parts Quality (QAPQ) department dealing with interior plastic parts developed by different vendors or suppliers for running models as well as new models
Summary
The word Kaizen is a Japanese word, which means continuous improvement. Kaizen laid emphasis on continuous improvements as compared to onetime improvement, which is nothing but innovation It is classified as – productivity, quality, cost cutting, delivery, safety and morale. Authors identified the important elements of Kaizen and studied their effects on the performance of the organization after implementation. Implementation of Kaizen has reduced processing time and working area management improved. Authors observed that lean-Kaizen provides a better chance of continuous improvement in productivity and quality of products. 2. Motivations Toward Continuous Quality Improvement (Kaizen) Globalization has leveled the field of competition, especially with the development in communication techniques, development in one part of globe based on technology, quality and cost have a global impact. Study of Kaizen Cases Author has studied two cases under this section
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