In my last post i introduced you to the Japanese term 'Kaizen' meaning “change for the better” and as promised, I'm sharing with you a story of mine from 2013 that stood out for me as a great example of Kaizen in the workplace
The Challenge
· This organization was young technology company with an agile and dynamic approach to business also with diverse direct and indirect purchasing needs.
· They had an empowered stakeholder community (budget owners) who would shortcut the procurement process and thrived on maverick spending.
· On the other hand, financial controls had to be in place to ensure due diligence for company venture capital opportunities planned for long term.
Kaizen tools were implemented to identify the different types of waste in the current process. Surprisingly, Waiting time was identified as the number one waste area; “waiting - time” in attaining approvals that were not based on a defined internal authority matrix, “waiting time” to dig out supplier performance records that turned to be outdated and “waiting-time” in reinventing the wheel in developing specifications not building on historical procurement records. Eventually, the company’s’ time to market was shaken due to lack of visibility and real time access of fresh data, an integral part of decision-making.
Short
Term: The key roadblock “waiting time” , was addressed
through an enhanced delegation of authority structure – whereby cross-functional teams were empowered with multiple layers of
delegated approvals to reach fast and
collaborative decisions. Immediate surges of improvement was achieved.
Mid Term: An
electronic supplier management tool was implemented, with the capability of
online supplier self-registration, prequalification, involving cross functional
assessment groups and supplier ranking with online scorecard capability. The
Kaizen provided risk mitigation towards supplier
management.
Long term: Internal stakeholder satisfaction surveys and gathering
structured feedback from the stakeholder community to address those areas
through immediate and radical change were employed.
So the above
kaizens focusing on process improvement and involving employees across the
organization, paved the way for a culture of radical, continuous and
sustainable enhancement.
Did you
experience any kaizens in your supply chain management over 2013? We’d love to
hear them.
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