Big benefits come from small improvements

Today, the Kaizen (or Continuous Improvement) method has become a guideline for many businesses in maintaining business efficiency and improving productivity and quality.

The Kaizen concept was first mentioned in Japan as an improved form at Toyota. Kaizen is compounded by the word 改 (“kai”) meaning change and the word 善 (“zen”) means better, ie “change for the better” or “continuous improvement”. From a philosophy of manufacturing, Kaizen has constantly evolved to become the systematic method it is today. In Vietnam, many businesses have applied Kaizen in production and there have been positive changes. This is reflected not only from the employee’s attitude towards the job but also through the improvement of annual report parameters such as productivity, output, resources, etc.

Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Company – Joint Stock Company (VEAM) is a typical enterprise of successfully implementing Kaizen for many years. With extensive experience in the field of industrial machine manufacturing, VEAM’s products are currently popular in both domestic and foreign markets.

VEAM’s production lines are continually invested and improved to create products with the quality required by the market, VEAM has been able to apply innovative models, thereby helping to reduce costs. , increase productivity and better adapt to the changes of the current market. 2016 is the first year that VEAM sets a target for each employee to have at least 1 Kaizen, as a result, the corporation achieves 6,252 Kaizen / nearly 6,000 employees; In 2017, VEAM achieved 10,500 Kaizen, in many member units, the number of improvements (Kaizen) was higher than the plan set by the corporation such as: Veam Motor (152%), Co Loa Mechanic (126 %), SVEAM (120%), etc.

In 2018, through the investment in the FMS line combined with waste treatment improvement and waste reuse, VEAM Company has made full use of the automatic casting line’s capacity (3 shifts / day) and better respond to large-volume export orders. At the end of the year, the company’s added value is 5 billion dong, VEAM’s Kaizen number has increased to 10,769, reaching 1.85 Kaizen / employee.

In 2019, VEAM continues to deploy Kaizen for the office block of the corporation and will summarize and award awards to individuals and collectives with more effective Kaizen, towards building goals to improve labor productivity and product quality from simple jobs.

In general, besides a suitable strategy and determination of managers, the support of all employees is also one of the deciding factors for Kaizen’s effectiveness. The achievement of VEAM is a testament to the fact that Kaizen can be applied well to many different production models, different scales and different physical conditions.

Productivity and Quality Office