Iowa companies manage quality, effectiveness with Kaizen

The word "Kaizen" is gaining meaning for Iowa companies that are working with the Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS), part of ISU Extension and the College of Engineering. CIRAS is using Kaizen with companies to improve their efficiency and production.

Jim Black, of CIRAS, consults with Darin Smith of Grimm Brothers Plastics.

Developed by Masaaki Imai, Kaizen means "continuous improvement." Simply put, it's a team-oriented approach that targets elimination of non-value-adding tasks and seeks to improve three key measurable areas: quality, cost and delivery.

"We started using the Kaizen process a little over a year ago in the router department where there were lots of bottlenecks," said Bill Barrett, general manager of Grimm Brothers Plastics Corporation in Wapello. "Success from that initial process led to another project in our forming machine area, and a third one will start shortly to address quality issues."

Led by Jim Black, a senior project manager at CIRAS, the Kaizen process has been taught to Iowa companies since 1995 and has developed a faithful following. And now Black hopes to take CIRAS' effort to the next level by offering companies a look at Lean Manufacturing, which, like Kaizen, is another systematic way of identifying and eliminating waste through continuous improvement teams. 

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