Incorporating Kaizen into Business Practices
Kaizen is essentially the philosophy of continual improvement through all phases of business. Kaizen has set standards and pillars but essentially it is about standardizing all processes, eliminating waste and having efficient housekeeping practices. Tree care practices in general can have duplication and wasted time and effort.
Here are some of the guidelines for continual improvement in the workplace:
Assess procedures, methods and policies continually (every month).
If something doesn’t work, correct it immediately.
Involve everyone in the problem-solving process.
Eliminate waste, duplication and redundancy.
Eliminate or update old procedures and methods.
Before making decisions, understand the root cause of “why” something is done.
Never stop improving because the sky is the limit.
Using Kaizen for Employee & Company Goals
One of the processes I found to be the least useful for employee development was annual employee reviews. Giving employees 5 tasks to improve on each year often went nowhere. Here are some suggestions from The BIG Oak =
Monthly Employee Goals
Give each employee ONE focus for the entire month. This singular focus will allow employees to “master” each task or knowledge every month. Every employee improving on 12 items is a huge win over the course of a year.
Monthly Company Teamwork Project
Along with each employee having one monthly focus, give the entire company ONE focus to include teamwork. Each month select a different team captain to step up and run the team. Giving all employees a chance for feedback will keep everyone involved regardless of the topic to focus on.
Yearly “House Cleaning”
Now that each employee has focused on 12 things and the company has focused on 12 things during the year, it is time to get down and dirty. A yeary “House Cleaning” is one of the best methods to keep your company fine-tuned and moving forward. It is impossible for complacency to set in if these guidelines are followed:
Employees
Depending on the number of employees in the company, fire the bottom 10%. Employees with poor performance, poor attendance, bad attitudes and a lack of no future improvement should be shown the door. Let these employees ruin your competitor’s business. Keeping your worst employees around MAY cost you some of your best employees. Remove the emotion and get it done.
Clients
Just like employees, fire your worst 10% of clients. These could be the biggest complainers, least profitable or just furthest away clients. It always seems tough to let clients go, but it always clears the way to get better clients or give a higher level of service to other existing clients (which can also pay off). I have found over 20+ years that cutting the bottom 10% generally equates to other (better) clients spending 10% or more each year (due to better focus and service) to make up the difference.
Services
Every year do an audit of each service. You might be surprised how many services provide marginal profit or tend to have higher incidents of damage or accidents. Focusing on the services that provide the most benefit generally equates to a more successful business.
Procedures
These may be addressed during some of the month goals, but all services should be audited yearly also. All processes relating to invoicing, sales, marketing and customer service should be assessed for improvement potential. Many procedures are 10-20 years old and are completely behind the times.
Equipment & Vehicles
Tree guys tend to collect junk and old equipment. While it can be cool to restore old equipment, much of this takes away from newer equipment with improved profitability. Keep up with current equipment trends and stay ahead of the game. I would generally sell or donote the worst or least-productive equipment each year.