Implementation of Toyota-based kaizen in Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises : prerequisites and success factors
Creators: name: Muff, Joris
Publisher: name: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Year: 2022
Subjects: 658.5: Produktionssteuerung

description: Kaizen, pioneered by Japanese automaker Toyota after World War II, is more than a method for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. It is a management philosophy that aims to advance a company through continuous improvements by all employees. Especially in Switzerland, small and medium-sized enterprises expand into the European Union comparatively early in their life cycle due to the limited domestic market. Efficiency increases and innovations are crucial to keep up with the competitive prices of the European competitors. In addition, companies with solid growth often experience a proliferation of processes and lose agility, making the introduction of kaizen beneficial. As a result, this thesis aims to determine the success factors and prerequisites for implementing Toyota-based kaizen in small and medium-sized companies.

First, a systematic literature review was conducted to identify the barriers and success factors for the kaizen implementation. The research is based on peer-reviewed databases and reports from renowned consulting firms. Subsequently, the New St. Gallen Management Model was applied to examine the prerequisites systematically. The success factors were discussed in five semi-structured interviews with a professor, a consultant, and managers from different positions in Swiss kaizen companies to obtain additional insights and best practice examples. From the results, the author has designed a model to guide Swiss managers in implementing Toyota-based kaizen in small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to the literature, many Western companies fail to implement kaizen in their organization. While Japanese companies realized 30 to 40 percent cost reductions, many foreign companies managed only 10 to 15 percent. Although it is a great challenge, many authors agree that kaizen can be transferred internationally. However, organizations must adapt kaizen to the national characteristics while insisting on the basic principles.

At its core, a kaizen company must empower its employees to participate and create a long-term competitive advantage for the company through continuous improvements and striving for perfection. For an organization to achieve this, the paper identifies three core requirements: top management commitment, human capital management strategy, and basic kaizen tools. Additionally, these prerequisites are influenced by three structuring forces that should be aligned with kaizen: a team-based culture, a process-oriented structure, and a customer-focused strategy. These six factors create an atmosphere in which kaizen can thrive. Nevertheless, the whole organization is in an environment of continuous change due to internal and external influences. Therefore, constant reflection and improvement of the management philosophy according to the plan-do-check-adjust cycle is mandatory. Kaizen is never finished, and each company interprets it slightly differently based on its underlying values.