{"id":112332,"date":"2024-01-11T10:10:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T10:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alj.com\/?post_type=perspective&p=112332"},"modified":"2024-09-11T05:28:22","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T05:28:22","slug":"a-philosophy-for-better-business-and-a-better-life","status":"publish","type":"perspective","link":"https:\/\/alj.com\/en\/perspective\/a-philosophy-for-better-business-and-a-better-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A philosophy for better business . . . and a better life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toyota Motor Corporation Kaizen Team 2004 (Hassan Jameel is front row, second from the left)<\/span>
\nA discussion with Hassan Jameel on Kaizen, and how small continuous improvement can add up to so much.<\/p>\n

When Abdul Latif Jameel<\/a> first partnered with Toyota<\/a> nearly 70, years ago, it imported more than just cars. \u00a0It also imported a whole new approach to managing a business.<\/p>\n

The \u2018continuous improvement\u2019 approach as it is commonly known, is based on the Kaizen business philosophy pioneered by Japanese corporations like Toyota to boost efficiency and performance, eliminate waste and optimize the use of resources.<\/p>\n

Henry Ford is credited with creating the first rudimentary lean manufacturing process, when he introduced a moving assembly line to his factories in 1913.\u00a0 However, it was the work of Kiichiro Toyoda, Taiichi Ohno and others at Toyota in the 1930s that refined and developed Ford\u2019s original idea to create a true Lean Management and manufacturing system.<\/p>\n

Using Ford\u2019s methods as inspiration, they created the Toyota Production System \u2013 and sparked a revolution that, over the decades to come, transformed businesses in both Japan, the United States and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Left: Kiichiro Toyoda (1894-1952), Right: Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kaizen, as the Japanese called this process of continuous improvement, originated in manufacturing processes.\u00a0 However, it can be equally applied to service businesses.\u00a0 Organizations adopting Lean Management assess every action and activity for potential improvements, no matter how small.\u00a0 Those gains may be minor in isolation but, taken together, add up to significant improvements that drive positive change.<\/p>\n

\"Diagram<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Hassan<\/a>
Hassan Jameel
Deputy President & Vice Chairman Saudi Arabia
Abdul Latif Jameel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hassan Jameel<\/a>, Deputy President and Vice Chairman, Saudi Arabia, Abdul Latif Jameel, is an ardent advocate of the Kaizen philosophy, having experienced it first-hand when working with Toyota, at their headquarters in Japan in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

We caught up with Hassan to discuss his interest in continuous improvement and how it helps organizations transform the way they do business.<\/p>\n

What is \u2018continuous improvement\u2019? And what does it mean to you?<\/h2>\n

Unlike so much business jargon and consultancy terminology, the definition of continuous improvement is satisfyingly simple.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s right there, literally, in those two words.\u00a0 Always improving.\u00a0 Constantly trying to be better.\u00a0 On the surface, it sounds so obvious.\u00a0 But it’s deeper rooted than that.<\/p>\n

Continuous improvement, to me as an individual, is not only about improving oneself every day.\u00a0 It’s about how you build that mentality into your lifestyle, so it becomes automatic.\u00a0\u00a0Every day thinking about what you could do to improve.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how small, as long as you\u2019re trying to improve something every day.<\/p>\n

Then it becomes truly part of who you are.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s similar in organizations. \u00a0How do you create a culture that can consistently implement a continuous improvement approach in everything they do, every day, even if it’s the smallest change?<\/p>\n

A culture that means that everyone in the business is continually thinking about their role, their team\u2019s role, and the tasks they perform as part of their duties, and what little changes could be made to improve efficiency and quality.\u00a0 Each individual change might \u2013 at least at the time \u2013 seem inconsequential.\u00a0 But they all add up.\u00a0 Even the smallest incremental steps, when put together, make a big difference.\u00a0 I believe it’s simplicity that makes continuous improvement more effective and easier to understand.<\/p>\n

When did you first become aware of the concept of continuous improvement?<\/h2>\n

I became aware of it when I was very young, even before I started working in the business. \u00a0I would hear my father and other senior executives talking about it, and I was aware that it was something the business was doing, but I didn\u2019t understand what it meant.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Toyota Way \u2013 a perennial best seller management book.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continuous improvement is based on the \u2018Kaizen\u2019 business philosophy pioneered by Toyota.<\/p>\n

