Focus on overall efficiency

We often meet companies which introduce a Kaizen project in a very small process section and spend a long time working on it. This, however, does not lead to any improvement of the operating result. Therefore, our guiding principle is the following:

• Measures improving the overall efficiency are prioritized to improvements on the micro level.
• Optimizing an individual workplace in an assembly line or shortening the changeover time of a certain machine might increase productivity in these specific areas. But how does this improvement contribute to the overall profit?
• Selective improvements in a factory hardly have any effect on the operating result or the balance of the company. It might even have negative effects on the overall efficiency. It might, for instance, decrease cash liquidity, since the improvement of productivity in a single micro area in non-synchronized processes leads to build-up of inventory.