Kaizen = strategy that involves everyone in an organization to achieve regular, incremental, continuous improvements to the manufacturing process.
What is a digital Kaizen SOP?
First, let's discover what a digital Kaizen SOP is not:
Most companies document standard operating procedures (SOPs) and instructions on static paper or PDFs. Very often, the SOPs would be done by one central department, and often they'd be outdated and in use for years and years without input from people with first-hand expertise of the processes.
Goes without saying that this is far from Kaizen.
+ Shocking additional fact: static SOPs make frontline workers spend an average of 19% of their workweek searching for information.
Luckily, this is changing.
Digital Kaizen SOPs =
- Easy to create and edit on any device, on-the-job.
- Involve frontline teams in shaping processes.
- Accessible at the moment of need.
- Focus on capturing input from users in order to continuously improve.
In other words, SOPs are changing for the better.
1. Capture your team’s collective intelligence.
Continuous improvement is key to Kaizen.
But it's hard to achieve it when updating standards is a struggle in itself. Digital tools like SwipeGuide makes it easy to crowdsource critical operational knowledge from your frontline team.
Using feedback collection systems, you can easily identify what needs to be improved. Then, you can seamlessly make changes to your standard operating procedures and instructions.
2. Scale standard work with ease.
Digital Kaizen SOPs make it easy to share best practices across lines, teams, and sites in order to increase business resilience and build consistency across your operations.
Instructions that are accessible on mobile devices or wearables are also easier to locate when they’re needed, and easier to follow.
3. Improve your team’s performance.
Digital Kaizen SOPs significantly reduce safety hazards, downtime, and quality issues by promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
Companies can effectively reduce operational downtime and errors. As a result, this represents significantly less waste of raw materials, a significant reduction in defects, and better-tasting products for customers.
Implementing Kaizen SOPs.
As with any process improvement methodology, your team needs to own and internalize Kaizen for it to deliver the benefits.
The continuous improvement cycle consists of the following stages:
- Plan
- Do
- Check
- Act
A culture of continuous improvement that also embraces lean principles will stimulates employee engagement and reduces the turnover rate.
Team members who actively take part in improving the company's processes feel proud, valued, and accomplished and perform better.
Learn more about Kaizen and SOPs:
👉 Gain the Benefits of TPM Manufacturing with Frontline Knowledge.
👉 Introduction to Impactful 5S Standard Operating Procedures.
👉 Check out our collection of inspiring Kaizen quotes
