IRJET- A Case Study on Application of Kaizen in Industry

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 06 Issue: 06 | June 2019 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2019, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.211 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 111
A CASE STUDY ON APPLICATION OF KAIZEN IN INDUSTRY
Tejas Rathod1, Mandar Shinde1, Yogesh Naral1, Chaitanya Garud1, Dr. Kashinath H. Munde1*
1Undergraduate Scholar, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, APCOER, Maharashtra, India
*1Associate Professor,Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, APCOER, Maharashtra, India
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Abstract - Many manufacturing companies in India suffer
several problems like high cycle time, more rejections,
incomplete orders, compromised quality,lowsafetyassurance
etc. KAIZEN is a Japanese lean production tool which helps in
attaining continuous improvement in the company
environment. The main objective of any industry is to produce
the products with higher productivity with using available
resources. Application of KAIZEN provides elimination or
reduction of different types of wastes in an industry resulting
in better overall efficiency of the organization. The case study
of implementation of kaizen in core shop in a foundry is done.
Key Words: Kaizen, Lean production, Productivity
1. INTRODUCTION
Kaizen (改善) is the Japanese word for "improvement". In
business, kaizen refers to activities that continuously
improve all functions and involve all employees from the
CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to
processes, such as purchasing and logistics that cross
organizational boundaries into the supply chain. It has been
applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching,
government, and banking.
By improving standardized programs and processes, kaizen
aims to eliminate waste. Kaizen was first practiced in
Japanese businesses after World War II, influencedinpartby
American business and quality-management teachers, and
most notably as part of The Toyota Way. It has since spread
throughout the world and has been applied to environments
outside business and productivity.
KAIZEN Mission: Significant continuous improvement in
performance through elimination of all waste of time and
resources in our operations.
1.1 Theoretical background and literature survey
In the literature that mentions kaizen is often emphasized
small group activity such as quality circles and/or
suggestions made by individual workers. In TPS (Ohno,
1978), which explains kaizen methods are useful to increase
the productivity and product quality. Suzaki (1987) explains
that Kaizen is a philosophy widely practiced in belief that,
that there is no end to make a process better. Each small
improvement consists of many levelsofdevelopment.Mainly
used for improving manufacturing processes. Teian (1992)
describes that, Kaizen is much more than just a means of
improvement, since it speaks to the day by day obstacles
happening in the work environment and the way in which
these obstacles are succeed. Kaizen can be applied to where
on need of improvement. Deniels (1995) describes that the
best approach to accomplish principal change on the shop
floor is to empower operators to create their own particular
measures, to adjust business procedures and to utilize them
to drive their Kaizen exercises. The author clarifies that
operators are the specialists and once they understand that
they are the one, who is going tackle the obstacles, and
afterward everything they need is some direction.
Womack and Jones (1996) refer to Kaizen as a lean thinking
and lay out a systematic approach to help organizations
systematically to reduce waste. They describe waste as any
human activity thatabsorbs resources but createsoraddsno
value to the process. Most employees could identify muda in
their workplace, but unfortunately the waste that they
identify is only the tip of the iceberg. The authors state that
until these employees have been taught the essentialsoflean
thinking, they are unable to perceive the waste actually
present in their environment
Some related terms
1. Kaizen It is a Japanese term for “improvement”, or
“change for the better” refers to philosophy or practices
that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in
manufacturing, engineering, and business management.
By improving standardized activities and processes,
kaizen aims to eliminate waste.
2. Productivity The ratio between output and input is
known as productivity. It may also be defined as the
arithmetic ratio of amount produced to the amount of
resource used in any production. The resource may be
land, plant, labor, material, machines,toolsoritcouldbea
combination of all.
3. Cycle Time It is defined as the actual time taken to
complete a set of activities (one cycle).
4. Takt Time It is the theoretical timeallowedtoproduce
one product ordered by customer. It can be determined
by ratio of net available time by customer demand. Takt
Time= net available time/ customerdemand.Itisusedto
match the pace of production with customer demand.
5. MUDA’S It is a Japanese term which means anything
that increases the cost but creates no added value. There
are basically seven types of MUDA’s: • Muda of over-
production • Muda of waiting • Muda in transportation •

