I was recently researching some of the origins and mechanisms that drive some of the foundation Kaizen Lean principles and discovered this interesting story regarding the affect of Visual Management on human motivation. Click on the link to read the original page…enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/4vos9z2

Donella Meadows in "Thinking in Systems" writes about the power of Visual Management in a Dutch suburb in the early 1970′s.

One of Amsterdam’s suburbs is built in a remarkably uniform way: all houses are built using the same architecture and design, built using the same materials, similarly sized, similarly priced and similarly occupied by similar middle class families.

During the early 1970′s oil crisis, the Dutch government urged its citizens to reduce their electricity consumption. The Dutch, being Dutch, complied and the overall electricity consumption was reduced. However, in this specific suburb there was a strange trend: some of the houses showed a dramatic decrease in the electricity consumption of about a third of the consumption rate, while others showed a minor decrease in consumption.

What could be the source of such a dramatic gap in reduction of electricity consumption between such similar houses, similarly occupied?

An attempt to answer this question produced a surprising answer: for some unknown reason, some of the suburb’s houses had their electric meters installed at the entrance, while in others the electric meters were installed at the basement.

The electric meters were of the type that uses a rotating disk to indicate the electricity consumption level: the higher the disk’s rotation speed, the more electricity is consumed.

A short examination revealed that there is correlation between the location of the electric meter, and the dramatic reduction in electricity consumption.

It is quite easy to understand why: when the electric meter is located at the entrance to the house, a very prominent and visible location, the residents can often see the fast rotating disk, indicating a high level of electricity consumption. As a result, in these houses the electricity consumption decreased by about 30%. On the other hand, in the houses where the electric meter is locate in the seldom visited basement, the occupants of the house were a lot less aware of the level of their electricity consumption, and as a result – in these houses the reduction in electricity consumption was negligible.

Donella H. "Dana" Meadows^[1] (March 13, 1941 Elgin, Illinois, USA - February 20, 2001, Hanover, New Hampshire) was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer. She is best known as lead author of the influential book The Limits to Growth, which made headlines around the world.

By Danie Vermeulen, CEO – Kaizen Institute NZ

I recently came across a fascinating article about Toyota’s new secret that talks about a new type of Toyota factory ... an entire low cost factory that could be an export product!  I count myself privileged to have visited several Toyota factories and we know and read so much about efficiency of Toyota factories ... but this is a new ballgame altogether.

This article talks about a template for a smaller, low cost and high efficiency factory. This lean facility can be set up anywhere in the world. Add a trained team with a healthy Kaizen culture (herein lies a challenge) and it sounds like a good idea to me.

No longer are we talking about “off-shoring” manufacturing by building huge high volume factories in so-called low wage countries ... only to incur high and unpredictable logistics cost and to become susceptible to quality issues. This concept is about designing a low cost and high efficiency facility that can be set up anywhere to serve a local market. The recipe combines all those wholesome ingredients that we love ... minimal waste, flexibility, flow, lean design, standardisation, and the list goes on.

Move over “economies of scale” and bring on “economies of efficiency”.

Exciting ... just think about the possibilities! I’m sure the same concept can apply to the service industry ... call centres, hospitals, schools…

Mehr Informationen unter www.ch.kaizen.com

www.kaizen-office-live.de

We at the Kaizen Institute NZ are members of New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation (www.nzbef.org.nz) who are the guardians of the Baldridge framework here in NZ.

We are frequently asked where does Kaizen, Lean and Baldridge compete, like it’s some kind of race!

This article explains how the Baldridge framework is complimentary to continuous improvement philosophies and how organisations can benefit from understanding the features or both.

The Skinny on Baldrige versus Lean - PDF Download