Asian ethos changing workplaces

Kaizen advocates (back row) Collin McLoughlin, Toshihiko Miura and Junpei Nakamuro at Q-West Boat Builders. In front is Q-West GM Colin Mitchell and John Bartley, owner of the Stihl Shop Wanganui.

In an age of machinery and production lines, a Japanese work ethic is being introduced to several Wanganui workplaces, aimed at unlocking the talents of every worker.

It's called "kaizen" and in its simplest translation means "change for the better".

The mantra was promoted in Wanganui last week by Collin McLoughlin and Toshihiko Miura, representatives of United States firm ENNA. Their visit was the result of local business owners John and Brendan Bartley travelling to Japan to see the programme in operation and realising it had applications that could work back home.

Wanganui companies involved in last week's seminars included Ali Arc Industries, GDM Group, MARS Petcare, Q-West and Pacific Helmets.

John Bartley said he was applying the principles of kaizen in his business (Stihl Shop Wanganui).

"The idea is we get a good foundation of businesses locally to get on board with this and then bring the tutors back for more intense programmes.

"But what we're trying to build is business excellence in Wanganui and the more we have involved the better," Mr Bartley said.

Kaizen gets all staff contributing and everyone is expected to offer up their ideas to make the workplace better and smarter and ultimately more productive, with less waste.

Mr McLoughlin, president of ENNA, has been a consultant in lean manufacturing and he said the process had its roots in manufacturing that emerged in Japan immediately after World War II.

He said too often he saw businesses that bought equipment too big for their needs, often gear that was for high volume when the business was producing low volumes.

"There's very little knowledge out there about the processes that add value. We reconsider how people communicate, what information they really need. We take away the computers and go back to pen and paper and start questioning those on the shop floor," he said.

Machines and computers tended to alienate the workers because they were "disengaged" from the production processes or there were constraints on what they could do, he said.

Mr McLoughlin said markets around the world had matured and variety was demanded so the challenge was to provide goods those markets wanted and quickly.

After writing books about the processes of best practice, his company started taking groups of businesspeople to Japan so they could see the processes being applied in real time.

"That's where John and Brendon Bartley got involved.

"They came to Japan and went on a factory tour and brought back what they learned," Mr McLoughlin said.

By giving people the chance to bring their ideas to the workplace it bred more desire for more people to be involved.

"It's about caring for people's ideas," he said. "Most workers have successful private lives and they're certainly not managed by anyone when they're away from the workplace. But as soon as a decision is made on a factory floor it has to be approved by a manager.

"Why? The most successful firms I've seen have no middle managers.

"Barriers are put up and people lose that ability to express their ideas. They just do what they're told and can't change their environment."

Mr McLoughlin said everyone should have the chance to work better and smarter and be able to find ways to do things more productively.

"If everybody comes up with an idea every day, think what that could do for your business. If it doesn't work then you can back to the process in place before. It's not hard."