"Little money needed for big improvements’

Press, 6 August 1987, Page 20

"Little money needed for big improvements’

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL

Industrial reporter

Small improvements involving little expense could greatly help a company’s productivity, a Japanese management consultant told the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association.

Mr Masaaki Imai-, chairman of Tokyo’s Cambridge Corporation, told manufacturers that many Western executives believed huge expense was needed to Increase profitability.

Mr Imai said this was wrong and explained a process now being adopted by international as well as Japanese companies.

He is an exponent of the Kaizen technique, which promotes small but never-ending improvements, rather than huge expenditure. He is a graduate of the University of Tokyo, has lived in the United States and has written books on the subject. Kaizen development had come from Japanese businesses which found they were suffering as the value of the yen rose and competition increased. He said most of the changes could be made in the way people worked and then changing their behaviour patterns. One Toyota company executive had realised that productivity could be

greatly improved by having sewing machinists stand and work up to 12 machines instead of sitting at one machine all day. Mr Imai said the machinists wore jogging suits and kept fit moving from machine to machine, while standing up did them little harm. However, he said it took more than two years to negotiate a deal with the unions involved. However, he said, with little money and great patience huge improvements could be made. “You must look after a factory as you would your own living room, and use your wits to improve it — or sweat it out.”