ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTIVENESS OF KAIZEN IMPLEMENTATION: THE CASE OF NA METAL INDUSTRY & ENGINEERING

Abstract

Kaizen originated in Japan to be applied in the improvement of productivity, quality, efficiency and, all in all, business excellence. Though it has been an internationally recognized tool for continuous improvement, it is of a short age to be practiced in Africa, in general, and in Ethiopia, in particular. The Government of Ethiopia introduced Kaizen as one of the change tools and directed organizations to apply it. However, not much has been done to assess its effectiveness and challenges encountered in the implementation process. The purpose of this paper was to find out the effectiveness of kaizen implementation in NA Metal industries and provide the factory and other interested party with the result of the study and improve and/apply its implementation process. It has, therefore, studied the achievement of Kaizen, the linkage between Kaizen implementation with the Top management, change managements, IT support, Five s and organizational factors, the technical and social outcomes, productivity improvement and the social system outcomes with continuous improvement, , as a purposive sample technique survey questionnaire, interviews and direct observations have been applied based on different performance indicators related to inputs, outputs and process of Kaizen implementation techniques. The respondents for the questionnaires have been involved from different departments of the factory. Interviews were made with management as well as supervisors and observations were also done the researcher through paying visits to the factory. Accordingly, Results of this studies show that kaizen implemented between 11 to 40 percent at company and to implement the entire processes, the implementation believed to take more than three years. Results also identified company support processes (administrative) less challenging to implement compare to core processes. it has been found that Kaizen implementation in the company Factory has been found less successful in terms of minimization of waste and, as a result production cost reduction, increasing efficiency, creation of good relationship between employees and management, increasing employees’ attitude towards teamwork, facilitation of the factory's conducive working environment and improving work commitment. However, teams' problem solving cultivate and intra - team relationship has been observed to require further improvement.