Kaizen has long been known as an improvement philosophy that starts with small frequent changes to make larger changes in production. These changes come from the ideas and creative thinking of employees to ensure that the production conditions and processes are continuously improved. However, Kaizen not only helps motivate employees to think creatively with effective methods and skills, but it also helps them develop their capabilities, personality, and good work habits. The purpose of this paper is to show a new approach to human resources quality improvement through the Kaizen philosophy as a sustainable and active strategy to improve work performance. With analytical research on the relationship between Kaizen implementation, human resources quality improvement, and production efficiency and exploratory research on particular cases in manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam, the authors point out changes in production efficiency and human capacity before and after implementing improvement (Kaizen) projects. The paper finds significant changes of employee capability (Kaizen practitioners) after evaluating the human resource development process on the basis of six indicators of two groups (namely capacity development, personality development) and a set of criteria using a 5-point scale. In addition, the paper proposes a PDCA based framework with 12 contents corresponding to stages of the human resource development. This paper extends theories related to Lean Manufacturing or Kaizen, highlighting how philosophy of Kaizen has hard and soft impacts on the improvement of performance and human resources.
This paper aims at firstly reviewing initiatives on workforce transformation in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 funded by the Government of Singapore, and then making recommendations to policy makers regarding the workforce preparation in Vietnam. In the era of continuous change, workforce is a key factor in a thriving economy, thus Singapore’s strategy is to engender a future-ready generation for a better Singapore by strengthening the talent pools through lifelong learning and enabling all Singaporeans to excel and discover opportunities to fulfill their potentials. How has Singapore been doing to prepare a tomorrow’s workforce? How does Vietnam learn from Singapore’s experience in preparing for a future-ready workforce? This analysis will answer those two questions. The findings indicate that (i) the Government of Singapore has adopted an inclusive approach and has succeeded in developing a sustainable skills ecosystem and lifelong learning programs, and (ii) It is necessary for Vietnam to think about our own strategy that will focus on changing public awareness of lifelong learning and skills upgrading, identifying necessary skills for the future workforce, and creating effective action programs to encourage individuals to learn for life, pursue skills mastery and develop fulfilling careers.
PurposeThis study aims to present the results of a comparative study on the most key reasons for the failure of sustaining activities of operational improvement (OI) methodologies from the different types of manufacturing enterprises that located in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents survey results from 30 local manufacturing enterprises and 21 foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises located in Vietnam – a developing country. The authors utilize a combination method to collect data, including online and direct survey. The targeted interviewees selected to answer the questionnaire are manufacturing managers and top managers working in productivity, quality, engineering and other departments in respective firms. The developed questionnaire is verified by five experts to ensure the validity and soundness.FindingsThe study uncover that 21 local enterprises (70%) have not issued standard forms for OI deployment and supervision, while 17 foreign enterprises (81%) have adopted a systematic management and clearly indicators for evaluation of OI outputs. In addition, the top three reasons for OI failure are differences between local and foreign enterprises. In term of OI methodologies, most of participated enterprises implemented Lean tools and principles while only 7.8% of the participated enterprises applied Six Sigma. Three vital findings are uncovered, including, first, 30% of local enterprises standardize and supervise forms of OI.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a limitation in sample size, with the number of participants of 51 enterprises. Among the participants, 27% of local enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) while 60% of FDI enterprises from large-sized group. This was limited to making a generated conclusion in the comparison of failure factors between two types of enterprises. This partly affects the radical comparison of failure factors between local and FDI enterprises.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' view, this is the first empirical study that compares the reasons for the failure for sustaining OI between local and foreign enterprises in a developing country. The result from this study will make contributions for further research in considering OI failure factors and then enhance effectiveness of OI methodologies in manufacturing companies.
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