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The QnEK Horse Has Left the Barn

Quick and Easy kaizen is said to be the direct inheritor of kaizen teian — a program of continuous improvement at the initiative of the workforce. kaizen teian functions as a suggestion system. The usual approach is to have workers propose their improvements to their direct supervisor. The Japan Human Relations Association (JHRA) took it one step further. In the spirit of respecting the well-trained worker JHRA created an approach where workers report the improvements they adopted without getting approval. They call this Quick and Easy kaizen. Bunji Tozawa and Norman Bodek introduced this approach in their book The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy kaizen (QnEK).

I've been introducing QnEK to clients. It hasn't been an easy introduction. The thought that people would just change what they want to change scares some managers. I understand that. In many companies there is skepticism that workers will make a change for the better. In the situation where people are thrown into jobs — to sink or swim — they might not make changes that are better. Also, in situations where there is no standard work, everyday change might destabilize an already unstable situation.

My experience has been just the opposite. In spite of worker training and preparation, the vast majority of people are well-intended. They know what they know about their jobs. They get help with their changes when they need it, either from co-workers or their supervisors. There really isn't that much to worry about. And besides, all QnEKs must be submitted in writing to the supervisor. If there is a problem, it can be quickly remedied and the employee will learn.

I've created the Quick-n-Easy-kaizen website to help people share their QnEKs with other improvement-oriented people. With enough people acting autonomously and responsibly we are bound to change how people think about QnEK.

The project was supposed to be in a soft launch. There's still work to do on the discussion area and the weblog. Unfortunately, I failed to tell Joe Ely to keep it under wraps. He spilled the beans earlier today with this post Quick and Easy kaizen, A Way to Learn It. The good news is that the site works. Try it. Drop me a note.