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Challenge! to be a master of KAIZEN | Isao Hirasawa omshirogari homepage |
| episode.1 Operation Little to Mickle | Challenge! to be a master of KAIZEN. 〈CONTENTS〉 |
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| Introduction | |||||||||
[1] Quality before quantity at first |
1. Operation Little to Mickle | ||||||||
| [1] | Quality before quantity at first | ||||||||
| [2] | Just changing only position makes work better? | ||||||||
| Uesugi who joined the electric parts producing company four years ago
is the sub-leader of the assembly line in the third plant. He is young
but it's not so strange to be called a core worker. It's the story that he went to see the convention of the QC circle action（*1）last year. After the presentation by representatives of each plant, the ceremony of commendation for excellent circles and great idea men who made many proposals for kaizen was held. |
[3] | Keeping neat and tidy by "Operation Little to Mickle” | |||||||
| [4] | Think about a nuisance to the next | ||||||||
| [5] | Let’s form a common front | ||||||||
| [6] | Do not deny it | ||||||||
| 2. Operation Elimination | |||||||||
| 3. Operation Combination | |||||||||
| Although he was there and he thought that it's not so impressive, when
he found the man introduced who was his close friend, Saito, on the stage,
he raised his voice in spite of himself. "Really? He's got it!" He thought his friend's workshop was the line for a small amount of products（*2）, which had lots of problems, so it's easy to find them there. On the contrary, his workshop leader whose heart wasn't in it would not get any proposals... He felt envious of his honor but he congratulated him in an undertone. The man, Saito, is called 'the patience of |
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4. Operation Rearrangement | |||||||
| 5. Operation Simplification | |||||||||
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| a secretariat' in his factory. At any rate, he always complains of how to carry out tasks. Because he is too faultfinding, the leader was afraid of him and told him "Write your complaint on the prescribed form and hand it in to the secretariat!" The leader who turned his complaint from himself to the secretariat was little bit a controversial figure, but it was favored for Saito. |
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At the beginning, he wrote his complaint, discontent, anything and everything on the prescribed form and handed in. He did it nearly every day. The secretariat was unable to put up with that and gave warning "Proposition is OK. But you have to tell us your own opinion of what we should do for betterment." However, Saito thought nothing of such a situation. He changed his mind and began to write his suggestions that he didn’t care of them were impossible technically or too expensive. Some of them were even such ideas like a SF movie. Most were rejected, but because they were too unique, the secretariat waSaitoazed, and it became a pleasure to watch his suggestions adversely. By the way, Even the poorest shot will hit the target if he shoots often enough. If the third person watched even such a suggestion, there was the feasible one. Moreover, there seemed to be the suggestion to be able to materialize easily if we took out only an idea plenty. While he repeated such a thing, Saito seems to have got the knack of the kaizen suggestion somehow. Return of the QC convention, Uesugi heard experiences of Saito while drinking. Although they make the bad-mouth of the boss whenever they drink together, they unusually eagerly talk about serious theme today. |
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| ［2］ Just changing only position makes work better? | |||||||||
| Saito is not so the person who can drink, but he’s very cheerful today because he was commended in the QC convention. According to Saito, just making a vertical thing sideways is enough to do kaizen. ‘May I so easily think?’ Uesugi cannot bring himself to understand what he says. ‘In addition, is not the improvement the thing which does it when there are inferior products or dangerous, difficult work?’ "It may be so, but is Uesugi satisfied as the present conditions?" “No reason why I’m satisfied. But my line has already been improved a lot by a project or another. There are not so many subjects of kaizen anymore. I must get the cold shoulder from colleagues, if I say we should do kaizen as to fret over trivial details, you know.” “Well, I don’t know because I’ve never watched your line. But I can tell you there’s such a way to increase the suggestion number if you want to get more reward” Saito said so with the face which became bright red, and he ordered paper and a pencil from a bartender. "At first, supposing you have the work that you take a part out of a box and bring it at hand and assemble. You will put the box 10 centimeters on this side. So it’s about 0.1 seconds (*3) reduction.” "Only for 0.1 second! Ridiculous! What is kaizen of it?" |