Abdul Latif Jameel first came across it when it began importing Toyota vehicles into Saudi Arabia in the 1950s.\u00a0 But as a business philosophy, continuous improvement really rose to global prominence in the 1990s and 2000s.\u00a0 In 2001, Toyota \u2013 long seen as one of the pioneers of the concept \u2013 formalized its approach to Kaizen with the publication of the \u2018Toyota Way\u2019.<\/p>\n

This hugely influential document became the blueprint for businesses around the world to understand more about continuous improvement and the benefits it could deliver.<\/p>\n

\"Six<\/p>\n

It’s not necessarily Japanese, by the way.\u00a0 If you go to other big Japanese companies, you don’t necessarily hear Kaizen as much as when you go to Toyota. \u00a0It was specifically Toyota who took these ideas and really turned them into a cohesive, practical business improvement philosophy around the concept of continuous improvement.<\/p>\n

You spent time in Japan studying and working at Toyota earlier in your career.\u00a0 How did that influence your understanding of continuous improvement?<\/h2>\n

I spent high school and university in Japan, and I would often spend vacations working as an intern at Toyota, helping out on small projects here and there.\u00a0 It was only in 2004 when I joined Toyota\u2019s domestic Kaizen division \u2013 the first non-Japanese person to do so \u2013 that I truly began to understand what was involved in continuous improvement at a practical level.<\/p>\n

The role of the Kaizen division was to work with dealers in Japan and support them in implementing Kaizen projects, most of which were operational projects \u2013 supply chain, service related, inventory management, things like that.\u00a0 We’d work with them for several months to create and implement a continuous improvement process and, most importantly, make sure it would be sustainable after we left.<\/p>\n

\"Japan\"<\/p>\n

What did that involve and what did it teach you about continuous improvement?<\/h2>\n
\"\"
Hassan Jameel with his 2004 Kaizen Dept. team at Toyota Motor Corporation headquarters, Tokyo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a shock to the system!<\/p>\n

I\u2019d previously spent time in different working environments outside Japan where the word \u2018Kaizen\u2019 was used as vague shorthand for improving a task.<\/p>\n

Some process wouldn\u2019t be as efficient as it could be, and someone would say \u2018you just need to Kaizen it!\u2019, with no real understanding of what that meant at a deeper level.<\/p>\n

When I was immersed in the Kaizen team in Japan, however, I realized there was a very precise, structured philosophy behind it.<\/p>\n

The Kaizen approach is based on a whole set of principles that touch on virtually every aspect of a business\u2019s culture and ways of working.\u00a0 At the process level, however \u2013 that is, when you want to improve a specific process \u2013 it all starts with data.\u00a0 That would be the first mission we had to accomplish.<\/p>\n

We would stand in front of an operative, maybe someone on the car cleaning line, or in the service center servicing vehicles, for example.\u00a0 We\u2019d have a stopwatch and a notepad, and we\u2019d note down everything they did, along with the timings, during their working day.\u00a0 If they went to the bathroom, we\u2019d make a note, if they had to walk across the garage to collect a tool, we\u2019d note it down, if they had to go and find someone to ask a question, we\u2019d note it down.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nWe\u2019d do that for everyone involved in that task, so it might take us a week or more to collect all the data, which we would put into a giant spreadsheet \u2013 one for each worker. \u00a0We\u2019d hang these on the wall and go through them line by line and mark them up, using different colors to indicate whether it was wasted time, working time or unproductive working time.<\/p>\n

I was only a trainee at this point, and I didn\u2019t fully understand what we were doing.\u00a0 I said to my boss, what has this got to do with Kaizen?\u00a0 How will it make us more efficient?<\/p>\n

