How an idea moves through ZenKaizen

Finding ideas

Ideas shows every improvement at your site: who raised it, where it has got to and what is waiting on you.

1. Open Ideas from the top menu.
2. Choose Mine for ideas you raised or have an open action on, or Everyone's for the whole site.
3. Use the status buttons (Open, New, In progress, Awaiting verification, Completed, Rejected) and the category filter to narrow the list.
4. Search by title, description, category or person.
5. Save a set of filters as a view to come back to it in one click.

Submitting an idea

Anyone can raise an idea in about a minute. The more specific it is, the faster it gets reviewed.

1. Choose Submit an idea.
2. Give it a short title and say what you would change.
3. Describe the problem it solves. This becomes the starting point of the A3.
4. Set the category, priority and department so the right people see it.
5. Submit. The idea appears in Ideas as Submitted, ready for review.

Tip: A problem with a number in it (minutes lost per shift, a defect rate, a cost) gets reviewed sooner than a general one.

Reviewing an idea

A review scores the idea and decides what happens next.

1. Open the idea and go to Review.
2. Score Impact, Feasibility, Cost efficiency and Urgency from 1 to 10. The total is out of 40.
3. Add a comment explaining the scores.
4. Choose Approve, Keep under review, Put on hold or Reject.
5. Once approved, Start PDCA opens Cycle 1 at Plan.

Running the PDCA cycle

The idea page is the workspace for the whole cycle. The stage bar shows where it is, and each stage unlocks its part of the A3.

1. Plan: write the problem statement, current state, target state and root cause.
2. Do: describe the countermeasure, then add actions with an owner and due date.
3. Check: define how you will measure the change, mark one measure as primary, and record readings. A measure can follow one of the site's KPIs.
4. Act: finalise the measures and record lessons learned and the outcome.
5. Add before and after photos at any stage. They belong to the cycle you're in.
6. Choose Submit for verification.

Tip: Readings are one per day, week or month, depending on how often the measure is taken.

Verifying the outcome

A Verifier who did not submit the idea decides whether the improvement really happened, using an evidence pack built from the readings.

1. Filter Ideas to Awaiting verification and open the idea.
2. Read the evidence: each measure before and after the change, whether it moved the right way, how often it hit target, and any repeat problems.
3. Choose Verify to complete the idea.
4. Or choose Reject and try again to open a new cycle with the problem, target and measures carried over, or Reject and close to end it.

Tip: The evidence pack is saved with the decision, so the reason for it can be checked later.

The A3 report

The A3 report puts the whole cycle on one sheet, the classic lean problem-solving format, built from what the team already entered.

1. Open the idea and choose A3 report.
2. Check the problem, current and target state, root cause and countermeasure, the actions, and the measures.
3. Once the cycle is verified, a second page shows its before and after photos.
4. Choose Print or save as PDF to share it.