Rapid Improvement Events
Sometimes, a team needs to stop ‘business as usual’ and narrow their collective focus onto a key issue. Our Rapid Improvement Events (RIEs), also known as Kaizen events, are workshops that involve a small team working intensely together to improve a process or business challenge. We have an extensive set of case studies on successful RIEs – please contact us to learn more about these results.
RIEs are low-cost, high-value actions designed to identify and implement rapid improvement.
Structure of RIEs
- Purpose: RIEs are used to improve processes, save resources, reduce waste, and serve customers faster.
- Length: RIEs typically last two to three days.
- Planning: The planning process for an RIE usually begins about two months before the event.
- Team: The team should include people who work directly in the process, as well as users, suppliers, and customers.
- Facilitator: Our trained facilitators lead the event, working with the team lead or area supervisor to keep everyone on track, engage everyone, and document outcomes.
- Objectives: Each RIE should have at least one measurable objective.
- Follow-up: Conduct a follow-up session six weeks later to review progress and ensure actions are completed.
Key Techniques Used
Typical focus areas include methods like 5S (workplace optimisation), cycle time reduction to address bottlenecks, lead time shortening, mistake-proofing, root cause analysis, waste reduction, and value-add optimisation (VA)
Our expert facilitators skillfully engage and guide groups ranging from 6 to 600 participants, ensuring meaningful interactions and impactful outcomes for teams of any size.