Challenge! to be a master of KAIZEN

Isao Hirasawa omshirogari home page

						Challenge! to be a master of KAIZEN. 〈CONTENTS〉
	Challenge! to be a master of KAIZEN.
						Introduction
						1. Operation Little to Mickle
						2. Operation Elimination
						3. Operation Combination
	−　Everybody was in a Project X　−					4. Operation Rearrangement
						5. Operation Simplification
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	I found an interesting manuscript when I put old data away. It is a short story of which title is 'Challenge! to be a master of KAIZEN' This story was serialized in a house organ in the thick of the bubble economy and was well received among employees of the company I worked for. You might feel its content dated because it takes up reducing costs as a subject that showed the current of that time. I read it again and thought of the situation on that time, it reminds me Projects X were proceeding everywhere around me. I think its way of thinking keeps availability even now, and I decided to show.
	Nevertheless, you might become confusing because the subject is quite different from others in this site. Actually I was an expert on this field. So, I think I have to tell you an elementary information about economy as an introduction. Well, whoever goes shopping must try to buy better goods at a lower price. It's quite natural, isn't it? From the point of view of sellers, it must be natural that they try to reduce the price in order to gather many customers. But we cannot always make a profit　only by reduction. Because if the cost is bigger than the selling price, we have to lose. ...Oh, do you ask me what cost is? We have to have some goods for sale in order to do business. And we need some money as material and personnel expense for goods. We call such money 'cost'. So, Profit means the money that subtract costs from the selling price. Do you know it? Therefore, every company makes an effort to reduce the cost of goods in order to gain more. It is taken for granted today that companies do a payroll cut for reducing costs of products. We call this mean restructuring. And also it's common that production centers, factories and subcontractor's　factories, are moved from Japan to a foreign country. Because it yields more profit that we import products made in foreign countries whose personnel cost is lower. This way is not so difficult because it doesn't need some hard projects or technological innovations but only the firm decision of an executive. Many companies are eager to do this way for it produces a big cost decrease. But overdoing this way is a little bit problem. Think it a little. More payroll cuts, more unemployed everywhere. No job means no income. In consequence, everybody has no money. No matter how cheap products are, no money cannot buy them, and products aren't sold at all from the company's point of view. Companies are increasingly going bankrupt and Banks are being heavily in debt and the country is being poorer and poorer. This is deflation. And it's pity that Japan is in the middle of it now. It's just an economy of current Japan that neglect such a simple fact and spends the time to a cutback in corporate personnel. Do you know that your parents are really hard to manage thanks to careful housekeeping? The riskier matter is that Japanese companies move their factories with their sophisticated technology to foreign countries and lower the quality of their own technology. Because economy is supported by technology. It's definitely risky. In other words, the real state of current Japanese companies is that they pursue only their own profit without a thought for appearances. Well, it might be said that Japanese companies have their back against the wall. As long as they do such an immediate cost decrease, the future of Japan is definitely hopeless. In these days the TV program, "Project X", is very popular, isn't it? This is the documentary that introduces episodes of Japanese heroes, who supported Japanese economy and technology. Actually, such kind of heroes used to be in every company before. However, banks, capitalists and executives rushed into an immediate profit and didn't treat those obscure heroes kindly, eventually, the reward has come now. If it goes on, it might not change in future probably. 　...Guess what. Do not only mobile phone. Your anger flares up, doesn't it?...You have nothing to do with it? Ah...

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