The kaizen pre-event planning phase is critical to event effectiveness. It includes the obvious – event definition from the perspective of scope and targets, team selection, communication and certain acceptable pre-work, but sometimes the simple stuff gets missed. The simple stuff includes kaizen supplies – well organized, in a 5S way!

It’s definitely muda if a kaizen event team(s) is hamstrung, mid-event, while they’re waiting for a handful of cheap stopwatches to get picked up from the local giant box store or waiting for someone to track down some standard operations forms because they were all consumed during the last event and never replaced. The list of possible annoyances is pretty long.

Kaizen events are finite in length, typically three to five days in duration. If it’s a mini-event, it may be a day or so. Time is of the essence! Lost time means delayed or lost improvements and frustrated team members.

So, while we’re trying to implement lean, doesn’t it make sense that the kaizen event supplies are designated, sized, stored, presented and replenished in a lean manner? Of course it does. It just happens that it’s important, but not urgent. At least until that uh-oh moment, when a team determines that they’re missing a necessary supply item.

Sometimes, the reason for this phenomenon is that the organization is just cheap (penny-wise and pound foolish), there is no KPO to worry about this stuff or the KPO isn’t quite up to speed. The kaizen principle of “bias for action” is not an excuse for sloppiness.

See below for a basic list of kaizen event supplies. (Here, I am not talking about the typical 3P-type supplies – cardboard, PVC, plywood, Creform, etc.) Most should be specified, stored and presented point of use in the team’s break-out room. Some things, like laminators, may be shared amongst multiple teams. The KPO should make use of a kaizen team supply list which specifies the standard quantity of each item, item description, a field for an end-of-event inventory count and a field to reflect the quantity which needs to be replenished before the next event.

Of course, some things are difficult to anticipate that they will be needed for the event. For example, a 3X4′ magnetic dry erase board is usually not inventoried. These non-”supermarket” items will have to be bought-to-order during the event.

Stored within Plastic Storage Bin

• 6 clipboards
• 1 set of laminated copies of standard forms (5S audit sheet, time observation form, standard work sheet, etc.)
• 6 stopwatches
• 1 pedometer
• 1 25′ tape measure
• 1 box of pencils (pre-sharpened)
• 3 white erasers
• 1 box of pens
• 1 box of flip chart markers (multi-colors)
• 1 box dry erase markers (multi-colors)
• 1 dry eraser
• 1 18″ ruler
• 6 8.5X11″ legal pads
• 2 calculators
• 1 stapler
• 2 rolls of scotch tape in dispenser
• 2 rolls of masking tape
• 1 box blank overhead projector sheets (for us dinosaurs)
• 1 box paper clips
• 1 box rubber bands
• 3 pkg of yellow sticky notes 3X3″
• 3 pkg of orange sticky notes 3X3″
• 3 pkg of green sticky notes 3X3″
• 1 scissors
• 1 pkg 8.5X11″ multi-color paper
• 1 pkg 11X17″ multi-color paper
• 1 pkg 8.5X11″ laminating pouches
• 1 pkg 11X17″ laminating pouches
• 1 box Sharpies (multi-colored)
• 1 box push pins
• 1 adjustable 3-hole punch

Not Stored within Plastic Bin

• 3 flip chart pads
• 1 box flip chart markers

Shared among Teams

• 1 digital camera
• 1 video camera
• 1 label maker
• 1 laminator
• 1 measuring wheel
• 1 roll 36″ wide kraft paper or white plotter paper
• 1 LCD projector (located in presentation room)
• 1 overhead projector (located in presentation room)
• 1 color printer (11X17″ capable)

Am I missing anything?

Related post: The Kaizen Promotion Office Does What? 8 Critical Deliverables.

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Tags: 3P, kaizen event, Kaizen Promotion Office, kaizen team, KPO