What do Kaizen, Lean Production & Stepping Stones have in common?
Crossing a river
Crossing a river using stepping stones is the analogy Weston Aerospace use to describe the application of Kaizen for continuous improvement within their Lean Production system.

Imagine crossing a river, from one bank to the other. There are a number of ways of doing this. One way is to get across in one go, using a pole vault for example. Another way is to cross in small steps, using stepping stones.

Improvement within an organization
Now imagine improvement within an organization. One can try to improve with the occasional large project or constantly improve in little steps.

During the improvement the environment might change. Customer demands might change. Suppliers might change. The world economy might change. It is very difficult for an organization to accommodate such changes within a large improvement project. However, by operating small & frequent activities, the company will find it quicker an easier to adapt to these changes.

Kaizen and Lean
Each stepping stone is a KAIZEN activity. Kaizen means change for the better and requires multi-discipline teams to select, analyse & improve problems within their process and job functions. The duration of an activity can be from 2 hours to 2 weeks, depending on the improvement being undertaken. The requirement that never changes is the involvement of Weston Aerospace staff from all areas of the business.

All activities use tools from the Lean Production system such as Standard Operations, PDCA, SMED and QCDP boards, all focusing on the identification & elimination of the 8 kinds of waste within the business.