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| “Oh, let me finish my story. OK? You grow a hand by a part box and bring a part; its to-and-fro is 0.1 * 2=0.2 [second] Suppose that you make 500 products a day with such a work. Then, it is 0.2 * 500=100 [second] =1.7 [minutes] It’s assumed that you go to the office 260 days a year, the improvement is reduction of 1.7 * 260=442 [minutes] |
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| "I don’t know what you mean" With the face which there is no help for it, Saito said “Mind you, if it takes a dollar for one minute, it is reduction of 440 dollars a year. And if you try 100 places of reduction for 0.1 second, it’s 44,000 dollars like many a little makes a mickle.” "Wao...!" After silence for a while, Saito stood up unsteadily and was going to go out. "What’s the matter?” "Well, I’ve got a hangover because of a slightly high-quality calculation.” |
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| ［3］ Keeping neat and tidy by "Operation Little to Mickle” | |||||||||
| Uesugi returned to his workplace and thought on Monday. Saito’s story seems like a fake, probably because he got drunk. But, on the reason, it surely becomes the reduction of 44,000 dollars a year by "Operation Little to Mickle" (many a little makes a mickle). Therefore, he tried to write similar contents and hand in the prescribed form. A few days later, an answer returned from the secretariat. Such a thing is written. “Watch the line whole, and have kaizen suggestion examined more" “Haha, such a suggestion cannot be adopted as I thought.” He said so and he was about to crumple the form into a ball and throw it away. At that moment, the Chief Takeda happened to be passing by there. "Hey, Uesugi. It’s your kaizen suggestion, isn’t it? It’s rare. Let me have a look.” “Oh, please don’t open it. It’s quite unreasonable contents.” In defiance of what Uesugi said, Takeda went on reading. Then he looked up slowly and said, “It’s not bad. Where you’re looking is very good.” |
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“Please don’t tease me, Chief. If you say so, why is it rejected? The comment of the secretariat seems as if there’s no point in discussing it. “Huh, it could be seen so. Yeh, sure that it’s not kaizen as it is, but…” Takeda said that this suggestion got a passing grade for a point aim at but didn’t for kaizen. “If you suggested this for keeping things neat and tidy (*4), I will give you 50 points. But I want you to be careful about not only simple manual movement but also a way of the safekeeping and the position of desks and devices.” |
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| To put things near is, so to speak, to gather up things in your work place
compactly. It’s the same as to keep things neat and tidy. Keep things neat and tidy, so you can take them without difficulty and your job becomes soft, and besides, errors must be decreasing. In other words, you can find more important problems if you think from such a viewpoint as well as how to put things. It is the reason of this suggestion is good for a point aim at. So why is it unacceptable for kaizen? |
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| ［4］ Think about a nuisance to the next | |||||||||
| Uesugi told Chief Takeda about the hint from his friend Saito. "His suggestion was taken up. But why is it no use at our line?" “Well, it’s surely cut down 44,000 dollars in Saito’s line that each worker has quite different job. But your line is an assembly line with five or six workers, isn’t it? There’s no effect in such a line no matter how much you shorten time… Do you know what I mean?” Takeda said so and began to walk towards Uesgi’s line. In Uesugi’s line, five workers finish a product on an assembly line. There seems to be no loss in movement of workers whose cycle time is balanced. In front of the line, Takeda asked Uesugi |
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| "How many seconds is one finished?" "About 12 seconds now" "It means that each cycle time of five working is averaged 12 seconds, isn’t it?" “Yes.” "So, suppose that you improved like your suggestion and shortened time of the first worker for 11 seconds for example. However, it’s impossible to do in less than 12 seconds for other workers; therefore the cycle time of finishing a product is not shortened, 12 seconds after all. |
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| “Besides, because the top is fast, the second worker becomes busy to
catch up with it, and unfinished products will collect when not in time.
