Interview: Masaaki Imai: Shed Rigid Thinking

INTERVIEW
"Shed Rigid Thinking"

If Edwards Deming is the father of the quality concept, then Masaaki Imai must be its Man Friday. For, in the last half-a-decade, he's done more than anybody else to make quality a habit. As the developer of the Kaizen concept, Imai san has taught companies the importance of continuous improvement. By encouraging them to challenge each and every milestone in their quality journey, Imai has show them how to gain competitive advantage without making large-scale investment. Recently in India on a tour, Imai san spent more than an hour talking to Business Today's R. Sridharan about Kaizen at work. Excerpts:

Business Today: Imai san, at a time when changes in the business environment are forcing companies to make strategic overhauls, don't the potential benefits of Kaizen look modest in comparison?

Masaaki Imai: Dramatic changes are required to meet competitive challenges of today, but what use are they if your operations get disrupted, employees lose morale, and gains that you need to bolster strategy are fritted away. It is important to make gains. But it is more important to retain those gains and improve on them. That's what Kaizen is about. It focuses on continuous improvement of processes and systems.

Kaizen teaches you how to improve processes and systems. But it doesn't question the business strategy per se. For instance, if I am a manufacturer of moulded chairs, Kaizen can help me make improvement. But it doesn't tell me if I am making the kind of chair the market really wants. So, can Kaizen be used as a strategic tool?

Imai: Inherently, Kaizen is capable of serving as a strategic tool. In fact, we are encouraging the companies we work with to use Kaizen for strategic objectives. But the fact remains that not many companies in the world have the required foundation to allow Kaizen to function as a strategic tool. But those who do have can go on to become a lean organisation like Toyota. A company with no muda (waste) or high inventory or defects or wastage is an ideal company. That's a world-class company. But if your foundation is shaky, you cannot expect miracles.

Is that why a lot of companies tend to lose patience with Kaizen, or complain of inadequate payoffs?

Imai: Let me tell you something. About 90 per cent of the manufacturing companies in the world should not be calling themselves manufacturing companies in the first place. They are way below what a world-class company should be. A world-class company does not do miracles. But it has good housekeeping, it has a visual factory, it does not manufacture to stock, and it has happy customers. In my experience, most companies do not want to take the first step of keeping a good house. Instead they want to leap to the world-class level. Is that possible?

When does Kaizen work the best?

Imai: When the top management is convinced that it needs Kaizen and is willing to commit itself to it. Even today, the top-most Toyota executives spend time at the shopfloor. If there's a problem, they go to the scene of the problem. That is Gemba Kaizen. In Japanese, Gemba means real place--the place where real action occurs. In the case of manufacturing companies, the place of action is the shopfloor. The top management must take an earnest interest in Gemba Kaizen. Otherwise, the gains will always be nominal and, eventually, they will blame Kaizen for not showing results.

In what kinds of industry environment does Kaizen flourish?

Imai: There are no such limitations. In India, our clients operate in a range of industries--from services to manufacturing. You cannot afford to think of making improvement only when things are going wrong, although that's typically when companies latch on to Kaizen. Continuous improvement should take place even if you are the market leader and profitable. That way you can consolidate your lead and stay ahead of the others.

You've been visiting manufacturing facilities in India. How would you rate them on a world-class scale?

Imai: Some are good, but not quite world class. Like I said, most of the companies--not just in India--need to focus on getting the basics right. Simple things like keeping the shopfloor clean, not allowing oil, grease or coolant to spill from machines, not crowding the shopfloor with in-process inventory, putting tools and equipment in designated areas, unmabiguous worker instruction, and many more things like these. Surely, being world-class is a physical condition. But it must begin with a mental condition that wants to be world-class, and can work hard towards it.

Typically, where do companies fail in Kaizen management?

Imai: They do not properly follow the golden rules of Gemba management. Managers in most companies want to sit in their air-conditioned cabins and not go to the shopfloor. But a good Gemba management requires that the managers should first go to the scene of the problem. They should then check all the objects involved with the problem, take some temporary action, but work on finding the root cause. Once the root problem has been identified, they should standardise the process to prevent future problems.

Some of the other quality concepts like total quality management, total productive maintenance, or lean manufacturing require a whole-scale indoctrination of the organisation. What about Kaizen?

Imai: People have to fully believe in Kaizen. So, to that extent there has to be a training and awareness programme. But, primarily, Gemba Kaizen requires its practitioners to shed their conventional rigid thinking. To be able to improve a process, you need to think and be willing to question current practices. Do not expect 100 per cent results. Even if the initial gains are modest, keep at it. It is easier going from 10 to 20 than from 0 to 20.

What will the shopfloor of tomorrow look like?

Imai: Shopfloors will not change fundamentally in the sense that they will continue to make something. But the key change will be in how they make that something. Kaizen practitioners would have developed processes and systems that are better than those of their competitors. Kaizen would have helped them identify a number of things they do not need to do (muda, or waste). These companies would be able to squeeze more out of their resources, thereby sharing the gain with customers and suppliers, and hence expanding the market.

Imai san, thank you very much.

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