One percent improvement is better than zero

KAIZEN or continuous improvement is not limited to the workplace. It can be done at home. For one, I tried doing 5S good housekeeping on a daily basis, slowly but surely. One thing at a time as I use my stand-up one-hour break from working on my computer to throw away old paper files, broken gadgets, kitchen plasticware and excess clothes or load them into carton boxes until the garbage truck comes, which is every Tuesday and Friday morning.

I found the value of working for one percent improvement a day encouraging. Imagine doing it. In 100 days, you'll be 100-percent done! I discussed this simple approach to webinar participants from a Japanese company attending my Kaizen problem-solving program: "Have you experienced the power of your company with 3,000 workers with each one making a daily one percent improvement?" They were surprised. They professed to know about Kaizen and yet were unaware of the one percent improvement approach until I gave them many examples, like moving a trash can near the door of a room instead of mindlessly putting it elsewhere. The moment people leave the room, they can easily dump their trash under a clean-as-you-go system.

What else? How about standardizing the use of a retractable ball pen for all workers instead of pens with a removable cap? A retractable pen has an easy, one-second click open/close mechanism. It does not need a cap that can be lost or trapped accidentally in office or factory equipment. And how about using standard letter size bond paper instead of A4? Check the price difference with your supplier. You'll be surprised at the savings.

Marginal gains

I bet what you know about Kaizen is only about 15 percent of what I know, modesty aside. If you know the meaning of Kaizen's kanji characters, you'll understand that it requires personal self-sacrifice that should benefit the greater majority. How many of you are ready to do that? The answer could be grim.

Kaizen is a Japanese term but the principle behind it is universal. It can be applied anywhere regardless of the nature of one's job. It's the power of one percent improvement done every day by everyone, everywhere. To support the universality of Kaizen and give you another perspective, allow me to introduce you to the relatively unknown theory of marginal gains.

"The doctrine of marginal gains is all about small incremental improvements in any process adding up to a significant improvement when they are all added together," British journalist, author and broadcaster Matthew Syed (b. 1970) said. In a BBC article titled "Viewpoint: Should we all be looking for marginal gains?" (2015), Syed talked about many examples of one percent improvement that when added up ended with a "hugely significant" milestone.

Syed, the author of Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth about Success (2015), cited the example of the British Cycling team that corrected all their minor operational faults, including dust accumulation in the team truck that undermined bike maintenance while on the road. Their solution? They covered the truck floor with pristine white paint so they could readily spot impurities. Among others, those small things brought fame to Team Great Britain in the Olympics and the Tour de France.

Another example cited by Syed is the case of Virginia Mason Hospital. It used several checklists in the operating room, altered the ergonomic design of surgical equipment and systematically improved clinical hygiene. With many of these small increments rapidly accumulated, the hospital got a stunning 74-percent liability insurance premium reduction.

Better than zero

Is this the best way to improve our life? Maybe not. At times, we may have to use high technology to make our job easy and efficient. But before you can even talk about technology, you have to answer these questions: Can you afford it? Is your organization willing to invest on it? If the answer is "no," then better stick to one percent improvement or marginal gain. It is better than zero.

Another question: Have you tried eliminating all non-value steps in your work process before you can even think of automation? The simple rule is eliminate, don't automate. Never apply a high technology application to things that are not needed in the first place.

In the end, it boils down to using common sense in everything we do. The trouble is that some managers are still enamored with Six Sigma and its derivatives that use sophisticated statistical tools when simple math will suffice, and mainly because they like to have macho belts that prove nothing to me.

Another problem is the preference of organizations to be ISO-certified. Why aspire for ISO certification when your work procedures are full of waste that make it inefficient? The list can go on and on. So what can you do? Think of the movie A Few Good Men (1992) with Jack Nicholson uttering the line: "You can't handle the truth!" Therefore, check your ego by empowering your workers. Benefit from marginal gains. You'll be glad you did.

Rey Elbo is a business consultant specializing in human resources and total quality management. Have a chat with him on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter or send your feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://ift.tt/8lNxZ7S.

Source: TheManila Times