Remote kaizen events: a response to COVID-19 and the new normal

Abstract

Kaizen events are an important part of lean programmes. Traditionally, these events bring a small team to work together over a 3-to-5-day period with a facilitator. This paper explores how these events can be run remotely. We ask: What are the impacts and challenges posed by COVID-19 on kaizen events? What would you need to change in their design and deployment to run them successfully remotely? Could remote kaizens be the way forward for firms with advanced Lean in place? These RQs are investigated in a multi-method approach with multi-national construction technology group Hilti. We found, after readjustment, that it was possible to run successful kaizen events on a global basis with remote facilitation. The cost of running the events was lower due to the savings in travel, they provided a better work-life balance for facilitators, allowed for a more expert work teams although events did involve a greater preparation time. The cost-saving results were as good as or better than physical events. However, the events often felt worse for the participants raising questions about future success. Even so, within the advanced Lean Hilti organisations remote kaizen events will be the de facto new normal standard going forward.

Keywords:

• Remote
• virtual
• kaizen event
• Hilti
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Excluding the savings generated by the minimisation of travel cost.

2 For consistency, we will stay with the term ‘kaizen event’ for the remainder of the paper.