Daily Kaizen. 【日々改善】
This phrase rhymes well with a Budihism philosophy, “Every day, do one Good act【一日一善】.”
Buddhism talks about six (depending on which group, but this is the smallest) types of good acts we should practice.
🔹 Fuse 【布施】 = Be kind
🔹 Jikai 【持戒】 = Adhere or to have moral conduct
🔹 Ninniku 【忍辱】 = Patience
🔹 Shoujin 【精進】 = Engage in sustained effort
🔹 Zenjyou 【禅定】 = focus (meditate) and reflect
🔹 Chie 【智慧】 = Learning and wisdom
Apply these six goods to your Kaizen. It will make your organization much better.
Let’s look into these six concepts a little more.
🔹 Fuse 【布施】 = Be kind
“Fuse” means to be kind to others. The original word for this is pronounced as “Dana,” which is the exact origin of the word donation in English.
There is a big difference in the application of “kind.” In typical operations, providing more allowances is considered kind to the workers. They calculate allowances in cycle time, machine capacity, safety stock, lead time, etc. These calculations make it hard to see the problems and force the workers to live with them. Some claim that since they have so many problems, they want to focus on more significant issues; the allowances handle minor issues. But typically, these allowances don’t work that way. That is because even if the problem is bigger than the allowance, everybody knows that the next cycle has the allowances, so unless the problem is double the allowance, there’s no real need to help. Even if the problem is triple, quadruple, or even more than ten times the allowance, people react as if there is no problem and are rude. This is not “kind” at all. It is a system to train people to ignore problems.
The kindness we need in Kaizen is that the problem is entirely free. We don’t need someone watching a machine just in case of trouble. Nobody should be searching for materials; once they are found, they should be defect-free. The processes should be stable and produce high quality. Until such conditions are achieved, the engineers and managers are responsible.
But we live in a real world where nothing is perfect. Therefore, kindness means we need to provide help. Don’t let people live with their problems; provide help so that they can focus on their work. That means processes need to be helpable. Team leaders and group leaders are there to help the workers. This means they can’t leave the frontline when the process is working. Also, processes must be visible and accessible to those who will help. You don’t block a passage of a lifeguard at a pool or ocean. They should have free passage to get to those in need. There should be some choices of methods to help. Since there are different problems, we can’t say there is one way to help. However, we need some guidance to help; otherwise, the help might confuse the process more. “I thought he/she did that…” Confusion after help must be avoided because that will make the help look bad. “Help” is a big science.
The work should be easy, which is another kindness. Ease depends on people. A good time to consider “ease” is when a rookie is present. Any processes that require additional learning time should be regarded as an opportunity to improve ease. Also, easy and lazy are different. As we Kaizen, we need to provide more work content. We must accept that we will have more things to do as we improve.
Being kind also doesn’t mean we give the worker full veto rights. Any change will have some adverse reaction. That doesn’t mean the intention is wrong. That doesn’t mean we should force the improvement. Mutally, we need to understand the intent and feedback of an improvement. Kindness from both sides, the one with improvement and those who use it, are required to make Kaizen successful.
Being kind is deep.
🔹 Jikai 【持戒】 = Your behavior & words matches the code of conducts and moral
Kai 【戒】 is the Buddhist code of conduct and morals. Following the Kai and behaving accordingly is Buddhism.
Interestingly, in Buddhism, there is no punishment for violating the Kai. Therefore, Kai is self-motivated efforts to follow. When there is a violation, self-recognition is essential, not external forcing. Because of this, we have another “Jikai 【自戒】,” which means self-discipline. A master will try to guide you towards such self-discipline.
“Daily Kaizen.” This is already a huge Kai to hold. Are we improving every day? The most likely answer is no. But should we start punishing the people who did not improve? Absolutely not. That will increase the resistance towards Kaizen. We should think more about the environment and lead by example. What's preventing people from working on Kaizen? People might have too many meetings that prevent them from doing their work. They might be struggling since they don't know what to do. If so, someone needs to show what we can improve or how to improve.
🔹 Ninniku 【忍辱】 = Patience
“Ninniku” means patience. But patience on what? Buddism talks about the importance of not becoming angry from insult or persecution. Fortunately, we have laws to protect us from such misbehaviors (for the most part). We do not have to be patient on such topics.
But in operations, we should have patience when dealing with other topics.
Problems happen. We have to accept them. That doesn’t mean we should keep accepting them and repeating them. You should hate a problem, but not the fact that it happens. Or get angry at the people. It is an opportunity to learn what we didn’t think about before.
Kaizen, that didn’t go well, or Kaiaku. This happens. If all changes have to be good, people will be intimidated to make any changes.
Results. Don’t get angry about the results. Results are a reflection of actions. What bad behaviors did you make? Most likely, accepting some reasons why people can’t work on Kaizen.
Growth. People need time to observe and try by themselves to learn. We can’t push that. Give some patience on growth. Of course, that doesn’t mean abandoning them and leaving them. Some constant guidance is necessary. But more patience is needed, too.
🔹 Shoujin 【精進】 = Effort
A big topic. There is an interesting framework here, which I will use in a separate blog.
🔹 Zenjyou 【禅定】 = Reflection, focus
Zen 【禅】 is the meditation practice of Buddhism.
Jyou 【定】 is something to fix, define, or focus on.
So, Zenjyou is to focus on the lessons and meditate to reflect.
🔹 Chie 【智慧】 = Learning, Wisdom
I wrote about Chie.
I am not saying that we need to convert to Buddhism. 😅 I am using their framework to improve the understanding of Kaizen. There was a deep in-site where our coaches tried to take us. I hope I have surfaced some of it in depth.
Comments