Wiljeana J. Glover

A framework for designing, managing, and improving Kaizen event programs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework for the design and management of a Kaizen event program where short‐term improvement projects (Kaizen events) are systematically used to introduce rapid change in targeted work areas, often relying on lean work system principles.Design/methodology/approach – To develop the framework and the assessment approach, a comprehensive literature review and a field study of Kaizen event programs in three organizations were conducted. To illustrate the potential usefulness of the framework and the assessment approach, this paper presents a case study of how the framework was applied to design and improve a Kaizen event program in the Belgian Armed Forces.Findings – Use of the framework as a design and assessment tool appeared to make the Kaizen event program more effective in the case study organization. Specific areas of improvement identified included: clearly defining event goals, scheduling extended follow‐up activities, defining measures to track ...

Characteristics of established kaizen event programs: an empirical study

Purpose – Despite the increased adoption and reported benefits of kaizen event (KE) programs, there is a lack of empirical research documenting their design, implementation and outcomes, as well as what designs may be more vs less effective. This paper aims to present an empirical study describing the characteristics, including outcomes achieved, program attributes, and implementation problems, of 16 established KE programs. Although this study is primarily exploratory and descriptive, the goal is to identify areas for future research, including attributes that appear to support or detract from program success, and the outcomes and implementation problems experienced.Design/methodology/approach – Using semi‐structured interviews, qualitative data were collected to characterize established KE programs in 16 manufacturing, service, and government organizations. The data were examined using content analysis to identify the most frequent codes for each characteristic, which were then compared to KE program ch...

Kaizen Events: Assessing the Existing Literature and Convergence of Practices

Abstract: With the increasing popularity of Kaizen events as a process improvement initiative, the amount of Kaizen event literature has also increased. This article includes a systematic literature review of the Kaizen event body of knowledge, assessing the quality of the literature and synthesizing the literature to find convergent, variant, and divergent practices. The findings indicate that the literature is dominated by trade press and industry case works, with a growing number of academic publications. Several identified themes from the data synthesis were convergent, e.g., the importance of team member authority/autonomy and having a well-defined problem scope, while others were divergent, e.g., the level of functional and hierarchical heterogeneity and Kaizen event deployment. In order to advance the Kaizen event body of knowledge, future research should include more systematic academic investigations and theory-testing works, particularly of these divergent findings.

The relationship between continuous improvement and rapid improvement sustainability

While rapid improvement efforts, e.g. Kaizen events, and continuous improvement efforts, i.e. kaizen, remain popular approaches to operational excellence, it is rare that organisations fully sustain change from these initiatives. The impact of both Kaizen events and kaizen may be substantially lower, if not entirely eliminated, after significant time has elapsed from initial implementation of changes. In this paper, we examine how having a continuous improvement culture can support rapid improvement sustainability via an examination of the impact of Kaizen events several months after implementation. Employing a dynamic capabilities perspective and using the institutionalisation of planned change framework, we empirically examine this relationship via a field study of 65 Kaizen events in eight manufacturing organisations. In short, we find that the extent to which work area employees exhibit peer learning, as well as awareness and responsibility both inside and outside of their work area, and the extent to which changes are accepted are significantly related to the perceived impact of Kaizen events several months after implementation. This research adds to current understanding of Kaizen events and kaizen, providing evidence to guide the use of Kaizen events and to inform areas for future research.

Kaizen Event Result Sustainability for Lean Enterprise Transformation

Lean enterprise transformation is achieved by the cumulative impact of both radical and incremental change. Kaizen events have been widely reported to produce significant incremental business improvements that can support enterprise-wide transformation efforts. However, sustaining or improving upon the results of a Kaizen event over time can be difficult for many organizations. Kaizen event result sustainability is critical for the achievement of transformation but has received limited empirical research attention to date. This article uses logistic regression to identify the factors that most strongly influence the sustainability of results after a Kaizen event based on a field study of 63 events that were part of larger lean transformation initiatives in 8 manufacturing organizations. The findings are also used to identify areas for future research and to develop preliminary guidelines for organizations using Kaizen events as a mechanism for lean enterprise transformation.

