Continuous Improvement Applied to Safety at Toyota
A recent article at EHS Today explains how a Toyota plant that manufactures forklifts in Columbus, Ind., makes safety a part of daily life.
The facility refers to its safety system as K-HYP, which standards for “kaizen” (continuous improvement) and “How’s your process?” At the facility, safety is a topic of discussion at morning meetings, and each employee is given the opportunity to write down safety issues. Then managers meet with workers that morning to discuss the reported problems.
By bringing safety to the front of people’s minds on a daily basis, the Toyota plant is able to continuously improve the safety of workers in a variety of jobs.
According to the facility’s manager of environmental health and safety, “We are looking for ways to improve safety, quality and productivity all at once […] So we merged both sides of it into one daily discussion.”
Visit EHS Today to read the full story of Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing’s safety system.
Interested in learning more about kaizen? Download this free guide: Introduction to Kaizen.
Additional Resources
- Kaizen (Lean Continuous Improvement)– creativesafetysupply.com
- Continuous Improvement: 3 Tips For Getting Management On-Board– blog.creativesafetysupply.com
- Continuous Improvement and Behavior-Based Safety– lean-news.com
- Understanding Kaizen: A Path to Continuous Improvement– creativesafetypublishing.com
- Kaizen and Agile Methodologies: Complementary Approaches to Continuous Improvement– kaizen-news.com
- Kaizen Continuous Improvement– blog.5stoday.com
- Kaizen Events or Daily Kaizen – What to choose?– hiplogic.com
- Quality Management Systems: Ensuring Standards and Continuous Improvement– babelplex.com
- Kaizen: Continuous Improvement for Lean Manufacturing Success– jakegoeslean.com