B K Rajkumar, Executive Vice President-Business Excellence at Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.

Godrej & Boyce (G&B) has institutionalized the practice of kaizen with great benefits to the organisation. In 2009, it started organising the annual ‘Kaizen Fest', an exhibition and competition by G&B where in accepts entries from employees across levels.

"The competition is held at three levels - manager, supervisor and workmen. An external panel judges all the entries and the best kaizen at all levels is selected and implemented in the business. The kaizen made by G&B employees have also won prestigious external awards at CII, Kaizen Institute, Kaizen conference etc," shares B K Rajkumar, Executive Vice President-Business Excellence at Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.

So far, G&B has won 22 awards at the National level and eight awards at the state level. "Of course, G&B used to follow kaizen even before 2009 but it was limited to individual kaizens. In 2009, we started doing it at the corporate level." Accordingly, a proper structure was created and kaizen coordinators were appointed for each of the fourteen different divisions of the organisation.

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