‘Every person is looking forward to some change in the way of living their lives or their surroundings. But somewhere, there is lack of know-how on the ways of implementing and adapting to those. Let us opt to go to the Kaizen way for enriching us lives by accepting the changes for the better tomorrow. Not only an individual must follow the Kaizen philosophy, but also the organisations should be a part of it. Their goals and planning must be lined in with the Kaizen activities’– Jayanth Murthy,Founding Partner and Director Kaizen Institute- Africa, India and M. East
According to Masaaki Imai, Founder of Kaizen Institute, KAIZEN means improvement. Moreover, it means continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life. When applied to the workplace KAIZEN means continuing improvement involving everyone – managers and workers alike.
Jayanth Murthy is one of the world’s leading experts in operational excellence, has been an eminent part of the Kaizen Institute of the last eighteen years since its inception in India. He talks about Kaizen, its principles and its future scope for the organisations and individuals.
Laying the Foundation stone
Over 30 years ago, Masaaki sat down to pen the groundbreaking book ‘Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success’. Through this book, the term KAIZEN was introduced in the western world. The book attracted many eyes and the people were convinced to implement the Kaizen principles in their organisations. So in order to educate the people and make them understand the importance of incorporating Kaizen in their lives, Masaaki opened up an institute which would help the organisations learn, execute and sustain the Kaizen methodologies. Currently, there are about more than 50 Kaizen institutes all over the world.
Changing the Indian perspective
Vinod Grover, Founding Partner and Director, Kaizen Institute (India), met Masaaki in the year 2000, where he proposed the idea of establishing the Kaizen Institute in Indian cities as well so that even the organisations of India can improve the Kaizen way.
Mr. Murthy about Kaizen’s implementation in India says, “Through Kaizen, we have been able to change the philosophies and the way of thinking of around 300 companies. They have been positively accepting the changes and moulding themselves to suit it. We have of a total of 40 consultants that help the organisations learn, execute and sustain Kaizen principles.”
Principle focus
The Kaizen the companies follow must focus on their organizational goals. The method of improvement should be aligned with the strategies.
“If a company wishes to adopt the Kaizen culture, it should be well aware of the Kaizen operating system. Otherwise, the whole concept of its implementation would come to a standstill.”- points Mr. Murthy.
Talking about the Kaizen Institute’s 10th Annual Conference, Jayanth Murthy recalls, “The first few years of the conference did not see a crowd other than the automotive sector. But now, we have been witnessing the presence of every sector of the market. “
He also avers, “Digitalization, Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory are the beautiful things that can happen to any sector of the market. It helps the companies and organisations flourish in every way possible.”
Interested to know more about Kaizen Institute and its principle? Write to india@kaizen.com or visit www.kaizen.com and adopt Kaizen in your lives and organisation.
