A Brief Overview of Kaizen Events
Kaizen blitz refers to those workshops organized and designed to address a particular issue within a few days. These workshops provide a great opportunity for teams to carry out a self-analysis and develop problem-solving skills within a short timespan.
Features of Kaizen Blitz
Kaizen events normally take a short period of time, up to 5 days. They are aimed at delivering specific details regarding the improvement of employees' performance. The event itself involves identifying the problem, developing solutions, and finally implementing them.
These events are organized into three stages; the preparation stage, the event, and finally a follow-up. The follow-up is necessary in order to evaluate the outcomes of the event or to ascertain whether objectives have been achieved.
Benefits of kaizen events
The benefits of kaizen events can be analyzed in terms of improvement in an employee's performance and attitude following the event. Those who attend these events show a high commitment level towards achieving the organization's goals or objectives. They are also able to analyze problems in a multidimensional view and come up with effective practical solutions to these problems. These events also engage the management to implement the required changes quickly. This leads to a reduction in costs and an overall increase in inefficiency.
Limitations
Teams engaged in kaizen events can lose momentum. This may have a negative impact on its effectiveness on the teams. These events cannot be able to address complex and extensive problems that require more time as their timespan is short. The events can also be expensive and put a strain on the company's resources especially where external consultancy is necessary.
Management should provide enough resources to cater for kaizen events. It should also encourage the blitz team to carry out their tasks diligently. These events are important avenues to increase the employee's performance and overall attitude. These events help workers, in the long run, to be more effective in their activities.