In the Capital early this month to conduct a four-day seminar on shopfloor improvement through Gemba Kaizen (workplace improvement) under the aegis of the Federation of AOTS Alumni Association of India (FAAAI), Norio Suzuki, consultant, JMA Management Centre, Japan, had a four-day session with 46 middle and first line managers of 18 predominantly Ghaziabad-based companies. The 45-year old management guru has helped implement Gemba Kaizen in various industries for the last 12 years, besides conducting seminars on ``How to proceed with Gemba Kaizen and 5-S in a practical way.'' He has also written a book on `Various ways to conduct Gemba Kaizen'.

Gemba Kaizen or workplace improvement, is a three-pronged approach to bottom-up quality initiatives. Forming its foundation is the 5-S activity consisting of Seiri (reorganisation), Seiton (maintenance), Seiso (clean-up), Seiketsu (sustain) and Shitsuke (proper attitude). The next is: 3-M, which includes the elimination of Muri (difficult tasks), Muda (wasteful action), Mura (irregular action). And finally, the third element of Gemba Kaizen: visual management.

Together, the ultimate target of Gemba Kaizen, therefore, becomes improvement in QCD, ie, quality, cost and delivery, which in turn should lead to profit. In simple terms, it means improving efficiency by following the principles of reorganisation, maintenance, clean-up, cleanliness, proper attitude-and thus eliminate abnormalities and improve the efficiency of the 4-Ms: man, machine, material and method.

Says Suzuki: ``There is no end to Gemba Kaizen. It is a process of continuous improvement, almost a piling up of improvement.'' Consider the three steps to Gemba Kaizen:

The 5-S approach: While Seiri says all articles should be segregated according to necessity, nature and frequency of use, Seiton holds that the articles should be well-organised and stored so as to allow quick access. The rack housing the parts for example, should have maximum/minimum order markings to manage inventory better.

The third S - Seiso - means maintenance and cleaning. Here a checklist should be drawn for the operator detailing how and what he should check on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Touch is an important part of Seiso, as it helps detect a lot of deficiencies hidden from the eye eg a temporary leak or pealed off paint on an undersurface.

Seiri-Seiton-Seiso form the pillars of Gemba Kaizen. The remaining two S of the 5-S activity (Seiketsu and Shitsuke) are there to sustain and support the first three. The order of the 5-S does not matter, says Suzuki. In fact, it differs according to the problems of a particular workplace. Usually, however, the first three are applied first.

Eliminating 3-M: Closely linked with the 5-S process is 3-M (Muri: difficult activity, Muda: wasteful actions, Mura:irregular activity.) So, with the objective of improving efficiency, the intention should be to: eliminate operations that cause fatigue, are wasteful or do not generate profit, and methods that are not uniform. Another act that leads to Muda is Choyuki or making a `temporary place' for an item. When Choyuki becomes a frequent occurrence, it leads to Muda. If things are kept in their proper place, Choyuki can be eliminated.

The objective then of all activity should be to improve efficiency; the means: remove Muda. However, says Suzuki, in some cases, when the `attitude' towards the process itself is wrong, implementation of 5-S itself becomes `Muda' or wasteful activity. He gives the example of one factory, where material was stocked before a fire extinguisher and there was constant movement in the area. When this was pointed out, the response of the workers was ``No problem.'' To implement 5-S here, itself leads to Muda, since there is bound to be a relapse.

Encouraging visual management: Many factories make the mistake of stopping at the level of 5-S alone. According to Suzuki, ``It needs to be supported by visual management too''. Props that assist this are: Colour distinction, symbols, pictures, charts, maximum/minimum order marks on racks to check inventories, etc. This assists in detection of problems or `abnormalities' at a glance: such as the difference in target and actual achievement, between the standard and the actual.

Says Suzuki: ``Most Indian companies have not implemented the concepts accurately. The emphasis is more on results, not understanding and implementing the process itself. What Japanese companies have learnt in 40 years through trial and error, Indian companies are trying to encapsulate in a few years.''

Another concern pointed out by him: while top management jumps at new concepts, these are not being percolated down to the workers' level, where the process has to really begin. This is an area Indian managers need to be active in, to communicate the meaning of each action. In many companies lines are physically drawn on the ground for marking walking and storage areas, but are not adhered to. This is because managers probably do not explain the objective of drawing the lines. For every line drawn on the floor there is an objective that needs to be properly explained to subordinates, he points out. In Japan, seniors are evaluated on how well they have developed or groomed their subordinates. Indian managers should also follow their example, he adds.

The FAAAI, which organised the workshop, was set up in 1990 by 7 AOTS Alumni societies of India. AOTS or the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship, Japan, organises overseas technical and management training programmes, lecture tours and seminars on management, productivity and quality control in industry. The workshop included industry visits to understand and identify problem areas for implementation of 5S and kaizen activity in the plants.