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Kaizen is a Japanese word that means continuous improvement – something that all companies strive for. At Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies (Freudenberg-NOK), we work hard to remain world-class every day, which is why kaizens are a key element of our Growtth® program.
A kaizen event is a highly-focused, action-oriented improvement workshop where a team takes immediate action to improve a specific process. Any business process, assembly area, welding station, machining center, order entry routine, etc., can be improved by a kaizen. The team concentrates on making a major improvement for the specific process in five days or less.
Conducting a kaizen is a good way to get instant, but long-lasting results. Kaizens have helped the company to dramatically:
- Increase labor productivity
- Reduce parts per million (PPM) defect rates
- Slash work in-process inventory
Over the years, Freudenberg-NOK has conducted more than 32,000 kaizen events involving approximately 60,000 employee, customer and vendor participants.
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