Genchi Genbutsu is a core principle of the Toyota Production System that
translates to "go and see for yourself."
It
emphasizes firsthand observation to understand situations deeply, solve
problems accurately, and make informed decisions.
Instead of
relying on second hand reports or data alone, leaders and team members are
encouraged to go to the actual place where value is created, such as the
factory floor, the customer site, or the development environment.
The Genchi Genbutsu approach involves:
Visiting the gemba: Physically
going to the site of the issue or process.
Observing without assumptions:
Understanding the facts directly through observation.
Engaging with people: Talking
to employees, operators, or customers involved.
Asking “Why?” and using the “5
Whys” technique to get to the root cause.
Genchi
Genbutsu promotes situational awareness, empathy, and fact-based leadership. It
bridges the gap between strategy and execution, ensuring leaders stay grounded
in operational realities.
Finally, a
word to clarify the difference between Genchi Genbutsu and Gemba; Gemba means "the real
place" where work happens and value is created (like a factory floor)
Genchi Genbutsu means "go and see for yourself" and emphasizes
firsthand observation to understand problems deeply.
Gemba is
the location, Genchi Genbutsu is the mindset and method of investigation.
Kaizen is a
business philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement across the entire
organization. The pursue of the kaizen model is to help companies
focus on gradually and consistently increasing efficiency and reducing waste
within processes. That doesn't mean alterations happen slowly. The kaizen
process simply recognizes that small changes now can have huge impacts in the
future.
To achieve all this, kaizen encourages
input from any employee, from the factory floor to the most senior management.
The kaizen method became popular in Japan,
at manufacturers like Toyota. Kaizen can broadly be translated as means continuous
improvement in Japanese.
There are five fundamental Kaizen
principles that are embedded in every tool and behaviour:
1. Know your customer
2. Let it Flow
3. Go to Gemba
4. Empower People
5. Be Transparent
Traditionally, kaizen has been known
for its events, usually a three- to five-day team workshop
in which employees, managers, and sometimes C-suite executives make an
actionable plan to improve an existing process. Kaizen
events often follow Gemba Walks or the discovery of an inefficiency. We
have spoken about Gemba Walks in the past, these are visits to workplaces where
management teams can witness processes, talk to employees, gather insights, and
identify any issues. You can read more about Gemba Walks in here.
After you’ve identified problems or bottlenecks in a process,
start making small, continuous improvements. During the kaizen event, team
members collaborate and think of solutions. The ideal outcome of these events
is an actionable plan that is ready for implementation.
Kaizen events can take many forms to best serve their business
application.
1. Focused-improvement
kaizen. A
focused-improvement event is a kaizen event centred on a single, known
issue. Prioritize your most important losses and develop solutions to
eliminate them.
2. Waste
kaizen. This
type of event focuses on eliminating waste in your processes, as opposed
to improving systems that are currently working.
3. Error-proofing
kaizen. Use
this type of event to reduce human error by improving processes. This
could be as simple as standardizing checklists, automating parts of a
system or using Poka Yoke which we talked about here.
4. Lead-time
kaizen. This
kind of event is suitable when you realize one of your processes is taking
too long. The event aims to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete
a process, like the time from processing an order to the customer
receiving their goods.
How to run a Kaizen event:
There is not a unique way
to conduct a kaizen event but the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) framework is
common and often recommended method.
1.
Plan
The Gemba Walk, mapping your value stream, and identifying the
problems in your processes are part of the planning stage in a PDCA cycle.
Follow these steps to get started.
Speak to employees. They’re
the people who know the daily process better than anyone, so find out what
problems or issues they're aware of.
Define and analyse the
problem. When you’ve decided which issue to
tackle, break it down and find the bottleneck in the process.
Establish the metrics
you’ll use to measure success. Without this data it’s
impossible to analyse the results after you’ve tested the solution.
Decide on a goal. You
should have one goal that is achievable within the event time frame.
Work as a team to find solutions to the problem. There should
be no limits on the kind of solutions encouraged. Allow employees to use
their creativity. Choose one with potential to start with.
2. Do
Run a small-scale test of your chosen solution. Make sure every team member
involved is aware of the change and let it run long enough to gather meaningful
data and feedback.
3. Check
Collect data from your test and assess its success.
4. Act or adjust
If the test was a success, scale, implement your improved process company-wide
or as a permanent update. However, if you found issues, or if the solution
didn’t work, refine the process, and run further tests or choose a different
solution and try again.
This should be a cyclical process. The kaizen event might be a one-time event
but the process of improving never stops. To keep the continuous loop going,
repeat the cycle. Find more processes to improve or try out other solutions.
