life - GEA Group

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WE’rE GETTING bEttEr All tHE timE!
KAIzEN PrOMOTES VALUE CrEATION.
it all began with the realization that keeping customers is less costly than acquiring new ones.
What can be more appealing to customers than constant, tangible improvement? that’s exactly
what we’re trying to achieve with the aid of our internal advisors gea Consulting gmbH
(see bOx) and the kaizen management system.
The word ‘Kaizen’ in Japanese means improvement. Not all
at once, but step by step, as Asian philosophy teaches us. It
doesn’t mean that everything has to be new and different. We
just want to improve in places where the opportunity presents
itself.
Whatever increases value
It’s a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff. Keep
any activity that increases the value of a product or service,
eliminate those activities that consume resources without adding
any value. The quality of products or services will improve,
services will become prompter and more flexible and costs will
drop. Every process will undergo scrutiny and will be improved
with regard to customer needs.
toyota – a shining example of kaizen
Kaizen is not the latest rage among consulting companies:
Toyota came up with the concept in the 1950s. The Japanese
automobile manufacturer was in a crisis then. However, instead
of shedding 0 per cent of its staff, the company opted
for permanent quality enhancement. They collected methodologies
from the US and Europe, combining them into what
became known as the Toyota Production System. It seems to
have paid off because Toyota passed General Motors in early
2007 becoming the largest automobile manufacturer in the
world.
Extending kaizen to production and administration
We’re not in a crisis but nevertheless we want to provide our
customers with lots of reasons to continue doing business with
us - whether it’s in manufacturing or in administration. While
manufacturing costs continue to drop, administration costs
have risen briskly. Today nearly everyone complains about a
drastic rise in the flood of information. More than an hour
each day is lost just handling email and even more time is
consumed in unfocused meetings. Finally, very few employees
have an eye on the entire process, which means that they do
not realize that their colleagues are their prime customers.
kaizen at GEA
I²M, on the one hand, solicits individual suggestions for
improvement. Kaizen, on the other hand, aims at systematic
improvement by teams of employees. Workshops in manufacturing
and administration, training sessions, analyses of
potential, plus company visits are all ways to come up with
suggestions for improvement, to verify their feasibility and
then implement them. The result will be a world-class standard
in manufacturing and administration, the best prerequisites for
loyal customers.
gea Consulting gMbH
Guido Beyß and Marco Silz head GEA Consulting GmbH. Fifteen
experienced consultants provide support to all GEA divisions
and companies across a variety of projects. Services include
strategy, support during acquisition projects, help with investment
considerations including execution and risk management,
as well as zero-based budgeting, corporate restructuring and
process optimization by Kaizen. The emphasis initially is on creating
transparency. GEA Consulting GmbH then works with
people to develop concepts, implementing them on site in the
operative units. It combines expertise in process optimization
with know-how specific to GEA. As a central internal service,
affiliated to the ressort process technology of the GEA Board,
GEA Consulting combines expertise in process optimization
with GEA specific know-how.
kAi
CHAnGE
ZEn
Good
(for the better)
Kaizen is a composit of the Japanese words ‘kai’ and ‘zen’.
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