Kaizen implementation in industries of Southern Ethiopia: Challenges and feasibility.

Continuous improvement strategies are the way of making small incremental improvements in the organization processes. These organizations are in a constant need to maintain a low cost of quality, reduce waste, trim production lines, and speed up manufacturing to achieve a maintain competitiveness. Companies both from developed and developing countries are striving to acquire the habit of improvement using Kaizen, as well as to focus on a customer-driven strategy to improve productivity. The quality of products and services are continuously amassing marginal improvements over time. Kaizen, a Japanese concept that calls for continuous improvement has introduced in Ethiopia to strengthen organization performance through productivity and quality improvement. Even though, the interest in Kaizen implementation has been elapsed twenty years officially, the fruits of implementation rarely observed. This paper examines the acceptability and feasibility of Kaizen among organization in Southern Nation sand Nationality and People Regional State. A survey of 71 stakeholders and 24 pilot enterprises conducted out using questionnaire, interview, and observation in Region. The study revealed that participants demonstrated willingness to implement Kaizen. However, the study revealed some challenges confronting the feasibility of Kaizen practices. The results of the study have shown that Kaizen is acceptable and suitable among organizations under the study though its feasibility is very challenging. The study also found that the executives of the enterprises did not seem to be committed to the Kaizen teamwork. Though vital for continuous improvement, the front line workers are rarely invited to participate in teamworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]