Study on Useful Cases Sharing among Multi-site ...

This paper discusses a support system of Kaizen activity for effective sharing useful cases among multi-site factories. After the framework of the support system which consists of three basic elements, that is, Kaizen case-base, model-base and user-interface, is described quoted by Decision Support System (DSS), a design of a procedure of new case development which is put in the user-interface particularly is the focus. Furthermore, Kaizen technology applied to the new case development is Visual Management (VM) technology as one of the useful technologies. The proposed procedure consists of the following five phases: 1) identification of current burden, 2) selection of useful case, 3) new case design for improving direct burden, 4) improved designed case for enhancement of technological level and 5) improved designed case for contribution to overall system. In addition, a case study is performed to assure the relevance of the proposed procedure by put the emphasis on VM of chemical plant. Then the proposed procedure is qualified based on systematic evaluation and experts’ opinion as useful method to Kaizen knowledge transfer through collaboration with a factory eager to implement VM.