METHODOLOGY
The kaizen step is the method (refer Figure 1) to develop Kaizen projects, and follows
PDCA approach. All improvement projects, despite of their nature (costs, quality,
safety, ergonomics, environment, logistics, etc.) must follow specific guidelines which
are defined within kaizen step. Guidelines mean what project type, operating steps and
tools to be used and way of using them.
Step 1: Define Pilot Area
Define pilot area is the first step towards ongoing with the improvement activities.
Bottleneck processes are commonly defined the pilot area. In order to find the
bottleneck process, the business general procedures as well as sales order processing
flow is mapped starting from order enter until delivery and payments from customer. In
the process mapping of sales order processing (Refer appendix A), step 14 which is
production run are mapped separately in order to get real time of existing processes in
production (appendix B). From the process mapping of the sales order processing, total
lead time is 169.81 hours. Noticed, that the processes have bottleneck at production
process which is 60.97 hours. So, the pilot area is defined at production.