It is common to hear comments from our clients such as:
"There's too much clutter right now to develop Continuous Improvement or Kaizen activities. We need to sort them out first."
“We currently have many problems, when we eliminate them we will start with the 5S”
"We must first change the culture to be able to implement an industrial management system like TPM."
It seems like we are arguing about what comes first, the chicken or the egg.
To answer this apparent dilemma, we must clarify that Continuous Improvement tools (whether called TPM, Lean, Kaizen, 5S, or whatever) are part of the discipline of Organizational Development. As such, they represent a set of principles and techniques whose objective is to transform the organization, facilitating and promoting the desired change. Therefore, these tools are what facilitate change! It's not about waiting for change to happen to implement them!
This means that precisely the more challenges the company is experiencing, whether due to cultural issues, difficulties in gaining competitiveness, critical context situations or simply due to the pressure to meet goals, it is a mistake to believe that "first" This must be corrected and then Comprehensive Management Systems implemented. And we say this is a mistake because, as we stated, these systems were created and developed to drive organizational transformation and adaptation processes.
In other words, these systemic techniques are the ones that effectively help achieve the desired change. These tools, based on a very strict philosophy, teach teamwork, management through indicators, identification and mitigation of losses, and the ability to work in an aligned manner toward a common goal.
In every business, there are always thousands of things that can be improved, but when those who live it day to day pause and look at it critically, they usually see opportunities that are still unexplored, or challenges that aren't being adequately addressed. Integrated management systems have the advantage of providing a proven path, with hundreds of thousands of success stories around the world, to continuously improve business competitiveness.
Continuous Improvement processes apply to all areas and aspects of an organization. It can be as simple as an improvement in a specific process to a complete change management response to a business reengineering.
Regardless of the tasks undertaken, we always work as a team with the client. The client is the one who knows the business or the industry. We are familiar with organizational tools that apply to any company in any sector. Our experience, both inside and outside organizations, facilitates adaptation to the culture and scale of the particular case.
In this case, the famous dilemma has a concrete answer: what we must do is implement first to achieve the required/desired improvement and change. It's simply a matter of making the decision and moving forward. Because as Albert Einstein said: “If you're looking for different results, don't always do the same thing.”
Eng. Raul A. Perez Verzini
Master's Degree in Organizational Development and Behavior – Diego Portales University – Chile
TPM Instructor No. 723 – Japan Institute of Plant Management
