from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Lean Management as well as different management systems require continuous improvement from enterprises. When looking for areas and ways to improve, the Kaizen philosophy, which is based on the principles of common sense, low-cost and implementation of change, should be taken into account. The Kaizen is an integral part of the improvement processes of the products and their quality, processes, organization, what is more, achieving the objectives set by the enterprise depends on the implementation of appropriate systems. One of the important tools of the Kaizen is the system of submitting ideas by employees, called the Suggestion System. The purpose of such a system is to improve the workplace of an employee or other areas and processes in an enterprise. A suggestion can be made by each employee. The metallurgical industry is very specific. Machines and workstations are used in most cases 24/7, and their work is carried out in a continuous system. It should be emphasized that larger changes and improvement in this case require large financial outlays and often shutdown of machines, therefore the Suggestion System may prove to be very useful. The purpose of the article was to check the applicability of the Suggestion System for quality improvement in Polish enterprises from the metallurgical industry. Particular attention was focused on showing the diversity in the use of this tool by different age groups of employees. In the empirical studies, voluntary interviews with management and staff were used.
Keywords: improvement, Lean Management, Kaizen, Suggestion System© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.