The central parts department (CPD) of Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros Co (AAB) has successfully concluded its ‘Kaizen Marathon 2019’. 
Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “continuous improvement or change for good”. “This is an inherent part of the corporate value and culture of AAB, which has been imbibed and applied by the whole company in its operations and activities,” AAB said in a 
statement. 
AAB’s management team led by R K Murugan, acting CEO/COO (automotive), along with Ravi Stanley, senior manager (national parts), and members of the senior management team welcomed Hiroyuki Kajita, general manager from Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), to witness the Parts Kaizen Marathon (PKM) event and distribute awards to the winners.
PKM started in 2014 with the theme “Kaizen Mindset, the Key to Sustainable Growth” and the motto “Bring Out the Best in You”. With the objective of developing the Kaizen mindset among all CPD staff, the Kaizen philosophy is implemented through small group activities geared towards establishing more teams that help improve operations and build the Kaizen culture of problem identification, root cause analysis and provide solutions.  
This year’s PKM had an interesting roster of presentations by 10 Kaizen champions/teams that focused on sharing their success stories on customer satisfaction index improvement, warehouse productivity enhancement, advanced inventory management and many other areas for improvement in terms of daily operations to enhance the service level to customers, the statement noted.
The presentation on ‘Converting Waste into Reusable Materials’ created an impact on the panel of judges and audience as it has shown its alignment with AAB’s internal sustainable practice of Re-Use, Reduce and Recycle. The winning team focused on recycling excess packaging materials by transforming them into usable furniture, storage tools and items. This is also in line with TMC’s ‘Global Corporate Social Responsibility’.
“At AAB, the employees promote a lively environment and with the ‘Kaizen mindset’, continuously empower each other to become leaders in the workplace.  This results in greater efficiency at work ensuring the company’s sustainable growth by living and practising the AAB value of ‘Customer First’,” the statement added.