Extending lean frontiers: a kaizen case study in an Italian MTO manufacturing company

Lean is spreading in every industry, pushed by companies’ needs to continuously improve their system and their processes. However, excluding companies operating in the traditional context of mass production, there is not a unique and codified way of applying kaizen to seek perfection and improve performances. The purpose of this article is to illustrate an original pattern of how kaizen is applied to the particular context of a make-to-order company characterised by a high-mix low-volume production. The research reported in this paper presents a new framework for guiding kaizen, and it is based on a case study carried out following the new kaizen framework that clearly defines project phases, roles and activities for each phase of improvement process. The new framework exploits A3 tool and RACI matrix for building the problem setting. The root causes for the problem are identified and validated through data-based analysis from lean tool box, at different stages in the study. The application of this methodology had a significant impact on the bottom-line of the company (reduction of more than 10% of production costs and improvement of on-time delivery from 70 to 95%). Moreover, the research provides an original and structured framework for implementing kaizen in companies and delivers important results that can be deployed in similar kinds of manufacturing companies.