CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH KAIZEN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: A CASE STUDY

The study was conducted in a manufacturing company with foreign subscribed capital that faced problems such as high costs, long period of time elapsed between receiving the orders and delivery, delays in deliveries to customers etc. Taking into consideration the problems that have arisen, the top management of the company has decided to focus on improving production processes, identifying wastes and, at the same time, eliminating them, leading to the establishment of the "company vision" and the implementation of Kaizen culture. Our research paper aims to analyze the impact of implementing Kaizen principles on a company's performance. The study presents the results of a two-year (2017 and 2018) implementation of Kaizen system within the core department of the company's production structure. As a consequence of implementation of Kaizen tools, the analysis revealed the positive impact on stock control, with reduced number of stock blackouts. Improvements regarding the accuracy of the stocks were recorded both in the case of leather stock, which is the most valuable, and fabrics stock. At the company level, all these positive effects have been translated into important cost savings. Human resource plays a vital role in the succes of implementing Kaizen system and, within the company subject to the study, we noticed that, once employees were trained and overcomed the difficulties in understanding/applying the new concepts, the improvements were evident. Thus, proper consumption, proper procurement planning and raw material deliveries over time, eliminating thus production blackouts, represent important improvements achieved by the company.