In the stope
Mbuso Nkosi rings the changes
Mining operations can really benefit from implementing Kaizen principles, Mbuso Nkosi tells Leon Louw.
Mbuso Nkosi, managing director of SMB Connexion and the Kaizen Institute South Africa.
SMB Connexion
Mbuso, you were recently appointed as managing director of the Kaizen Institute South Africa. Please give us some background.
Yes, SMB Connexion has been appointed official representative for the Kaizen Institute for the SADC region. The business will now be known as Kaizen Institute South Africa and I will head up a team of nine experienced consultants.
Has the Kaizen methodology been used in South Africa before?
Many companies in South Africa have implemented parts of the Kaizen methodology; however, we now see a huge opportunity to broaden the scope of its implementation through a formalised local presence.
What is the significance of the Kaizen Institute to Africa?
What the Kaizen Institute brings to both South Africa and sub-Saharan
Africa is an approach that builds sustainable enterprise excellence. This is vital for African businesses to be globally competitive and to establish sustainable, world-class organisations and communities. Kaizen principles are most effective when integrated with the business strategy and have been applied in all areas or value streams of the organisation.
Please explain the origins of the Kaizen Institute
Three decades after the publication of Masaaki Imai’ s Kaizen: The Key to Japan’ s Competitive Success, Kaizen has become an everyday term used in personal, business, and government circles across the globe.
In 1985, Masaaki Imai founded Kaizen Institute in Switzerland, pioneering the lean management principles. Today, the company has expanded to over 45 business operations, based in various cities within Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa.
However, the true power of Kaizen is still not fully harnessed by many businesses. In fact, most organisations have not yet grasped the depth of the real Kaizen methodology and have not aligned their entire corporate activities holistically.
Which areas of a mining company can the Kaizen principles be applied to most effectively?
The principles should touch every area of the mining business, and involve and empower all people within the organisation, not just management, nor can it be a short-term solution.
We believe that while most companies in South Africa have used lean tools, improvements to the business are short-lived because they have not been fully integrated into the business strategy and operations. Hence their impact is minimal.
Kaizen methodology provides a framework that uses continuous improvement( CI), which is applied to critical processes that are integral to the
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