Relying on outside consultants to run every kaizen event limits how far improvement can go. How to select, train and coach internal facilitators who can lead events and sustain a continuous improvement culture.
A manufacturer ran excellent kaizen events for two years with outside facilitators. Results were strong, but improvement happened only when the consultants were on site. When the budget tightened, the events stopped, and much of the improvement momentum stopped with them. The next phase took a different approach: developing a small group of internal facilitators who could run events themselves.
Building internal capability is how improvement becomes self-sustaining.
What a kaizen facilitator does
A facilitator does not solve the problem. They guide a team to solve it:
- Help leaders choose and scope events.
- Prepare data, logistics and the team.
- Teach the relevant tools during the event.
- Keep the team focused, on schedule and grounded in facts.
- Draw out ideas from everyone, especially operators.
- Remove obstacles and get the support the team needs.
- Ensure results are measured, standardised and followed up.
Selecting the right people
Good candidates usually:
- Are respected by both operators and managers.
- Communicate clearly and listen well.
- Are curious, practical and comfortable with change.
- Understand the operation, through production, engineering or quality backgrounds.
- Have time allocated to the role, either part-time or full-time.
Technical expertise matters less than the ability to lead a team through a process.
A development path
- Learn: training in Lean principles and kaizen tools, such as process mapping, time studies, standard work, SMED, 5S and problem-solving.
- Participate: join events as team members to experience the process.
- Co-facilitate: lead parts of events alongside an experienced facilitator.
- Facilitate with coaching: lead full events with a coach observing and giving feedback.
- Facilitate independently, with periodic coaching.
- Coach others: experienced facilitators develop the next group.
Most people need to co-facilitate and facilitate several events with coaching before they are fully capable.
Supporting facilitators
- Give them time. Facilitation added to a full-time job rarely works.
- Support from leadership: sponsors who attend report-outs and help remove obstacles.
- A community of practice: facilitators meeting regularly to share experiences and improve.
- Standard materials: event templates, checklists and training modules.
- Recognition of facilitation as a valued skill and career step.
Measuring success
- Number of events facilitated internally.
- Results achieved and sustained at 30, 60 and 90 days, following the follow-up discipline described in what really happens in a kaizen event.
- Participant feedback.
- Growth of improvement activity outside formal events, through idea systems and daily improvement.
The long-term payoff
Internal facilitators carry improvement knowledge, adapt methods to the organisation's culture and keep improving when outside support ends. They also become future leaders who understand how to engage people in change, which is the foundation of an idea system that people actually use.
