Episode 7 : Kaizen in Hotel Industry

"Hello , Miss P Good morning and how are you " a voice on Miss P's phone asked

Miss P was startled for a moment and exclaimed " Good morning , Suzuki San is that you , What happened to you for so long and I almost broke down " She was literally in tears while speaking . Miss P , Suzuki San continued , Please see my mail now"  and hung the phone .

The mail reads

" Miss P , I have been travelling continuously and had little access to internet and time to call you , Miss P , anyway I am now back in action . I had been to India with my good friend KJ to a place called Trichy in Southern India and the state of Tamil Nadu . While I was travelling through the town , I found this 4 star Hotel but something on the front , a banner caught my eyes .

With great surprise , we both barged into the Hotel and requested to be connected to their Director , Mr.Rathnakumar who with great enthusiasm accepted to meet us .

We asked him how he came about Kaizen and the progress and I am producing an excerpt of what he told .

Mr. Rathnakumar says , " We have been implementing Kaizen for the past two years now . I wanted to bring up the Service standards in the Hotel and offer a delightful experience to my customers . I found Kaizen being practiced in a manufacturing company in a city called Coimbatore , which is 300 kms from Trichy .

I was wondering if Kaizen and 5S tools will work in a Hotel Industry but was encouraged to try out . We started in a small way and I engaged a consultant to help us through defining 5S and red tagging methodologies to my staff .

The Initial reaction was an expected resistance . What is in it for me . But there were quite a good number of staff who eagerly were willing to participate with a thinking , whether there is anything to gain or not , atleast there is nothing to lose .

So I told my staff whoever is interested to participate can do so , and whoever is not , its fine .

After we started the program , our focus was on 5S and we have done a great deal of reducing Muda in workplace . We conduct regular sessions and reward in a small way those who achieve certain milestones .

I also encouraged my staff to make little mistakes and learn from them . I am fully OK for my staff to make a mistake as long as it is not intentional .

Now with these changes , which were immediately visible to everyone , other members who initially shied away also joined . Now we have all our members participating in the Kaizen promotion and are very enthusiastic in continuously improving our standards .

We face lots of challenges , Unlike any other institution , the Hotel Industry is 24 x 7 , meaning we have to be on our toes servicing customers through out the day and night . Also the business is seasonal , meaning the work load will be huge during season time and most of the staff would tend to avail their vacation during lean season .

But we have managed to have our meetings during shift changes and meticulously planning our schedule so as to have our Kaizen meetings regularly .

I am really passionate about implementing Kaizen and develop more and be an example and leader in the Hotel industry . We have a lot of 5 and 7 star hotels in India and my dream is to surpass those standards of service by Kaizen implementation .

And I know that my business will grow exponentially as a consequence of Kaizen implementation , Thanks for listening to me "

We were amazed on the wonders Kaizen can do in any field of business one is in , and we thanked Mr.Rathnakumar profusely for his time and returned .



More Kaizen stories in coming weeks , Bye till then Miss P .