Getting to Lean, LLC | Robert B. Camp, Lean Transformation Coach | 704.798.6980 | robert@gettingtolean.com
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Kaikaku Events

G2L provides training, oversight and facilitation of Kaikaku events. 

The purpose of Kaikaku events is to create a step function change, often creating an advantage over your competitors. These strategic events are broad in nature and long in duration.

While Kaizen events work on individual processes, Kaikaku events tackle whole systems. An example might be improving the Accounting System, or the Engineering System. As you perform Kaizen events, your teams will uncover problems they are having with systems. That will indicate the use of a Kaikaku event on the system in question.

Picture a team conducting a Setup Reduction Kaizen. By the end of the event, they have demonstrated the ability to reduce the setup time from 95 minutes down to 186 seconds (3 minutes, 6 seconds). Nonetheless, your MRP system still calls for that process to work in batches of 300, so that the original setup time (95 minutes) is amortized over a larger number of parts.

LEAN would have you do a couple of things. First, you will want to reduce the batch size to a much smaller number of parts. Next, because changing the batch size in the MRP system will create a number of other problems, LEAN would decouple the process from MRP and have the downstream process use a Kanban (visual signal) to pull the product from its upstream neighbor. Decoupling processes will fuddle up your MRP system, so an overhaul of the entire MRP system should be undertaken. That overhaul would be the focus of a Kaikaku event.

Unlike Kaizen events, which can be completed in a week or less, Kaikaku events are generally cross-organizational, and take months to complete. Whereas Kaizen events are narrowly focused on a single element of a process, Kaikaku events often span multiple organizations. As you can imagine, changing the MRP system will have repercussions on Engineering (time standards) and Accounting (raw material and lead time calculations), Procurement (reorder amounts and speeds), etc.

As with Kaizen G2L not only intends to meet or exceed the goals you set, it constantly works toward your self-sufficiency. G2L can help you establish a Continuous Improvement Office and train your personnel to begin conducting their own Kaikaku events.

Until you can sustain your transformation on your own, G2L is there to help.