Understanding team mental models affecting Kaizen event success

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify inhibitors and enablers of Kaizen event effectiveness, as perceived by participants, and categorize them into shared mental models to understand the factors participants believe to be affecting Kaizen event success. The findings are also interpreted using the lens of attribution bias and previous studies of Kaizen event effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach involving coding responses from participants was adopted. The identified significant inhibitors and enablers were then assigned to shared mental model types using a mapping and categorization approach. Findings – The results are largely consistent with previous studies and show that job/task and technology/equipment mental models dominate participant views of inhibitors, while enablers were primarily drawn from team and team interaction mental models. This also suggests that attribution bias is present. Research limitations/implications – The methods used to measure shared...

Architecting the future U.S. Military psychological health enterprise via policy and procedure analysis

Although researchers suggest that a systems approach is required to make meaningful advances in the U.S. psychological health care system for service members, limited research has considered such an approach. This research uses an enterprise architecting framework to identify the systems strengths and areas for opportunity as they relate to the Ecosystem, Stakeholders, Strategy, Process, Organization, Knowledge, Information, and Infrastructure. Codifying qualitative data from publicly available U.S. Defense Health Agency and U.S. Service Branch doctrine, policy guidance, and concepts of operations, our findings indicate that the psychological health care system is strongly process-oriented and mentions a variety of key stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities in the enterprise. Potential opportunities of improvement for the system include a stronger emphasis on the development and transfer of knowledge capabilities, and a stronger information-based infrastructure.

Improving Quality of Care Through Integration in a Hospital Setting: A Human Systems Integration Approach

While many studies suggest that integration is positively associated with improved quality of care, others assert that this may not be so. The inconsistent success of integration to improve performance is not limited to healthcare operations, but is prevalent in operations and engineering management in general. We suggest that this inconsistency exists because many integration studies examine technical components of integration, but not human components of integration. We use recent works on the theory of human systems integration to explain how the technical components of a system, examined through formal integrative practices and informal integrative practices, and the human components of a system, examined through belief in integration and understanding of integration, interact to influence quality of care. In a study of 34 hospital departments, we found strong support for the interaction between the technical and human components, such that formal integrative practices are associated with higher quality of care when understanding of integration is high rather than low as we theoretically suggest. Unexpectedly, our results also suggest that not all integration practices influence quality of care; we discuss the implications of these findings for practice and future research applications.

How do integrative practices influence patient-centered care?: An exploratory study comparing diabetes and mental health care.

BACKGROUND Integration between organizational units to achieve common goals has been of interest to health systems because of the potential to improve patient-centered care. However, the means by which integrative practices actually influence patient-centered care remain unclear. Whereas many studies claim a positive association between implementation of integrative practices and patient-centered care, others raise concerns that integrative practices may not necessarily improve patient-centered care. PURPOSE The aim of this study was to explore the mechanism by which integrative practices influence patient-centered care and to suggest a systematic approach for effective integration. APPROACH We conducted a qualitative study comparing diabetes and mental health services through focus groups with 60 staff members from one health maintenance organization. We developed quantitative indicators to support the suggested model. FINDINGS We identified a five-category framework of integrative practices that each directly and distinctively influences patient-centered care. Moreover, our findings suggest that integrative practices influence patient-centered care indirectly through creation of interdependent treatment competence, which enables providers to repeatedly deliver interdependent treatment in a flexible and adaptive way. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Providers should carefully implement integrative practices considering patient and disease characteristics, as our findings suggest that more implementation of integrative practices is not necessarily better for patient-centered care. Specifically, optimal implementation refers to the collective implementation of different integrative practices and thus encompasses both the extent (i.e., the amount of currently implemented practices out of those considered important to implement) and the extensiveness (i.e., the amount relative to the implementation of other practices) that may lead to interdependent treatment competence and higher patient-centered care. We suggest a creative measurement method of comparing the relative implementation of integrative practices that may assist managers and policy makers in developing interdependent treatment competence.