An Application of Kaizen in a Large-Scale Business

The ultimate objective of manufacturing industries is to increase productivity with high quality. At present, many manufacturing companies are facing problems such as high quality rejects, high inventories, long lead time of production, high costs of production, and inability to cope with customer orders. They have been trying to reduce the total cost and wastes across their supply chain to remain competitive in the expanding global market. Hence, a collection of reliable tools and techniques are vital for decreasing costs and wastes and for providing effective services for customer demands. One of these techniques is Kaizen. Kaizen which means continuous improvement according to the principle of excellence which is a lean management model that envisages the participation of all managers and employees in businesses. This model predicts that continuous improvement should be made in every aspect of business and social life. Kaizen studies provide great results with improvements in small steps. As a result of Kaizen improvements, innovative results with small but sure steps have been achieved. In this context, Success is achieved by placing process standards and discipline with plan, do, check, take measure cycle that Kaizen in the business management system.

In this study, Kaizen studies was applied in two areas in a large flour factory. First, Conveyor Band System Development Project. Second one is Final Finished Product Loading and Stacking Project. In this context, Conveyor Band System Development Project; reviewing and analyzing the existing situation, proposing and implementing improvement, and controlling and standardization the results. In the Final Finished product and Stacking Workers Project, the examination and analysis of the existing situation, the proposal and implementation of improvement and the checking of the results and the rules of procedure were investigated. As a result of the research, a general evaluation is made about the Kaizen applications in the flour factory and suggestions are presented.