Muda in processing • Muda ofinventory•Mudaofmotion
• Muda of defective parts and reworking
6. MURI MURI is a Japanese word for overly hardworkor
the strain. It is an important factor that helps in
determining the productivity
Principles in KAIZEN
1. Get rid of old assumptions. Keep an open mind to
change.
2. Don’t think of excuses. Think of ways to make it
happen.
3. Say “No” to the Status quo. Questionthestatusquo
by constantly asking “Why?”
4. Find MUDA! Find WASTE! The most damaging
kind of waste is the waste we don’t recognize.
5. Don’t worry about being perfect.A60%chanceof
success is good enough- Implement your idea now!
You can change or refine your solution basedonthe
facts that result from implementing it right off.
6. Stop doing it wrong, and start doing it right-just
now! Eliminate “buts” from your statements like
“We know that it is not right, but…”
7. It does not cost money to do KAIZEN. Do not plan
on spending big money. Good ideas come when the
going gets tough.
8. Seek out the true cause. Don’t be satisfied with
causes that come to your mind easily. Ask “WHY” at
least 5 times to discover the roots of the problem.
Only then ask “HOW do we fix it?”, and put the
solution into the practice right away.
9. Ten heads are better than one. Team work is the
key. Wisdom and creativity that comes through the
efforts of 10 people is more valuable.
10. KAIZEN is endless.
There are five 5S phases. They can be translated from the
Japanese as "sort", "set in order", "shine", "standardize",
and "sustain". Other translations are possible.
Seven Categories of waste
1. Overproduction: Central waste that leads to all
other forms of waste. Unlike other wastes, which
provide clues for correction, waste arising from
overproduction overshadows other wastes
preventing us from making improvements.
2. Inventories
3. Defective products, Scrap, repair, rework
4. Waiting-time, watching-time, walking-time,
down-time, start-up, set-up change and
adjustment times, searching time
5. Unnecessary motion and movements
6. During processing itself: Speed losses, idling and
minor stoppage, leakage of compressed air, oil and
coolants, tool breakages, avoidable consumption of
electricity and water etc.
7. Transportation, Conveyance
2. KAIZEN ACTIVITY
A case study was conducted in a XYZ foundry. Kaizen was
implemented in core shop of the foundry.
Kaizen 1
Cores are used for making hollow parts in casting process.
They are generally made up of resin coated sand. Coreshave
less strength and get broken when fall down while handling
or during transport. The transport of these cores is
extremely sensitive as cores are brittle and are costly. The
cores having cylindrical orientation are generally broken
because of their orientation. These mostly include hub shell
cores. Before kaizen, the hubs were placed horizontally on
the trolley surface one next to the other withoutanysupport
so there was less stability. This leaded to rejection of many
hub cores. In the kaizen we suggested making holes of
dimension of outer diameter of the hub with some tolerance
so that the hubs can be mount vertically. The dedicated
trolleys were made for cylindrical shaped cores by making
circular cavity on the trolley platform. This leaded to better
stability, ease to handle, less core rejections and improved
trolley capacity.
Figure 1. Kaizen of hub cores

Kaizen 2
Second kaizen was implemented for engine housing cores.
These are comparatively heavy as compared to the other
core and one of the most important cores inthefoundry.The
housing cores are also the most expensivepartsincoreshop.
Before the implementation of kaizen, operators used to
convey the housing in three storied trolley as shown in the
figure. While transporting, the cores at thetopmostplatform
used to fall down and get rejected because of the vibrations
due to potholes in the way. In kaizen we suggested making a
dedicated two storied trolley as shown in figure. Thisleaded
to better stability and less rejection of the cores.
Figure 2. Kaizen of housing cores
3. CONCLUSION
Implementation of KAIZEN provides improved productivity,
efficiency, reduced leadtime,reducedcycletime,reductionin
waste, improved safety in the KAIZEN implemented
environment, immediate troubleshooting, optimum
utilization of resources, improved teamwork, improved
employee satisfaction. The implementation of kaizen in core
shop was a success as it leaded to more efficient and
productive process with lesser rejections.
REFERENCES
[1] Manjunath Shettar et al. Int. Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-
9622, Vol. 5, Issue 5, ( Part -2) May 2015, pp.101-103
[2] Ms.Shubhangi. P. Gurway. IMPLEMENTATION OF
KAIZEN AS A PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT TOOL IN
SMALL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, JOURNAL OF
INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ISSN 0975 – 668X| NOV 15
TO OCT 16 | VOLUME – 04, ISSUE - 01
[3] Rajesh Gautam et al. Kaizen Implementation in an
Industry in India: A Case Study, International Journal of
Research in Mechanical Engineering & Technology, April
2012
[4] Pramod Kumar et al. KAIZEN: A Case study in small
scale organizations, International Journal of Scientific
Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET)Volume 2
Issue2 pp 133-136 May 2013

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