DED becomes first UAE government department to implement Kaizen program

"In accordance with the vision and guidance of His Highness, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister to establish a culture of continuous improvement in both the public and private sector, we have decided to implement the world-renowned Kaizen programme at the DED," said Mr. Ali Ibrahim, Deputy Director General, Executive Affairs, DED. "The DED is the first government department in the UAE to implement this program across all its divisions and we hope that it will enable our personnel to focus on action oriented improvement," he added.

"The DED strongly believes in the concept of continuous improvement and is on the lookout to constantly enhance and upgrade its systems in order to sustain and develop our image as a customer oriented department. Improvements however, don't happen by strategy alone and we are confident that the principles of Kaizen will enable us to move from strategy to action," continued Mr. Ali Ibrahim.

Founded by Masaaki Imai, in the late 1980s, Kaizen is a fundamental, improvement philosophy, which changes people's lives and their companies' performance, for the better continuously. It is based on the principle of increasing productivity by reducing Muda (non-value adding activities) in the Gemba (workplace).

The Kaizen Institute provides creative, practical, global business support aimed at improving total business performance from concept through implementation to new concept.

Following an initial introductory seminar on the principles of Kaizen to all employees at DED, the management has set up five teams which will oversee the actual implementation of the programme in various divisions.

The pilot phase of implementation will take place in the Business Registration, Compliance and Consumer Awareness and Finance and Administration divisions. Five teams comprising five members each have been set up to oversee the Kaizen implementation process within special projects in these divisions. Three of the teams hail from the Business Registration division while one each is from the other divisions.

"The participants have expressed considerable enthusiasm and interest in the programme and the management is pleased with the significant achievements attained by the teams during the first two days of the implementation," said Ms.Thanaa Mahmoud El Tabie, Institutional Organization Specialist, Excellence & Efficiency Division, DED who has been chosen as the Kaizen Champion from DED.

The teams underwent a comprehensive training on the first day and are currently in the process of actual implementation of the programme in the chosen projects. The training and implementation of Kaizen at the DED is being conducted by the Africa and Asia Pacific offices of the Kaizen Institute, in co-ordination with their UAE-based partners, the KM Group.

Commenting on the programme, Jayanth Murthy, Director Kaizen Institute, Africa said: "Kaizen is all about action. It is about making improvements by going to the real workplace, collecting real data, meeting real people, understanding real problems and finding real solutions and then implementing them really fast. It has been a great experience working with the DED and the implementation teams who are enthusiastic and eager to ensure the success of this programme in their divisions."