Ethiopia working to Expand Kaizen Approach to Improve Efficiency

Addis Ababa  October 17  /2019 After a decade since the kaizen philosophy introduced, Ethiopia is working to expand the approach to more organizations to improve efficiency.

Kaizen was introduced in Ethiopia a decade ago on 30 manufacturing companies.

The number has now increased to 750, according to Mekonnen Yaie, Director of the Ethiopian Kaizen Institute.

Some 1.7 percent of the organizations that are implementing kaizen are found in the Tigray region, Mekonen said in a conference held in Mekele.

According to Mekonnen, the institutes that implement the approach have managed to save 2.8 billion Birr every year.

Noting that the approach is useful for organizations, Mekonnen said expanding it as desired has been a challenge due to budget and human resources limitations at the Institute and low understanding of the Kaizen philosophy among businesses and organizations.

The conference is aimed to discuss on ways of expanding the approach to other institutes, Mekonnen said.

A five-year strategic plan has already prepared to enhance the expansion of the approach to all manufacturing industries and service providers, said Woldemihret Aregay, kaizen philosophy advisor at the Institute

Kuha Garment, one of the businesses that implement kaizen, claim to benefit from the approach.

The company's kaizen department head Daniel Gezae said garment production which used to take hours previously is now produced in minutes with good quality.

He said that the approach helped the company to enhance its efficiency and increased the revenue it generated yearly to 190 million Birr from the previous 100 million Birr.

More than 200 representatives of public and private companies, organizations and others from the region participated in the conference, where benefits of the Kaizen philosophy particularly its impact on waste minimization was discussed.