Relationship between Kaizen Events and Perceived Quality Performance in Indian Automobile Industry

Abstract

The automotive component industry in India is around two-thirds the size of the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) segment and this proportion is around one to two times in mature markets like Europe, America and Japan. To face the competition, most of the automotive component manufacturing organizations including Indian companies have turned to ‘Kaizen Events’ in the process of lean initiatives and continuous improvement to gain the benefits. This research studied the impact of Kaizen events on perceived employee performance and examined the relationships between Kaizen Event Indicators (KEI) and Perceived Employee Performance Indicators (PEPI) in Indian automotive component manufacturing organizations. The term perceived employee performance (PEP) is an important element in the process of effective Kaizen event implementation. Many organizational problems are related to employee performance, and successful implementation of Kaizen events is perceived to be dependent on employee performance of the organization.