Kaizen
Kaizen activity was officially introduced in DSSE in November 2007. Since that moment we are making our efforts to continuously and systematically improve every area of the company in the line with philosophy and assumptions of Kaizen.
First: 3S
3S comes from 3 Japanese words:
Seiri – segregate, sort – in practice it means segregating of all objects, tools, documents placed in the work station dividing them into necessary for work and useless which can be removed.
Seiton – organize – setting in correct order all necessary objects, tools, documents so they can be easy to find; each equipement must have its own home position which is properly marked and described.
Seiso – clean up – regular cleaning of the wrok place so it’s free from dust and dirt.
Examples of well-organized work stations according to 3S rules.
Second: elimination of waste
Kaizen philosophy identifies 7 types of waste (Jap. Muda) which have negative impact on company functioning and may generate additional cost.
Overproduction – manufacturing products earlier and in bigger amount than ordered by customer; it requires more storage space and causes quicker consumption of raw materials; however the biggest risk concerns hidden defects which may appear during too long storage; it generates additional cost.
Defects – products which are not conformed to customer’s requirements; they may appear as a consequence of improperly designed production process, failures of equipment or incorrectly trained employees.
Unnecessary motion – non-added value actions which prolong standard operations; they may result from insufficient employee training or incorrect work place organization.
Stock – accumulating of too big quantity of raw materials which can be used; its storage requires additional warehouse space and may cause some hidden defects which can occure during long waiting time for production.
Unnecessary transport – unnecessary handling of materials, products; it may cause some damages during transportation.
Proceeding – additional operations resulting from e.g. improper design of production process or usage of inadequate technologies.
Waiting – time when employees cannot carry out their operations because of machine breakdown, improper training or lack of components for production.
Third: proposals of improvement
Each DSSE employee has an opportunity to apply improvement ideas concerning any company area as a part of „Before-After” program. The purpose of this program is to describe current status and future (improved) condition. Most of the ideas are implemented immediately but some of them require additional cost or Manager’s approval. Such ideas are considered by Kaizen Committee. Once per quarter the Committee awards employees who applied the biggest amount of ideas and also selects the best proposal of improvement. All our employees enjoy participating in „Before-After” program.
Below chart presents the amount of applied Before-After ideas in 2010 – 2014.
Thanks to the applied proposals of improvement our company saved in 2013 and in 1st quarter of 2014 over 10 mln PLN.
Fourth: SQDC classification
Fifth: problem solving according to CAPD cycle
Thanks to usage of CAPD cycle we can approach to each problem solving in a system way.
C (check) – checking current condition and identifying problems.
A (act) – analysis of collected data; find the root cause of problem.
P (plan) – planning improving actions to solve the problem.
D (do) – implementation of the planned actions.
Indispensable element of CAPD cycle is its continuous usage. After implementing improving actions we always must check their results to find out if the problem has been eliminated.
Sixth: Global Kaizen Competition
Every year Daicel Corporation organizes Global Kaizen Competition in Mother Company in Japan. Each DSS site presents its achievements from previous year. It is not only stiff fight for the tile of Champion in two categories: 3S and TPS (Toyota Production System) but also integrated workshop when we can meet with representatives from other Daicel sites, share experience and solve common problems. Our company started organizing Pre-Competition stage together with DSSA (Daicel Safety Systems America).
Global Kaizen Competition always carries along great emotions and cooperation in our way to achieve world leader position among air bag inflator producers.
Our achievements in GLOBAL KAIZEN COMPETITIONS:
- 2013 1st place 3S and 3 place TPS,
- 2017 1st place KAIZEN and 3rd SAFETY;
- 2018 Ist and 3rd place KAIZEN.