| Abstract: | Several manufacturing industries in Ethiopia have being trying to use Kaizen approaches to achieve high productivity and excellent quality standards to make them more competitive in the global market. Despite the benefits of implementing Kaizen and the successes of many companies that have been documented in many studies, have been challenging to achieve the goals of Kaizen events in their organizations. The objective of this study was to assess practices and challenges of kaizen implementation in selected manufacturing companies in Ethiopia. The researcher selected four companies, those actively practicing Kaizen, namely Anbessa Shoe S.C, Horizon Addis Tyre PLC, Belayab Cable Manufacturing and Sino-Ethiop Associate Africa PLC. For this research, descriptive research design was employed, so as to have clear picture of phenomenon on which the researcher wish to collect data. Questionnaires were used to obtain data from the 120 respondents in the four companies. Analysis was done by using SPSS and Microsoft excels to compute mean, frequency and percentage. Additionally, the researcher was conducted direct observation by using checklists. The results on contribution of kaizen implementation of the four companies’ verified that the companies have gained many benefits including increased sales volume, reduced costs, higher quality, increased productivity, greater employee satisfaction and a safer work environment, although the degree of their benefit is differing from company to company. The research finding found that Kaizen training, motivation and education and Kaizen three pillars are implemented on the four manufacturing companies at moderate and satisfactory level. The research finding shows that the companies were faced challenges of kaizen implementation by weak culture of work, lack of management support and misconception about kaizen. All the four companies have been challenged by employees’ weak culture of work. Hence, all the four companies have gained various benefits, implemented kaizen at a different level and faced various challenges throughout kaizen implementation. |
