Lean Mastery Collection

by Jeffrey Ries

  Checking is essential for reviewing systems and processes, where you seek to understand and analyze lessons and results acquired from the review.

  Act on what you’ve learned as a result of the review and analysis. If the change is successful, it can be included in the system. If it isn’t successful, start all over again with a different approach and focus.

  4. Employee Performance

  Kaizen implies every input is valued. No suggestion is too small or stupid to be implemented if it helps the overall productivity, efficiency, and bottom line of a company. This includes everyone from seemingly lowly cleaners to supply chain professionals to janitors. Everyone in the startup has a voice, which must be recognized and encouraged. You never know which suggestion or idea will be the game changer. It is also a given that if you want your workers to do well and produce stunning results, they must find their job interesting and satisfying. Naturally, one needs to increase their awareness of the fact that their thoughts ate highly valued. As a startup founder, you will also have to ditch the blame culture and foster an atmosphere where everyone is helpful towards one and another.

  Create an atmosphere where everyone’s opinion is respected. In fact, go a step ahead and proactively ask your employees and workers for suggestions and reviews. Think about it–your cleaner or janitor may come up with a more organized and efficient cleaning system that can help you save money.

  Designate an open day, wherein any of your employees can walk into your office and throw a bunch of meaningful and relevant suggestions. This can be accomplished through a streamlined suggestion system that can be work effectively for small and large groups based on what works for the organization, and the way expertise is demarcated or divided within the startup. Everyone who works for the startup should be aware of their expertise and niche. They should be trained and encouraged to identify systems or procedures that can be changed.

  5. Customer Experience

  The Kaizen philosophy’s ultimate goal is to enhance overall customer satisfaction. All other values and attributes of Kaizen are directed towards creating rewarding customer experiences. Ineffective business practices can lead to potentially dissatisfied customers, thus preventing your startup from growing in the long run. As a new business, you need to establish your customer base. Hence, simplifying customer experience and keeping them happy is integral to the Kaizen philosophy.

  For accomplishing superior customer service, the startup must may every business procedure that includes the customer right down to the details. As a customer-centric organization, this helps you determine where complexities, complications, and challenges may arise. For instance, if you are an e-commerce website, you may want to check if the online ordering and payment checkout system is efficient enough for your customers. Do your purchase system and website facilitate a smooth, quick, and easy way to order? What are the small ways in which you can improve the website to make the processes of buying even easier for the customer? Maybe add other products that are similar to the one he/she is considering buying and compare it with their currently chosen product to offer them more options and help them make more efficient buying decisions? Maybe show them lists of products similar to what they’ve purchased that have been recently purchased by customers or which are popular with buyers. There are innumerable ways to improve online buying and payment methods. As a startup, you keep identifying ways to make the process of buying easier for customers.

  Once you identify potential issues that can impede the overall customer service experience, you can start recreating or improving the process by using guidelines to rectify the issue. Follow-up with a test and review process, where you can gauge or measure if the changes have helped in making the process of customer or user experience amazing.

  Now that we know in brief how Kaizen can be applied to a startup, let us look at the 5 S’s of this cutting-edge Japanese philosophy.

  Chapter Three: The Five S’s of Kaizen

  5S is the foundation of Japanese Kaizen philosophy. Though entrepreneurs and business leaders from the West have lent it their own twist, at its heart, the Japanese model of Kaizen philosophy is primarily driven by the 5S.

  The Kaizen 5S model emphasizes on having visual order, neatness, organization, and standardization. Some results one can expect from the 5S model include greater overall efficiency, enhanced profitability, better safety norms, and more professional service standards. These are all things a startup strives to accomplish in the long run.

  As a startup, your enterprise can experience several benefits of implementing the 5S program. On the face, it appears as though only manufacturing businesses can benefit from Kaizen. However, this is only a misconception. It can be applied to just about any sector—from professional services to healthcare. Every area or department within a startup or organization can benefit from the 5S model.

  Here are the Kaizen 5s:

  1. Sort

  This is known as seiri in Japanese and sorting involves eliminating all unnecessary and defunct items from your workplace. These items are believed to hinder productivity, space, time and energy. Therefore, anything that doesn’t serve a purpose in the functioning of your startup is best eliminated to make way for newer, fresher and more productive items that serve a clear purpose. Decluttering is a big component of Kaizen. If you keep items you don’t need, you’ll spend plenty of time and energy looking for items that are required, thus losing precious resources in the bargain.

