The week has concluded and the kaizen event is done. Teamwork and extensive problem-solving have led to a better way, and the future state is looking good. Time for team photos, a declaration of victory and celebration.

Not so fast, say the hosts of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement. In this latest installment of their series on lean myths, Dr. Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer debunk the idea that a successful kaizen event translates to a successful solution to a problem.

The missing ingredient, they say, is sustainability. Are those solutions you’ve worked on so hard to implement still in place 90 days later?

“Implementation is not sustainability,” Saleh points out.

“Because if things just keep slipping back to the way they were to start with, you really haven’t accomplished anything,” Dyer adds.

In this episode, the duo discuss reasons why a successful kaizen event may not translate into long-term gains and offer several suggestions to improve the odds of sustainable success. For example, they suggest:

Don’t assume a solution is sustainable if kaizen events are conducted merely to “check a box,” says Dyer, using as an example the organization that requires x number of kaizen events be conducted each quarter without providing the necessary foundation to follow up.  

Don’t treat kaizen events as a “one and done.” “It’s meant to be part of journey, and that’s also what leads to the sustainability,” Dyer says. In fact, he advocates for reconvening kaizen teams in two to four to six weeks to start the kaizen event discussion anew, "because now they can build off of what they have already done, and they know the process."  

Do plug the new standard into something like a daily management system, one that includes standard work observations or process confirmations, coaching and the ongoing PDCA cycle. Without this step, Saleh says, “the chance of it surviving what I'll call the ‘rubber band’ effect is almost impossible.” He describes the rubber band effect as an organization’s immune system “that wants to snap back to the old ways, and it’s for any reason.”  

Do assign someone to take ownership and be held accountable and responsible for the improvement of the system after the kaizen event. The podcast cohosts discuss who that person should be and bring slightly different perspectives to how the role should be fulfilled.  

Do make sure everyone in the organization feels connected to the performance of the entire organization, “whether it's part of their performance review, part of their pay structure, part of their bonus, part of their ability to get promoted in the future,” Dyer says.  That way, individuals no longer focus solely on their department or even themselves as individuals. Instead, they are “looking at the entire picture and saying, ‘Hey, what can I do to help?’”

Do consider implementing a detection system to flag abnormalities that indicate the new standard is degrading or struggling.

Saleh also suggests that a well-executed kaizen event should create a new problem. “A kaizen really works when we often expose the next constraint, and so we're never done,” Saleh says.  “We improve the system enough to see what we couldn't see before.”

Ultimately, sustainability is the key to a successful kaizen event, the two agree.

“The kaizen isn't successful when the event ends. It's successful when the improvement itself survives even after everyone leaves—and that doesn't come by accident. You have to put a system in place, and that system helps sustain the implementation,” Saleh says.