Continuous Improvement
At Ricoh UK Products Ltd (RPL), our employees see Kaizen (continuous improvement) as an integral part of their ways of working, motivating them to engage in doing something a little bit better every day through the deployment of the Ricoh Way Production System.
Doing something a little better every day
Building a culture, where our employees see continuous improvement as an integral part of their ways of working, which motivates them to engage in doing something a little bit better every day. At RPL we all have two jobs: our functional role and continuous improvement. Our continuous improvement philosophy is about everyone, every day, doing something a little bit better than yesterday. The engagement of all our employees in continuous improvement, through the deployment of the Ricoh Way Production System, is key to delivering operational excellence.We put Kaizen at the very heart of everything we do, helping us to find true meaning in our work.
What is the Ricoh Way Production System?
The Ricoh Way Prodution System is the systematic approach we take to ensure excellence in manufacturing.
In 1946, Kiyoshi Ichimura defined the Ricoh Group’s founding principles, which instruct us how to do business, encouraging us to constantly improve and contribute to the wellbeing of our families, customers, and society.
The Ricoh Way Production System delivers on this by focusing on the 5 principles of SEQCD (Safety, Environment, Quality, Cost and Delivery) and focusing on 12 Key Fundamentals to improve performance:
Key Fundamental 1 - Think Safety; Act Safely
Key Fundamental 2 - Embrace 5S
Key Fundamental 3 - Foster Employee Development
Key Fundamental 4 - Be Environmentally Responsible
Key Fundamental 5 - Model Corporate Social Responsibility
Key Fundamental 6 - Deliver Quality
Key Fundamental 7 - Breathe Fact-Based Decision Making
Key Fundamental 8 - Use Visual Management
Key Fundamental 9 - Deploy Standardisation
Key Fundamental 10 - Live Kaizen
Key Fundamental 11 - Pursue Super Low Cost
Key Fundamental 12 - Implement Sychronisation
We pride ourselves on having a sustained culture of engagement in continuous improvement, that truly improves our business performance. This is recognised through our Ideas UK Platinum accreditations, as well as partnerships with manufacturing and lean excellence organisations for whom we host best practice visits.
There are 4 key elements that are critical to ensuring that all of our employees engage in the Ricoh Way Production System:
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Strategic Alignment
Ensuring that engaging in continuous improvement activities and the Ricoh Way Production System is a key business priority. -
Leadership
Advocating the importance of the Ricoh Way Production System and our continuous improvement culture on a daily basis. -
People Processes
Putting the Ricoh Way Production System at the heart of the way we do things. -
Systems and Tools
Having approaches, tools and techniques that support our sustained culture of continuous improvement.
Consultancy Offering
Our proven approach to engaging employees in continuous improvement to deliver business improvement results is offered as an external consultancy service. For more information click here
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