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Abstract
In this research, we investigate the impact of employee engagement on sustaining the actions implemented from a Kaizen event and their impact to the overall lean initiative. We propose an employee engagement and innovation model that quantifies the impact of the process improvement actions identified by the Kaizen event and are used to monitor the sustainability of the improvement efforts. A cultural health index, which measures the commitment of the improvement team to implement the actions from the Kaizen event, is incorporated into the employee engagement and innovation metric. It is concluded that bottoms-up Kaizen events have a key role in sustaining an organization's lean transformation initiatives.
Keywords
Kaizen events, lean transformation, employee engagement
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1. Introduction to Research
Kaizen events are often considered to be critical for sustaining the benefits from a lean transformation initiative [1]. However, pertinent research shows that lean transformation initiatives look at the parts of the system by themselves and not as a component of a larger system [2, 4]. Lean and/or Lean Six Sigma efforts focus primarily on changing the process, without explicitly considering people component of change. Change consultants seem to assume that the new process or technological advancements are all that is required to make for a successful transformation initiative. This causes the lean transformation efforts to fail due to the lack of organization's buy-in to change. In turn, the actions that result from Kaizen events and the lean transformation are not sustainable. In order to create an environment of engagement, partnering and innovation, there are many challenges. Given the trends in the organizations today with outsourcing and divestiture, employee morale and identification with corporate business goals are not aligned. This is compounded by presence of many reengineering initiatives that arrive and depart as "flavors-of-the-month", or the external consultants with their recommendations, never partnering long enough to understand the work [1, 4].
In a recent study by Kotter and Heskett entitled "Adaptive Corporate Culture: Key to Financial Performance" [3], it was found that only 3 out of 10 strategic change programs produce the business value or financial return that company leaders expect. The study also mentions that companies that create adaptive corporate cultures outperform companies with non-adaptive cultures by a factor...