The Wenchi Business Advisory Center of the Ghana Enterprise Agency (BAC/GEA) has organized a training workshop on Basic Kaizen for women led and owned businesses in Wenchi Municipality. Kaizen is a Japanese word which means “continuous improvement”. The word implies improvement that involves all business owners and workers.
The 2-day training workshop was organized as part of BAC’s implementation of the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) Business Acceleration (MBA) component of the Young Africa Works (YAW) project. The YAW project, initiated by MasterCard Foundation and being implemented by GEA is aimed at providing employment and income opportunities for over 39,000 youth between the ages of 18 &35 years and has a strong focus on women. The project comprises three (3) components of which the MBA is a part. This component is aimed at fast-tracking the growth of existing small businesses in Ghana focusing on women. A total of 27 participants were trained under the programme. They were made up of women between the ages of 24 and 45 from different sectors of trades including; dressmaking, hairdressing, hand textile weaving, commerce and trade among others. Most of these women led and owned businesses were beneficiaries of the Corona Alleviation Business Support Scheme (CABuSS) and have realized some level of growth in their businesses, even though with peculiar challenges.
The purpose of the training workshop on Kaizen was to provide advance knowledge to women who lead and own businesses. The Kaizen concepts provided strategies to the women on successful businesses management and expansion, business preservation, improvement and growth in their businesses. The following objectives;
- Grooming business development-minded people at the work places
- Building good teamwork through continuous participation in Kaizen related business forums and activities aimed at business growth and expansion.
- To inculcate in women entrepreneurs the skills of maximizing production and reduce waste and losses
- To enable women entrepreneurs manage inventory efficiently as in Records Keeping
- To ensure product quality improvement
Areas of training
The main contents of the 2-day training included;
Kaizen Concepts and processes
Waste control in production
Occupational safety, health and environmental management (OSHEM)
Kaizen Concepts and Processes
This is based on making little changes on a regular basis, improving productivity and quality, safety and effectiveness while reducing wastes.
- Sorting; separating the necessary things from the unnecessary and disposing of the unnecessary things
- Set-in-order; putting things in their appropriate places with clear indication for easy access.
- Shine; cleaning up the facilities, machines and other work tools in the work place and carefully checking their condition
- Standardize; thoroughly implementing 1st three activities to keep work place clean
- Sustain; getting accustomed to the rules.
The benefits of implementing kaizen at the work places include;
- Work places improvement
- Eliminates waste during production
- Improves productivity
- Entrepreneurs develops multi-tasking skills
- Leads to production control
- Enables effective management of inventory
For effective implementation of kaizen at work places, the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle, a four step management method is used for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products.
- Waste control in production
Waste in production is non-value added activities and/or output which has no marketable value.
Seven (7) types of waste identified in production include;
- Over-production
- Waste of waiting
- Waste in transportation
- Waste in processing
- Waste in inventory
- Waste in motion
- Defects
This concerns the safety, health and welfare of people engaged to work and dealing with environmental issues arising from the activities engaged in as a business.
Some benefits of practicing occupational Safety, Health and Environment Management include; reduce production cost as compensations, medical expenses and related cost are minimized, improves employee/worker attitudes and moral, prevents contamination of products by gems, healthy life style.
Safety practices and preventions
- Operators should observe the standard time for the performance of a task
- Workers should be trained before being allowed to use tools, equipment and machines
- Workers should not be allowed to use faulty machines and also machines with faults should be replaced.
- Seek requisite expertise for electrical installation and ensure periodic maintenance
- Workers should concentrate in performing their task
- Personal cleanliness should be observed to prevent contamination
The facilitator employed a face-to-face adult facilitation skills and a combination of other interactive and participatory training delivery methodologies in expediting the training workshop. Related examples were also employed to ensure that participants understood the concepts well.
Source: Information Services Department (ISD/WMA)
By: Stanick Sofel Amuzu Kpodo