He said, “Did you find any wasted time?”<\/em>\u00a0 I told him that the individual had to leave his workstation two or three times to get some tools. \u00a0He asked me, \u201cHow long did that take<\/em>?\u201d and I said, according to the data it took six minutes in total.\u00a0 He said, “How could you reduce that amount of time?”<\/em>\u00a0 I suggested that if the operative had the tools next to him at his workstation, he wouldn\u2019t need to cross the room to get them, so it would save six minutes.\u00a0 I was thinking, what difference is six minutes going to make!\u00a0 But he was thrilled. \u00a0He explained that if we can save one technician six minutes in one day, that\u2019s half an hour each week. \u00a0If there are eight technicians doing this task, that\u2019s a saving or four hours every week \u2013 over half a day.\u00a0 Multiply that over the year, and it\u2019s a massive saving. \u00a0How many more cars could be serviced in that time?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I really began to understand what continuous improvement was all about.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about big, expensive ideas that someone at the top thinks is going to transform the workplace.\u00a0 It\u2019s about small, incremental steps coming from the bottom up, that come together to make a real and meaningful difference that can be sustained.<\/p>\n

Another job we worked on involved us repainting the stockyard for a dealer.\u00a0 We did it entirely ourselves over about 10 days.\u00a0 It was hard work!\u00a0 We were outside in the wind and the snow and the rain.\u00a0 I said to my boss, why don\u2019t we just pay someone to come in and paint the stockyard?\u00a0 He explained that if we do it ourselves, we understand the process ourselves, and we understand how to improve it ourselves, so next year we can do it even better.\u00a0 If we pay someone else to do it, we can\u2019t gain that knowledge.<\/p>\n

The belief that it\u2019s not about big ideas, but about small changes is very powerful, isn\u2019t it? \u00a0Sometimes in business, it\u2019s easier to throw money at a problem than to deeply analyze what the true causes are.<\/h2>\n

That\u2019s very true.<\/p>\n

My boss once told me, if you want to solve a problem, don’t add to it . . . \u00a0subtract<\/em> from it.<\/p>\n

What he meant was, if you identify a problem, don\u2019t add more to it, like new processes, investment or technology.\u00a0 Instead, identify the waste or \u2018muda\u2019 (in Japanese), and multiply it by zero. \u00a0That is, remove it.\u00a0 Once you take out all the waste and the unnecessary time, you pare it back to the clearest process \u2013 the \u2018critical path\u2019.<\/p>\n

That gives you the foundation from which you can start trying to improve it incrementally.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to see how continuous improvement applies to a big manufacturing business.\u00a0 Can it apply to smaller businesses or service businesses, too?<\/h2>\n
\"\"
Hassan Jameel with his 2004 Kaizen Dept. team at Toyota Motor Corporation headquarters, Tokyo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It can be applied to anything and everything we do in our lives.<\/p>\n

Two of the methodologies explained in the Toyota Way are Genchi Genbutsu and Gemba.\u00a0 Both are about seeing for yourself where processes happen in the workplace, visiting the frontline, sitting with people, listening to them, understanding how they work and most importantly, why, so we can experience the problems ourselves.<\/p>\n

That can be applied to an office environment as much as a workshop or a production line.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

When I was at Toyota, we would work from the office one day a week.\u00a0 And we would see the boss walking around the office, sitting with the accounts team or talking to the operations guys, asking questions and making notes.\u00a0 That was Genchi Genbutsu in action \u2013 he was spending time with the people on the frontline so he could understand their processes and the issues they were facing.<\/p>\n

Respect is a big part.\u00a0 Respecting our people, respecting our dealers, respecting our customers.\u00a0 Respect isn’t only about being nice and saying good morning and good evening to somebody.<\/p>\n

It’s also about implementing policies, procedures, standards that create an environment<\/em> of respect for people.\u00a0 Where they feel valued, where they feel responsible for their own performance and where they feel empowered to voice their opinions and share their ideas.<\/p>\n

Of course, a key element of continuous improvement is about eliminating wastage, including time.\u00a0 And every business in every sector has wasted time, whether it\u2019s unnecessary meetings, rambling reports, cumbersome bureaucracy.\u00a0 These are all examples of areas where a Kaizen approach can improve efficiency and productivity.<\/p>\n

How has Abdul Latif Jameel tried to apply a continuous improvement approach in the workplace and what difference has it made?<\/h2>\n

At Abdul Latif Jameel, we have a whole program dedicated to Kaizen called \u2018best in town\u2019.\u00a0 It\u2019s an initiative started by Toyota, and it\u2019s called \u2018best in town\u2019<\/a> for a reason.\u00a0 The idea is that to be the best in your town, you need to know your local market very well, you need to fully understand your customers\u2019 needs, and you need to consistently meet those needs in a much closer, more meaningful way than if you\u2019re aiming to be \u2018best in the world\u2019 \u2013 which is a far more abstract goal, for example.<\/p>\n

