Overcoming adversity with Kaizen

Disaster can and will strike any business. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc for businesses in the Northeast United States, while earthquakes and tsunamis impacted Japanese companies in 2011. The year before that, rampant flooding in East Asia destroyed components and resources for a number of organizations, setting some back by upward of a year.

There are few ways to predict and completely mitigate damage from these events, particularly if they are few and far between. In many cases, it's just as worthwhile to figure out ways to recover as quickly as possible, thereby minimizing any damage. Kaizen, a process that revolves around efficiency and elimination of waste, is one such strategy.

For Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP), Kaizen was a crucial technique for helping the company get back on track after the flooding and earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. While many companies floundered, TMP applied the concept of continuous improvement and waste reduction to zero in on the ways it could quickly overcome new operational inefficiencies created by the bad weather. As a result, the company was able to actually improve sales.

“After these unfortunate events, TMP got back on track because of the efforts exerted by the mother company Toyota Motor Corp., subsidiaries and dedicated Toyota team members. This move boosted TMP's overall sales, which led to numerous record-breaking milestones in July and October. It is expected that TMP will be introducing more products in the succeeding years to add to its strong vehicle roster,” Michinobu Sugata, president of TMP, told Inquirer Motoring.

Dealing with resource shortages using Kaizen

Every business is limited by resources such as money, labor or raw materials. If these resources are limited, regardless of whether this is because a natural disaster physically destroyed them or some other reason, it's crucial that companies learn how to make do with what they have available to them.

Kaizen thrives in low-resource environment as it revolves around the identification and elimination of waste, rather than relocating or investing more resources to deal with problems. Much like TMP, businesses struggling with resources may want to consider Kaizen to help deal with budget, labor and raw material issues.