On March 30, 2017 the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a grant agreement with the Ethiopian Government in Addis Ababa to provide grant aid of up to 2.931 billion yen for the Construction Project of TICAD Human Resource Development Center for Business and Industry.
The project will provide training facilities and procure equipment for training human resources to extend kaizen (a Japanese philosophy and technique for improving quality and productivity) as a part of the Ethiopian Kaizen Institute (EKI) facilities. It was in 2009 that Ethiopia launched Kaizen philosophy capacity building activities to improve productivity supported by JICA as a pilot program with 30 enterprises.
Ethiopian Kaizen Institute (EKI) launched the construction of the Centre recently. On the occasion, Institute Director General Mekonnen Yaie said that the construction of the center will help to expand Kaizen philosophy in Ethiopia through strengthening capacity building activities in an integrated manner. It is believed to enable EKI to offer practical Kaizen training to trainees as it would be equipped with the needed human and material facilities.
The construction of project will be operated by Japanese companies and expected to be completed in January 2021. Having training rooms, dormitories, laboratories, lodging and library and multipurpose hall within four storey buildings, the center will lie at 3,713 square meters, and it will have that constitute.
The Kaizen philosophy has been witnessing tangible results in Ethiopia applied by various organizations engaged in production and service delivery. There is a plan to apply the philosophy in all organizations across the country to bring production improvement and quality of services. “The philosophy will enable us to improve our working culture and bring synergy to achieve national development.”
The institute will employ its full capacity in consulting, conducting studies and disseminating technologies in Kaizen philosophy when the center gets fully operational, according to the Director General. “We want to see our companies as successful as Toyota [the Japanese motor company] through applying latest production management system and bring their own ones.” On the other hand, the expansion of the philosophy will enable the country to attract more Japanese investors, he noted.
Ethiopia has successfully adopted the philosophy of Kaizen following the establishment of EKI, Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia Daisuke Matsunaga said. Currently various Ethiopian companies are becoming productive after implementing the philosophy consulted by the Institute. The country will be center of excellence in disseminating the Kaizen philosophy across the continent following the completion of the center.
Construction of the center is mainly intended to strengthen the capacity of EKI. The center will help to create common place to give kaizen training to Ethiopian enterprises, government agencies and other organizations and trainees from neighboring nations to have the knowhow about the philosophy, said Megumi Hirose, Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Senior Representative.
Kaizen is all about exerting a continuous effort by each and every employee to ensure improvement of all processes and systems of a particular organization. “Kaizen is a continuous improvement so that we have to improve [ourselves] everyday, there is no end.” Therefore JICA will enhance its support to the whole efforts in this regard, she said.
According to Berhanu Feyisa, Ethiopian Civil Service Commission Deputy Commissioner, prominent scholars across the globe in general and Japanese in particular well-articulated that Kaizen, the Japanese way of business management philosophy has prominently contributed towards Japanese economic growth and development of today.
The cutting-edge technologies achieved through Japanese resilient introduction and commitment of implementation of the philosophy is not only limited to Japanese economy. Its application through JICA’s support has been proved that it can play a significant role for the rest of African countries thereby enhancing the continuous quality and productivity improvement.
Among many projects being executed by JICA so far, the Kaizen project in Ethiopia has many successful results in improving the competitiveness of many Ethiopian manufacturing industries both in quality and productivity by changing the industrial working culture of employees and the company management. The recent award and recognition to two Ethiopian companies is the witness for this.
This is realized through strong top leadership commitment of the government as well as private sectors’ belief in partnership. Kaizen has been one of the government driven reform initiatives and its deep philosophy has similarities with Medemer philosophy that values and capitalizes the existing human needs and accumulated societal indigenous culture that all aim at continuous improvement and synergy of all forces.
Hence, nationwide, Kaizen movement shall be one of the prior agenda to be launched soon. Institutional capacity strengthening of EKI needs to be the joint, continuous and strategic supports in order to make the institute a centre of excellence in East Africa for human resource development in Kaizen. This will be best possible if the best experiences Japanese companies through trainings, education and FDI twinned and continuously work with our emerging industries to make them a live witness of the Kaizen philosophy towards the wellbeing of human life and value adding to the economy.
“We envision that the project can serve as a pivotal role in introducing working discipline of Kaizen and its dividend value in social transformation at the community level will continue to be a symbol of longstanding relationship among our two countries,” Berhanu said. He also pledged that the support of the commission will be continued to the realization of the project.
With the assistance of the Japanese government, EKI has been training consultants and teaching Kaizen to companies and micro enterprises. To date, more than 630 companies have introduced Kaizen, thereby increasing their productivity by an average of 37.2 percent and reducing waste by an average of 55.2 percent. Recently, MAA Garment and Textiles and Amhara Water Well Drilling Enterprise have got top positions in the first African Kaizen award held in Tunisia in June, 2019.
Therefore, expanding the right philosophy will help to achieve the right goal in a certain period of time. However the philosophy ought to be modified through time to provide up-to-date system and product that the generation likes and apply for more success. Accordingly the country ought to expand the Kaizen philosophy to increase productivity and to enable organizations to create their own production management system that can serve for long. Furthermore, the nation must use the ongoing constructing center to upgrade its human capital and nurture other African countries.
The Ethiopian Herald October 8/2019
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