So, we have created this \u2018best in town\u2019 team to be the champions of continuous improvement within Abdul Latif Jameel; to help all our different businesses and locations understand the continuous improvement ethos and know how to embed it in their own operations.\u00a0 We\u2019ve just had the regional \u2018best in town\u2019 2023 conference in Saudi Arabia, with over 150 delegates from \u2018best in town\u2019 teams across the world to share their insights, experiences and successes with continuous improvement from a wide variety of businesses and industry sectors.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Hassan Jameel discussing Hoshin Kanri planning with the team at Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Toyota, Madina Road Jeddah as part of a genchi genbutsu front-line visit October 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Peter
Peter Aberle, CEO Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Saudi Arabia (center left) with Hassan (center right) and the team at Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Toyota, Madina Road Jeddah celebrating their \u201cBest-in-Town\u201d win, October 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"
Hassan Jameel discussing Hoshin Kanri planning with the team at Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Toyota, Khurais center Riyadh (BIT) June 2023 again as part of a BIT front-line visit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hassan
And touring the aftersales and service facilities with the local team discussing improvement initiatives, Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Toyota, Khurais center Riyadh (BIT) June 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

How has the initiative been received within Abdul Latif Jameel?<\/h2>\n

Extremely positively, and not just by management, but more importantly for me, by the people who really matter \u2013 the people on the front line who are responsible for responding to the needs of our customers and clients every day.<\/p>\n

When I visit a location that \u2018best in town\u2019 hasn\u2019t reached yet, I get people coming over and asking me when it\u2019s coming, because they\u2019ve heard such positive things about it.<\/p>\n

Going forwards, how can this mindset of continuous improvement help Abdul Latif Jameel in its continuing success?<\/h2>\n

Our objective as a business is to make sure our culture is one that believes in and acts on continuous improvement in perpetuity.<\/p>\n

That’s very difficult to achieve, but if we can build a culture within Abdul Latif Jameel whereby continuous improvement is the default mindset; an automatic approach that everybody follows without even thinking about it; led by a generation of leaders who are brought up with this way of thinking, that will be a very powerful proposition.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not there yet, but that\u2019s what we\u2019re striving for.<\/p>\n

As a young man, you went to Toyota in Japan, and you were immersed in the Kaizen culture. \u00a0How has it changed the way you look at life?<\/h2>\n

Fundamentally, Kaizen is such a simple way of looking at life. \u00a0That\u2019s how it has affected me most.\u00a0 I try to keep things as simple as they can be, because once you complicate things, the solutions also become more complicated.\u00a0 It starts with small things, like making your bed every morning.\u00a0 If you do that, then you\u2019re starting the day with a first small piece of success.<\/p>\n

It also taught me that you must always strive for improvement in yourself and be humble about it.<\/p>\n

\"Shibuya
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Japan. Photo credit: \u00a9 Timo Volz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dr
Dr Shoichiro Toyoda (1925-2023). Photo Credit \u00a9 Toyota<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I remember my father once having dinner with Dr Shoichiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota.<\/p>\n

They were talking about the \u2018Toyota Way\u2019 and my father asked him, \u201cwhat does it mean to you?\u201d\u00a0And Dr Toyoda responded: \u201cI\u2019m still learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, I reflected on what that meant, and it really struck me.<\/p>\n

What it means is humility . . .\u00a0\u00a0Being aware – and humble enough – to appreciate that everyone can always learn and improve; it means understanding this deeply, and so continually moving forwards \u2013 which is very the essence of Kaizen.<\/p>\n

\"Seif
Seif Shieshakly (L) and Patrick Wiebusch (R) Co-founders, Four Principles, and their mantra: \u201cKaizen. Zero waste implemented!\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact such is Abdul Latif Jameel\u2019s commitment to continuous improvement, that in 2017 we entered a joint venture with \u2018Lean Management\u2019 consultancy, Four Principles<\/a>, to spread the ideas across the Middle East region and beyond, helping both private and public sector organizations leverage the opportunities it can deliver.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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