G2L provides training, oversight and facilitation of Kaizen events.  With hundreds of Kaizen events under their belts, G2L can help your organization eliminate waste and become an organization that can respond more nimbly to market changes.

Kaizen events are a form of tactical rapid improvement, and the delivery system for the tools of LEAN.  They are the very heart of Continuous Improvement.  In five days, a group of process owners are trained in one of the tools of LEAN and then immediately sent out to implement what they learned.  Their focus is a single problem area in your overall process.

G2L can help leaders understand where they will get the greatest value from an event and will help them choose the right personnel to have on the Kaizen team.  Once the event is underway, G2L will teach new skills and guide the team through the 5-day application of the scientific method.

Some of the concepts taught during events are:

• Value Stream Mapping (VSM) – A well documented VSM is a powerful tool giving leaders the ability to see the shortcomings in their processes, and to establish the order of attack for conducting further Kaizen events.
• 5S – 5S events are a broad brush applied to every process and are a part of every Kaizen event, irrespective of the type.  A typical 5S event has members clean, organize, label every element of a process, and create countermeasures to prevent future backsliding.  Finally, 5S events create a methodology to sustain the state of 5S you achieve during the event.  This one event creates the discipline on which the rest of LEAN hangs.
• Setup Reduction – Reducing the time between last good part and first good part (manufacturing); last good outcome to first good outcome (non-manufacturing), Setup Reduction Kaizens are indicated when the time to tear down from making one item and preparing to run the next, is too great.  This condition is often indicated by a large amount of WIP sitting in front of the operation.  In an office, that can look like an overflowing IN BOX.
• Standard Work – As Taiichi Ohno (Father of the Toyota Production System) said, “Where there is no standard, there can be no Kaizen.”  Standard work events develop a single best way to perform a process.  They then document that new process, train all who perform it, and then monitor their performance against the new standard.  Standard Work is the basis of continuous improvement.
• Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) – When equipment is unreliable, a TPM event is indicated.  During a TPM event, the team will actually disassemble the machine, clean it, restore it to near “as built” condition and then create a way to maintain it that way.  TPM events label all checkpoints on the machine and create a checklist used every shift by the operator to perform ongoing PM.  This includes reading & recording gauge readings, cleaning the machine, replacing worn tools and adding lubricants as needed.
• Total Quality Control (TQC) – When excessive defects are impeding the process a TQC event is indicated.  If workers continually make mistakes in completing forms or filling in screens, it often means there is a broader, more systemic problem.  A TQC event will use all means available to determine the root cause of the defects and eliminate that cause.

While the goal of every Kaizen event is to meet or exceed the goals you set, G2L is constantly working toward your self-sufficiency.  G2L can help you establish a Continuous Improvement Office and train your personnel to begin conducting their own Kaizen events.

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