Note di management n° 23

Il 'kaizen' oggi in Giappone

Propongo un articolo uscito il 22 Maggio 2008 sul giornale giapponese ASAHI SHIMBUN che spiega, con la tipica sintesi giornalistica, cosa è stata ed è oggi la prassi della qualità nell'economia giapponese.

Il testo è in inglese preceduto, per comodità del lettore, da un abstract in italiano.

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Toyota pagherà gli straordinari per le attività 'kaizen'
Il termine giapponese 'kaizen' indica, nella letteratura economica, il miglioramento continuo tipico della logica di qualità introdotta da Kaoru Ishikawa nel suo 'Guide to Quality Control' nel 1976.

L'articolo del ASHAI SHIMBUN  ci dice che dal 1° Giugno 2008 verrà introdotto negli stabilimenti Toyota, con oltre 40.000 dipendenti, il pagamento del lavoro straordinario dedicato ad attività 'kaizen', cioè dedicate al miglioramento della produzione.

Finora la partecipazione ad attività 'kaizen' , organizzate a partire dal 1964 su circa 5.000 circoli della qualità composti mediamente da 8 persone, è stata considerata volontaria perché compresa nei parametri di valutazione del lavoratore da parte dell'azienda.

Tutto questo ha tratto origine dalla morte nel 2002 di un lavoratore trentenne nello stabilimento Toyota di Tsutsumi per collasso durante il lavoro.

La Corte Distrettuale di Nagoya ha stabilito nel Novembre 2007 che la morte è stata causata da 'karoshi' , cioè sovra-lavoro.

Toyota to pay overtime allowances for 'kaizen' activities
Prompted by a ruling over a death from overwork, Toyota Motor Corp. will pay full overtime to factory workers engaged in after-hour kaizen activities designed to improve efficiency and product quality, sources said.
Japan's top automaker now pays compensation only for up to two extra hours a month because it considers employees are engaged voluntarily in kaizen activities.
But the company decided Wednesday to regard kaizen as part of the workers' job requirements and start paying allowances on June 1 to cover all work done after hours, the sources said.
Labor unions at the company have agreed to the revision.
Toyota's 40,000 factory workers in Japan are all engaged in kaizen, or continuous improvement, as a core part of the quality control (QC) activities.
The company has about 5,000 QC circle groups, which typically consist of eight workers each. The QC activities started in 1964 for production-line workers to brainstorm for improvements.
Some employees and their families have said the workers are effectively forced to engage in QC activities because the results and achievements from the activities are included in their evaluations.
In November 2007, a Nagoya District Court ruling attributed the 2002 death of a Toyota employee to overwork, saying QC activities are "duties under the employer's control."
The ruling was finalized in December after the central government, which was the defendant in the worker's compensation lawsuit, decided not to appeal.
The 30-year-old worker at the company's Tsutsumi Plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, died in February 2002 after collapsing during work.
The man, who served as chief of a QC circle group, reported he was engaged in the activities for 16 hours during the four months before his death.
However, he actually spent hours on weekends and paid holidays preparing documents and other materials for the activities, according to the ruling.
His wife filed the suit in July 2005 against the chief of the Toyota Labor Standards Inspection Office, demanding revocation of its decision that overwork did not cause the employee's death.
Toyota's decision to pay full overtime for kaizen came amid growing criticism against long work hours leading to health damage and karoshi, or death from overwork.
McDonald's Co. (Japan) said Tuesday it will pay overtime to about 2,000 employees it categorizes as managers, who had been denied compensation for extra hours worked.
Toyota's decision is expected to prompt other manufacturers to review practices concerning work and compensation.
It is estimated that more than 30,000 QC circle groups are organized at domestic manufacturers, such as automakers and electronics makers.
Toyota plans to encourage workers to review and simplify QC activities so that overtime work will not exceed two hours a month.
A senior Toyota official said the revision will inevitably push up labor costs.
 

Roma, Maggio 2008

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