Using data envelopment analysis to analyze contingency effects in kaizen events: A preliminary investigation

This paper presents the pilot test of a nonparametric analysis approach that uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to identify potential contingency effects based on DEA efficiency scores and references sets for Kaizen events. Kaizen events are a lean tool commonly used to generate continuous improvement in organizations, and are often used as a vehicle for implementing other lean tools (e.g. SMED, VSM, 5S). Kaizen events may also have varying scopes with respect to implementation. However, the extant Kaizen event literature is largely practitioner-oriented and little is known about the impact of Kaizen event type on Kaizen event design, Kaizen event effectiveness, and choice of appropriate benchmarks or "best practice" events. Although this study is only preliminary, we find some evidence that our analysis approach may be useful for identifying contingency effects in Kaizen events.