The IUP Journal of Operations Management
Modeling the Success Factors of Kaizen in the Manufacturing Industry of Northern India: An Empirical Investigation

Article Details
Pub. Date :Nov, 2019
Product Name : The IUP Journal of Operations Management
Product Type : Article
Product Code : IJOM41911
Author Name : Surjit Kumar Gandhi, Jagdeep Singh and Harwinder Singh
Availability : YES
Subject/Domain : Management
Download Format : PDF Format
No. of Pages : 20

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contributions of success factors of Continuous Improvement (CI) approach to competitive manufacturing. It also seeks to critically examine the level of importance of strategic CI implementation in Indian manufacturing organizations. A reasonably large number of manufacturing organizations with successful experience of CI approach have been surveyed to assess the contributions of CI success factors towards improving firm performance. The study involves hypotheses formation and statistical testing using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Z-test. Results indicated that working continuously with suppliers and knowledge about implementation of success factors play a significant role in improving firm performance. Moreover, CI success factor implementation can systematically contribute towards realization of significant manufacturing performance enhancements.


Description

Kaizen is a Japanese word that has become common in many western companies. The word indicates a process of continuous incremental improvement of the standard way of work (Chen et al., 2000). Kaizen is a combination of two words, i.e., Kai and Zen, where Kai means change and Zen means good. Continuous Improvement (CI) is a quality control term that originated from Japan and became popular worldwide. The term came from Gemba Kaizen in Japanese meaning ‘continuous improvement and perfection’ (Yan-Jiang et al., 2006).


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