The largest international event for KAIZEN in Africa was held in Dar es Salaam

The 4th Africa KAIZEN Annual Con­ference 2021 (AKAC 2021) was held at the Hyatt Regency Dar es Salaam from August 24 to 26, 2021.The Conference was organized joint­ly by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), African Union Development Agency (AUDA), and Japan Interna­tional Cooperation Agency (JICA).AKAC has, since 2018, been organ­ized annually as the largest interna­tional event for KAIZEN in Africa with the objective of sharing knowledge and experience between countries, and to disseminate KAIZEN Philosophy and activities on the African continent.For Tanzania, this was her first expe­rience to host such a large-size interna­tional conference in a hybrid-style (i.e. combined on-site venue with online participation) due to the global COV­ID-19 pandemic.More than 130 Tanzanian partici­pants physically attended AKAC at the Hyatt Regency, and over 700 registered participants from more than 20 coun­tries joined the conference via online.During the event, Tanzanian KAIZEN activities were introduced to other African countries in the series of sessions. Presentation on Tanzanian KAIZEN Model - the first case in Africa to implement KAIZEN for Industrial Clus­ters KAIZEN activities have been imple­mented in more than 10 African coun­tries since the late 2000s.In Tanzania, the MIT and JICA have been jointly implementing the Pro­ject on “Strengthening Manufacturing Enterprises through Quality and Pro­ductivity Improvement (KAIZEN)” since 2013.Tanzania is the first country in Africa to implement KAIZEN for Industrial Clusters. It is called the “Tanzanian KAIZEN Model”, and the Model was introduced to other African countries on the second day of the conference.The Project selected 3 existing Industrial Clusters (i.e. Grape Cluster in Dodoma, Metal Engineering Clus­ter Initiative in Morogoro, and Mbeya Rice Group Cluster) and another new cluster in Kagera (which has more than 100 micro business enterprises) as pilot exercises, and they had implemented KAIZEN activities for companies of those Clusters from early 2020.According to the presentation, around 70% of the participating com­panies have achieved positive impacts in terms of production lead-time, find­ing-time reduction, space creation, etc. through KAIZEN. Roundtable discussion, heated dis­cussion by eight (8) members about KAIZEN acceleration The roundtable discussion was moderated by Mr. Paul Maduka Kessy (former Regional Administrative Sec­retary of Dodoma) and presented by Dr. Edwin P. Mhede (Chief Executive of the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit Agency) and other seven (7) presenters.Roundtable participants discussed about “Acceleration of Industrial Devel­opment through KAIZEN in Tanzania”.The members concluded impor­tance of top management (leadership), technologies, participation of private sectors, and to implement Policies for further acceleration.

Company booths to introduce KAIZEN activities Four enterprises representing other companies which implement KAIZEN activities in Tanzania installed their booths at Hyatt Regency and displayed their products during the AKAC.They introduced their products and KAIZEN and KAIZEN activities for participants and media.

How to implement KAIZEN? The Subsidy Program More than 100 KAIZEN Trainers are certified by MIT in Tanzania, and they can provide KAIZEN consulting servic­es for enterprises.The services are chargeable, but Small Industries Development Organ­ization (SIDO) is implementing the following periodical subsidy program to dispatch KAIZEN Trainers by 31st October, 2021. How to learn KAIZEN – Online free materials for learning JICA updated the free-charged video materials to learn KAIZEN in August 2021 and broadcasted them via You­Tube.It was composed of 3 sessions as fol­lows. If you are interested, kindly join us!You can access QR code from the bot­tom of this article. For the future of Tanzanian KAIZEN activities KAIZEN means “Continuous Improvement”. AKAC 2021 was suc­cessfully completed, but KAIZEN goes continuously.MIT plans to implement KAIZEN activities for about 1,500 Tanzanian enterprises by 2030 based on their policy paper called “Framework for Quality and Productivity Improvement (KAIZEN) in the Manufacturing Sector 2020-2030” (FKM 2020-2030).Moreover, in coming 2022, the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) will take place in Tunisia, and political lead­ers (include head of states) from Afri­can countries and Japan will meet and exchange opinions on African develop­ment there.KAIZEN will be also discussed in the TICAD8 as an important subject for Africa’s Industrialization. It is strongly expected that Tanzania can present fur­ther progress and upgrade of Tanzanian KAIZEN Model for other African coun­tries and Japan at the coming TICAD8. What is KAIZEN? “KAIZEN” is originally a Japanese word meaning “Continuous Improve­ment”, and a management philosophy and know-how for continuous quali­ty and productivity improvement of concerned organizations. It is also a human-oriented approach fostering teamwork, mindset change, self-reli­ance, creativity, and ingenuity to come up with ideas for solutions to the prob­lems we face in Tanzania. “Industrial Cluster Development” is an approach which aims to drive industrialization by taking advantage of clustering, group­ing geographically proximate and inter­connected companies and associated institutions in a particular field.Encouraging proactive involvement of various actors along and around val­ue chains, and inducing collaboration among them help to promote innova­tion and local industrialization. About JICA (Japan International Coop­eration Agency) An incorporated administrative agency in charge of administering Japan’s ODA (Official Development Assistance).It is one of the world’s largest bilateral aid agencies supporting socioeconomic development in developing countries in the world.In Tanzania, JICA has been a long partner of Tanzania for nearly 60 years in many sectors such as Agriculture, Industry, Infrastructure, etc. since 1962.