This is bad.” “Oh, it becomes change for worse despite my intention of kaizen…” I see. It was such a thing why my suggestion was rejected. In brief, the effect doesn’t come out unless I improve all five works. "...I think kaizen is troublesome." "Wait, wait. Don’t break down. So I will tell you a method of effective kaizen to Uesugi’s line.” “How should I do it?” |
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| ［5］ Let’s form a common front | |||||||||
| According to the Chief Takeda, even Saito’s line that was not an assembly
line succeeded in the same way. "Well, it means not to do kaizen alone. Even if you will improve 0.1 second no matter how much, there is a limit in the range of your eyes. Besides, are you able to afford to watch the line whole? That’s right. Actually, because Uesugi must work in the line, he is the same as a worker despite a sub leader substantially. He is busy and cannot submit kaizen suggestion frequently. "But you can offer one suggestion somehow, can’t you?” “Well, yes…" “Have everybody offer it. You know, the improvement of 0.1 second is not so effective if you do it alone, but it is by no means negligible if with all members of the line. There’re six people in your line, so at first, you should start the kaizen of |
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0.1 * 6=0.6 [second] “And next, if you think in the whole section, it becomes 20 people. If you make it the whole factory, you can set up a common front with 70 people. The effect becomes 30,000 at 70 times of another 440 dollars with that alone.” "･･････" “And do not be particular about 0.1 second like a miser. There are a lot of what can scoop up more. For example, it takes 0.5 second to grow a hand by a part put beside a desk. It takes 0.6 second to step forward to the one step foot, and also four seconds to stand up and sit down.” |
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| Yes. You should think about things of the whole workplace like a thing
at hand in the same way. For example, rearranging the position of a desk,
a device and a hand cart; shortening the distance of a workplace and a
shelf. In addition, you should think about getting rid of movement standing
and sitting down. This is more important than arguing about whether standing
or sitting is better for work. In every case, there’s no doubt you can expect to get a considerable effect if you do such kaizen with his members. “I understood the reason... But I cannot take the leading of kaizen in the whole workplace." “Of course it is my duty." “Well... I think that there is one more problem." |
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| ［6］ Do not deny it | |||||||||
| It is easy to say anything by words. The real activity has various obstacles and does not go just as wanted. Uesugi has done such an experience many times, so he rather loses interest when he hears the expected. “Even if I tell everybody what Chief said, I think that no one offers suggestion probably.” “Why? It’s just kaizen of only 0.1 second, I tell you.” “Well, at first, it’s troublesome to write on the prescribed form. In addition, because most of them are rejected, nobody becomes motivated. I’m absolutely certain that they won’t offer suggestion eventually saying that their writing is poor or they’re poor writers,.” “However, you’ve done it this time. Why?” “Oh, it’s just getting a kick out of kaizen after I heard Saito. If I didn’t hear his story, I don’t mean to suggest either very much. It’s because superiors usually say that it’s unreasonable or worthless when I say something. And make more things if you have time to complain…as it is. Actually, there may be a lot of such workplaces. On the other hand, they complain that there is little suggestion and they urge workers on giving only a number by force. The boss and the secretariat of such a place complain that subordinates do not have ability and that they’re lacking in study. |
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| “I want superiors to accept it for the time being even if they that it is worthless suggestion. I want them not to deny it from the first.” “You’re right. Since suggestion came out, there is some problem in the background.” And you should rather regard the suggestion as the first step to the kaizen. Even if the points slip off to some extent, it is important to bring up well without denying the content easily. It is necessary for the stage of the early days to repeat such talks and to plan the kaizen of the workplace. At least, the superiors should not adopt the way getting rid of the motivation of the proposers. |
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| “But I want say, too. Suggest more persistently. Even if you sometimes offer one or two suggestions, I cannot feel them impressive.” "Oh, it’s troublesome." "Therefore, I said, don’t do it alone.” "Yeh, you said so!" |
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(*1) QC circle activity QC is an initial of Quality Control. It is said that the postwar Japanese manufacturing industry has developed greatly by this QC movement. The style, workers make a group called a QC circle in the workplace and it promotes voluntary improvement, matched the Japanese traditional management climate and gave result. Some of companies motivate workers by means of the event that workers present the result of such an activity and the ceremony of commendation. |
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| Profit by the improvement of quality | |||||||
| ･･･ | This document provides a management leader, who worries over how to deal with problems of quality, with helpful information. (Sorry. It's Japanese only so far) | ||||||
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