  Seiri involves sorting out. As per seiri, employees should always sort and organize things. Label, classify or categorize items as, “necessary” “critical” “most important” “urgent” “not urgent” “most important” “not needed now” “useless” and more. The categories can be classified as, “urgent but not important,” “urgent and important,” “neither urgent nor important,” and “important but not urgent.” This way you know what tasks or files are a high priority and what can be tackled later. Throw away everything that is useless or doesn’t fit into your scheme of things. You may be carrying things from a previous business to the startup. It may no longer serve a purpose to what you are currently doing. Ditch things that are no longer, valid, applicable or relevant to the current startup

  2. Set in Order

  This is also known as seiton. It speaks about creating a particular order and location for every item. Everything should be in its place if you want to be able to save time, money and energy in looking for it. Kaizen is about orderliness. Having a set order and system in place for things allows the Japanese to be more efficient. It leaves more time and energy to focus on procedural systems. Seiton is about organizing. According to research, employees waste more than half of their precious time looking for important documents. When every item is kept has its own place right from the onset, it is easier to find it when it is urgently needed.

  Why is seiton important? It ensures systematic arrangement for effective, productive and efficient retrieval. You must be able to find where everything is kept, which means everything should be in its place for facilitating east retrieval. The place for every item should be clearly marked and labeled. There has to be a demarcation of space of each item right when the business is launching. When seiton becomes a habit, it ensures a smooth and unhindered workflow. Ensure that equipment which is frequently used is easily accessible. Similarly, employees shouldn’t have to struggle too hard to access the material. This saves their time and effort, which can be productively channelized towards other systems and processes.

  3. Shine

  Shine or seiso is about cleanliness. Keeping your work area clean reflects a healthy, positive and productive state of mind that leads you to be even more efficient and productive. Will an ill-kept and dirty space inspire you to do good work or be productive? Little chances! Seiso involves organizing the workplace. A shining and clean workplace breeds good vibes that encourage positivity and productivity.

  As a startup, you need to ensure that rules for cleanliness, neatness
, and hygiene are set at the onset. Keep all documents in efficiently labeled files and dedicated folders. All bills should go in one file, while all invoices should go into another. Keep all checks in one file, while receipts can go into another. Simply following these small practices can help you streamline the process to make it more efficient. Try to come up with new ways to keep your space clean, shinning and organized. Use space optimally for storage. Ensure that there are enough efficiently designed and optimized storage options such as cabinets and drawers for storing your stuff.

  Shining or seiso is an important aspect of Kaizen. Cleaning the workplace along with maintaining all the equipment regularly should be a part of your cleanliness and maintenance policy. Keep your space clean, organized and tidy. After each cleaning session, follow up on it to ensure the cleanliness is maintained. According to the Japanese philosophy, a shinning workplace leads to higher efficiency and gains.

  4. Standardization

  Standardization or seiketsu is adopting best practices within the workplace by fixing a standard norm for systems and procedures. Each organization should have a set of standard rules and policies to drive its systems to ensure quality and optimize productivity. Work practices within the startup should be consistent, uniform and standardized to ensure greater discipline and efficiency. All workstations should be uniform. Employees should be able to walk in to their workstation every morning and view the same equipment or tools, which are kept in the same location or spot every day. Everyone should be aware of their responsibilities and commit to following the standardized code of conduct set for all employees.

  5. Sustain

  Sustain or shitsuke is continuously improving and never slipping back into old ways. It is related to self-discipline. All employees need to respect an organization’s rules, policies, and regulations. For instance, not walking into the office wearing casuals (if there is a dress code) on a weekday or entering office without an identity card.

  Most startups make the mistake of taking things lightly in the beginning, focusing on luring employees with the fun, light work atmosphere, and play syndrome. However, self-discipline is important for the long-term sustenance of a business. You may find a relaxed policy effective in the beginning. Once the business decides to scale up though or grow by leaps and bounds, it will be tough to keep up with a set of employees who aren’t disciplined. They can end up lowering the organization’s overall productivity, efficiency, morale, and atmosphere.

  Once all the earlier 4S’s have been set, you have to ensure that your organization doesn’t slip back to its old ways by following shitsuke to the fullest. When you follow the earlier attributes, it becomes a way of life. Keep your vision focused on this new way of doing business, while not allowing yourself or your startup employees to slip back to their old ways. Remember, continuous and not momentary improvement is the key. Adopting continuous improvement leads to lesser wastage of time, higher productivity, better quality and rapid lead times.

  There are several benefits of incorporating a culture of 5S’s within the organization including higher productivity, reduced clinical defects, quicker, and more efficient products/service and a safer work environment.

  While the first 3 S’s are relatively simple, several startups face problems in the 4 and 5 S. However, it isn’t something that is tough to accomplish. It can be achieved with consistent training, practice, and implementation.

  Chapter Four: A Step-by-Step Kaizen Guide for Startups and Small Businesses

  Identify Significant Business Processes.

