About Gemba Kaizen

Kaizen is a culture of sustained continuous improvement. It is a systematic approach for identifying, reducing and/or eliminating muda, mura and muri. The Kaizen strategy starts and ends with people. Kaizen is a Japanese word with two elements- Kai meaning change and Zen meaning good (or for the better). Hence, Kaizen means improvement/change for the better- in personal life, home life, social life and working life. And this change has to be continuous.

5S is the foundation of Kaizen. Gemba Kaizen is Kaizen activities at the Gemba which is the workplace- the real place where action is going on and that can make an organisation perform better.

In a Gemba Kaizen workshop, everyone in the organisation works together- managers and workers alike. An involved leadership guides people to continuously improve their ability to meet expectations of high quality, competitive cost and on-time delivery. The participants learn by doing their own assignments. By walking through the Gemba, participants will understand “how” to lead various Kaizen efforts. Furthermore, judicious applications of Gemba Kaizen leads to rapid improvement in the quality of processes, in the physical workplace (making it more user friendly, cleaner and better organised), in team spirit and in customer satisfaction.

A workshop is most successful when the boss encourages and empowers subordinates to carry out their ideas, appreciates and gives recognition to such efforts, develops trust with the subordinates and plays a leading role in stimulating other improvements. Cumulatively, this will create momentum for continuous improvement.

The NPCC is working on a programme involving the implementation of Gemba Kaizen in the public and private sectors. By August 2003 twenty six corporate bodies had implemented the full Gemba Kaizen workshops (4 to 5 days of in-plant intervention). The Ministry of Civil Service Affairs, under the Muda Free Public Service project, has made efforts to build up capacity through training of about 100 civil servants as Kaizen facilitators in the public sector. The Ministry has also facilitated the direct sensitisation on Gemba Kaizen principles to some 36 public sector departments by the NPCC.