Everything About Engineering

Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement is not a tool or technique as such; more a way of life or at least a cultural approach to quality improvement and the concept of continuous improvement has to be set in the context of the quality "movement". Quality as a business issue in the way we know it now arose with labour specialisation, mass production and automation techniques; techniques which moved away from the traditional expert craftsman approach to quality. In the new world of factories and mass production, quality was obtained by inspecting each part and passing only those that met specifications. This was true until 1931 when Walter A. Shewhart, a statistician at the Hawthorne plant at Western Electric published his book Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product (Van Nostrand, 1931). This book is the foundation of modern statistical process control (SPC) and provides the basis for the philosophy of total quality management or continuous process im

KAIZEN KAIZEN is a Japanese word meaning gradual and orderly, continuous improvement. Adopting KAIZEN involves the creation of a culture of sustained continuous improvement focusing on eliminating waste in all systems and processes of an organization. There are two essential elements that make up KAIZEN: improvement/change for the better; and ongoing/continuity. A system/culture that lacks either of these is not true KAIZEN. Thus, maintaining existing ways of working (good though they may be) lacks the essential 'improvement' element, though it ensures continuity. Similarly, breakthrough improvement, not backed up by effective ongoing improvement, lacks the element of continuity. KAIZEN should contain both elements. KAIZEN is not consistent with the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". KAIZEN achieves its effects by working through people. All are expected to be involved. Managers, for example, are expected to spend about half their time on i