  Begin your Kaizen quest by identifying important business processes. While conventionally, Kaizen processes, much like Six Sigma, are applied to the manufacturing sector—it is now used in every type of trade and industry. Identify processes that can be used for your startup on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. This can help you work on improving the processes on a continual basis. It is important to have emergency funds ready for effectively managing the cash flow. Keep a business credit card handy to manage emergency cash crunch situations.

  If the processes aren’t in place already (which is the case in a majority of startups), it is the right time to put documentation in place for every aspect of the business. Avoid relying on the expertise of a single person. One of the biggest mistakes startups make is relying excessively on the expertise of the founders—and not document processes. This isn’t a good Kaizen practice. A good Kaizen practice involves documenting all processes for continuity and offering an opportunity to the entire team for reviewing procedures. There will be opportunities for better results or the creation of more efficient processes. You may identify a few old processes that can be dropped, modified, or replaced—leading to huge savings.

  What are the businesses that move or drive your organization ahead or are absolutely important for the functioning of the organization? Carry our constant training and reviews, and use the feedback for improvement. When processes are documented, it is easier to find ways that can be improved upon. Your startup will grow and there will be massive changes in the business environment as the startup grows. You’ll have to keep up with these changes, which is why adapting to different systems and procedures will be vital to the success of your startup.

  Ask yourself these questions to get your startups Kaizen in place. What are you doing currently? How are you doing things? Is it possible to enhance what you are currently doing even if it is slightly? Maybe change the way you do your invoices so you don’t spend a few hours each day handling them and tackle them all together on a Friday or Monday to make the invoice paying system more streamlined. There are several such questions you can ask yourself that point to the correct direction when it comes to implementing the Kaizen philosophy for improved efficiency.

  Empower the Workforce to Make Continuous Improvements.

  Is your organization a safe and conducive place for workers who offer suggestions for improvement or constructive criticism? If this isn’t the case yet, your startup needs a Kaizen approach. As a startup, it is even more important for people to feel empowered, and bring about exciting new ideas on board. This will make them feel part of the launch of the business or startup, and increase their overall loyalty and morale. Think about it, each time an employee within your newly launched business is encouraged to come up with a suggestion, and their suggestion is implemented, they feel important, valued and empowered, which drives them to come up with even more suggestions for improvement and enhancement.

  Give your workers the independence to fix or resolve issues they come across. Of course, there should be a boss or experienced person helming the functioning and decision making within the organization. However, they should have the creative freedom to fix things and improve procedures to make their assignments more effective. If these processes are found, they should be shared with the team so that 00

  However, it is also important for people to believe that they have the freedom to make fix things wherever they find issues. Encourage and motivate your workers to come up with innovative, creative and resourceful solutions to make their work procedures and assignments even more effective. Inspire them to come up with better ways to do things, and share them with others. Celebrate small victories to develop a culture of continuous and consistent improvement.

  All employees in your startup should feel empowered to make decisions or play an active role in the implementation of decisions. This is vital for small businesses because you are in a startup launch stage where each employee’s role is crucial. They are all a part of the founding or early team, which makes them feel a vital part of the organization’s success, history, and story. When you empower these already important workers to make decisions, you make them feel even more strongly about their role in the organization. In a small business or startup, it isn’t uncommon for a single person to represent the entire department, which is why open communication is vital.

  Take suggestions, feedback, and reviews seriously whenever an employee talks to you. The
y may offer you insights from the ground level about something that has probably missed your eye. Your employees are the ones who are working hands-on on various processes and systems so they know best. Encourage them to talk about what is working great, and what isn’t. Understand that they are experts in their particular processes, and they are able to closely examine how these processes function. This is exactly why the information sought from them should be valued and sought after.

  When you implement the Kaizen philosophy within your startup, understand that no detail is too big or small. Everything is important and has value. Every opportunity where you can view even the tiniest inkling of improvement should be valued. Tiny improvements can add points that will end up becoming large improvements over a period of time. This is applicable throughout the company, and not just expenses. Waste can be discovered in several forms. Anything that is consuming an employee’s time or even physical/virtual storage space should be studied and reviewed as a possible Kaizen application area.

  Understand that improvement or enhancement is not the final destination of your journey. It is not the finishing line but instead a philosophy that one must continue their pursuit of exploration and improvement arising as a result of the exploration. Kaizen isn’t about reaching anywhere. It is striving towards continuous improvement, one step at a time.

  Strategies for continuous learning and improvement a must be keenly intertwined into your company’s fabric and be a part of its basic culture. Don’t restrict Kaizen implementation only to specific processes or occasions. It should be assimilated into your startup's organizational philosophy as a way of life.