Kaizen-改善

WhoAmI
Aug 28, 2019
2 min read

Japan, the land of rising sun is one of the world’s largest economic country.

Currently, Japan is in the list of the top three economically developed countries following USA and China.The population of Japan is only about 127 million(approx.) and it holds 62nd position in the table by country size. This country is not at all a stranger to natural calamities and continues to hold the records for the most expensive natural disasters in the world.The damages in 2011 tsunami estimates around $300 billion and the 2005 earthquake estimated around $132 billion.Two atomic bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the year 1945(WW II).

But still they topped in the economy table. How can this small country have such a great development in economy? What made this possible?? Where it all started ..???

The Great depression of 1929

The New York stock exchange got crashed and the failure of important European banks pushed the entire world into economic depression. As a consequence Japan also faced Showa depression during 1930-1932.

In order to overcome all these crisis,the Japanese formulated a simple strategy- "Kaizen" Kaizen means Change(kai) for the good(zen).

The two elements of kaizen are: 1)Effort 2)Quality

Effort The only power they have is the Human Resource and they should utilize it productively to overcome the crisis. Other countries divided their day into three. i.e the 24 hours to 3* 8 hours, spending the 1)the first 8 hours on work 2)the next 8 hours in entertainment and personal works 3)the last 8 hours to sleep

But the hardworking Japanese split their day into four. DD started here, Difference with Development! i.e the 24 hours to 4* 6 hours spending the 1)first 6 hours on work 2)the next six hours in entertainment and personal works 3)the third 6 hours to sleep 4)the last 6 hours for national and personal development

Quality Every company will calculate it’s standard in pp(parts per count) i.e. they calculate their fault parts per count. All the countries calculated their fault parts in pph (parts per hundred). i.e. Number of fault parts per hundred parts. But being unique,the Japanese calculated it in ppm(parts per million) i.e. Number of fault parts per million parts.

If we see it as 1pph the Japanese calculate it as 1ppm. So 1/10^2=.01 error 1/10^6=.000001 error The minimum error in the quantity is the quality.This made huge difference in their product’s quality.

All these made Japan to stand second in the list of the economically developed countries for about 42 years continuously (1968-2010).

They taught us that it’s not about the quantity of people and it’s more about the quality of people. Let Japanese be our impulse! If they can, Why can’t we..???