Welcome to Annual Kaizen Conference 2019

Advanced Kaizen Seminar Kitwe 18-09-2018

Dear Friends , It was a pleasure meeting you all today at Moba Hotel in Kitwe for the Advanced Kaizen Seminar (18th September 2018)

As promised please find link for the presentation that I made today . Should you have any doubts please do not hesitate to write to me with the subject header [Kaizen Club ] .

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iwhj4l3hgrjjhjt/Advanced%20Kaizen%20Seminar%20Kitwe%20KJ%20Presentation%2018092018.pdf?dl=0


Happy learning !

Krishnan Jagadheeswaran (KJ)
Specialised Systems Limited
Kaizen Club of Zambia

Annual Kaizen Conference 2018 -An inquiry into variation

I attended the Annual Kaizen Conference conducted by the Kaizen Insitute of Zambia and JICA between the 15th and 16th February 2018 at Mulungushi Conference Centre , Lusaka, Zambia . 

  A presentation was made by Adachi San of JICA on how Kaizen was implemented in one of the Toyota Transmission manufacturing units in Japan . He explained how Toyota management started focusing on various improvement initiatives starting from TQC ( Total Quality Control ) to TQM passing through stages of Kaizen and ISO 9001 .

I also refer to presentations made by the team members of companies , who put up slides on Root cause analysis . I wish to discuss about the fineness of the root cause analysis . 

The subject matter ingredient in any process is controlling variation . A product is said to be of good quality when it is able adhere to less variation between various units produced . To assure that the same is adhered to , the product has technical specifications with a tolerance bandwidth within a limit , that the produced product must fall under . 

Many Quality managers and supervisors  tend to focus more on having their product fall in between the tolerance limits and keep thinking that they are manufacturing a good product . Seldom does a QC team ensure statistical analysis of the batch production . I have observed in a few companies where the line staff think of entering the sample analysis in the X bar R chart as a mundane routine and boring exercise . 

Infact , many of the QC managers are not even aware of the causes of variation , one due to special causes and one due common cause . Many of the Special cause variations , are given enormous amounts of focus leading to lesser focus on common cause variation . 

While I solicit readers to come up with more details related to these , I will continue on the same in the next edition . 

Regards

KJ

Happy New Year 2018 ! We are back ...

Dear Friends , the blog is back after a hiatus . I apologise for the huge gap in postings due to really a strenuous time and work load in 2017 . It is my endeavor to continue actively in the blog for 2018 and beyond . On behalf of the Kaizen Club of Zambia , The Kaizen institute of Zambia and JICA We wish all our readers a Very happy and prosperous New year 2018 .

Gemba at Nortec , Ndola

Dear Friends

We are pleased to invite participating Kaizen organisations to attend the Gemba cum Q1 meeting of the Kaizen Club of Zambia on the 6th April 2017 between 14:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs at Nortec Institute in Ndola .

Should you have any queries, please feel free to mail me on kj@specialised.com.zm


Looking forward to seeing you ...

Regards

Krishnan Jagadheeswaran (KJ)
Chairman
Kaizen Club of Zambia
Spread the Kaizen word ....

Common Cause and Special Cause Variation

Suzuki San continues " Dear Friends , This time I am going to delve into a bit of technical aspects of Quality .

We will look into some aspects that affect Quality . When I ask what is Quality , many of you will say that Quality is conforming to specifications or addressing customers requirements , etc....

You will notice that when you manufacture a product or provide a service , a particular item or service may satisfy one customer but not necessarily the other even if its the same product or service . This happens when the product or service delivery varies in its specifications .

So we have learnt earlier that Variation is one of the main enemies of Quality and that if a specification is defined , one must ensure that the specification is met consistently . This factor in manufacturing statistical terms is called as REPEATABILITY . The ability of the process to produce the same result again and again .

When there is variation , the results keep varying and hence will produce poor quality , Yes ?? But in a process some degree of variation will happen as one cannot have a perfect output every time .

Variation is caused due to different factors and fall under two major categories .

One is COMMON CAUSE VARIATION and the other is SPECIAL CAUSE VARIATION .

SPECIAL CAUSE VARIATION :

This variation is an unusual happening arising out of an unusual occurrence . Some examples to make one understand is

1. In a production line , if the tool tip breaks and it damages the component under production , those components will not conform to the desired output and will be rejected . This defective is due to a Special cause .... the breakage of the tool tip .

2. When you are going to office by a bus everyday to reach at 07:30hrs  , and on one particular day an accident happens on way and you are delayed  due to this , your delay is due to a special cause .

3. When you have a new staff taking charge of Telephones and he / she makes numerous mistakes , these are caused due to special causes .

COMMON CAUSE VARIATION:

This variation is very natural and will occur in any process irrespective of its speciality or simplicity . This variation is fully expected and is common and natural .

Examples of Common cause variation is

1. Try putting your signature 10 times on a sheet of paper . You will notice that these signatures are fully yours but will contain certain minor variations between each . This is due to common cause variations .

2. Taking the example above of coming to office every day when you say leave your home by 06:30 hrs sharp , and you reach office between say 07:35 to 07:45 hrs , it can be attributed to common cause variations .

3. When milk bottling company is bottling milk in 2 litre containers , an accurate measure of these cans may reveal that the bottles are filled between 1.97 litres to say 2.07 litres and never perfect to 2 litres . This can be attributed to common cause variations .

Most of the common causes happened due to factors of variation caused by Man , Machine , Method , Material , Mother Nature ( temperature etc..) , Measurement etc...





In the above graph , one will find that if 98% was the desired output , due to common cause variations the readings everyday hover around 98% . However due to a special cause on 23/1 , the output had decreased to 81% . This shows the difference between common and special cause variations . 

Now , I hope you have understood something on what are the causes of variation . What I want you to tell me is that , out of Special Causes and Common cause , which one is very important and why ?

Please send your responses to my good friend KJ on his email id kj@specialised.com.zm

I will explain more in the coming days . Thanks "

In a jiffy , Suzuki San was gone .

Note 1 : Suzuki San , Miss P and her company are characters  developed by KJ and has no relevance to any particular person / processes/situation    . All mention are purely for illustration purpose of the central theme of the case and are personal opinions unless cited and shall have no recourse of consequences to author . Readers can use their practical inputs to alter any of the material that may be published . Readers are invited to express their views on this continuing case study series .

Note 2: Some of the readers have mentioned that they are unable to place their comments . Please click on the "No comments"  link , and make your comments as an ANONYMOUS user if you are not logged into your google account  , though it will be nice if we can have your name details in the comments .If you are still not able to send your comment on the post , please email kj@specialised.com.zm