Kaizen in Zambian Firms

The current project is an attempt to better understand new development concepts, and to analyze culture and development from an economic perspective. More specifically, the projects tries to understand the impact of Japanese corporate culture, narrowly defined as a set of management practices inspired by the Japanese school, in affecting profitability and productivity of firms in Africa. In particular, this project focuses on the Japanese Kaizen and lean management practices. This transferability of practices is being analyzed in the context of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in Zambia. The sector being analyzed are micro furniture producers located in four markets in low income areas of Lusaka.

The project started with an exploratory phase, to determine the appropriate sector and scale of industries to be targeted. We decided to focus on micro producers as they are the most ubiquitous enterprise form, accounting for more than 80 percent of employment in the non-agricultural sector, and suffer from low productivity. The initial exploratory phase was followed by a listing of all furniture producers located in these markets in Lusaka. The baseline survey (“fact finding”) was carried out with 120 furniture producers in these markets in April 2015. The baseline survey was to obtain a picture regarding the key characteristics of the entrepreneurs and the businesses they own; the current levels of revenue, profit and cost; business practices being followed; and the key constraints facing the business; and the motivations and objectives of the business owners.

The analysis of the data shows that only 25 percent of the entrepreneurs have had training to become a carpenter and less than 10 percent have received any business training or maintain business records. The average stated profits of a firm are around 200 Euros per month. The survey contained 13 pages; more micro data on personal characteristics, enterprise characteristics, performance data, business practices, environment and entrepreneurial orientation are available on request (“diagnosis”).

In light of the fact finding and in consultation with Japanese management experts a training program designed on the principles of “lean management” and “Kaizen” was designed. The concrete tools were based on the “5-S” tools, one of the most widely used Japanese management techniques. The primary objective of the training program is to enable individuals to think about the production process in a structured manner to be able to identify key areas in which the costs of production can be reduced. The other important objective was to emphasize to the entrepreneurs that increasing profits was possible through not only higher sales, but through reduction of costs, an aspect under the entrepreneurs’ control, and in the process promote entrepreneurial agency and initiative.

The training involved two classroom and four onsite training sessions. One of the distinguishing features of our study, in relation to other training programs that have been implemented (refer to McKenzie et. al 2014 for an overview), is the emphasis (a) on practical onsite sessions and (b) on a low-cost approach, both motivated by the Japanese school of management.

The initial findings (based on own visits to the firms and exchange with the trainer) suggest Japanese management practices as a good match to the management of Zambian micro firms. This is an astonishing finding itself given that Kaizen and lean management have been developed for large firms in high-tech sectors, and often have been said to be strongly institutionally bounded. The results of the training show:

• The qualitative effects of the training program were already visible – there were clear signs that the 5S in terms of organizing workshop and timber were already in place. The visual appearance of the treated group compared to the control group clearly differs.
• Other important insights from the classrooms session regarding time management by not indulging in idle talk and starting on customer orders as soon as being received were also reported.
• Similarly, in relation to the training objective of promoting cooperation in procurement of raw materials, one of the markets had started using blackboards to help people coordinate dates and times for purchase of raw materials.
• Other participants reported deliberately looking out for other carpenters when at timber market for the possibility of sharing transportation costs.

As originally planned, the final evaluation survey at the end of the training program was completed in the second quarter of 2016. The results will be made public soon.

Workshop and timber organization of the treated group:

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Workshop and timber organization of the control group:

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In order to clarify to what extent cultural interactions in African-Chinese relations create a “soft“ influence on new development concepts and how China presents itself by means of public diplomacy to African audiences, the project investigates Confucius Institutes in South Africa. Other than negative media reports suggest, Confucius Institutes act less political. Moreover, it seems inaccurate to describe them as an instrument of China’s policy of expansion. Confucius Institutes adapt themselves to local circumstances in Africa and communicate a rather selective picture of China which normally focuses on traditional notions of culture (calligraphy, tea ceremony) and tends to blind out current political and societal issues.

For Africans, Confucius Institutes are a major option to purify their university degrees and thereby to increase their chances on the job market. In this regard, China is a major option for students of African Confucius Institutes as a destination to study and work. Precisely this option is of interest because in China, it becomes obvious whether and how Confucius Institutes prepare their students for such a stay abroad.

The research project analyses the potential and pitfalls of South-South collaboration through the perspective of transnational gender politics. Much of contemporary scholarship on the latter topic arose in the reflection of the transnational women’s movement, following its emergence alongside the World Conferences on Women in Nairobi (1985) and in Beijing (1995) as a central sphere of negotiation.

However, over the last few years the ongoing shift in the international order has impacted on various stakeholders within the gender arena both in African and Asian societies. Within the larger context of development and transnational relations the question how South-South cooperation takes place and which topics are negotiated by actors within the gender arena is important. Among the Asian actors, the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) as China’s largest women’s organisation has been particularly active in increasing collaboration with its African counterparts. By cooperating across the otherwise significant continental divide new opportunity structures have emerged. Yet, the related issues have not been explored in existing literature. The project therefore undertakes an analysis of the common issues and challenges that inform current collaboration between the ACWF with gender mechanisms and women’s organisations in selected African countries.

While the activities of Africans in Asia are often overlooked; Asian – especially Chinese – engagement in Africa has become a focal point of interest in Western public discourse. This project explores the differences between the organization of African and Asian networks. It investigates the types of networks (from family to international enterprises), the sectors of trade and mutual impacts of different cultural practices on interactions and decisions. The focus on cultural and economic repercussion of trade, as it is perceived from the local actors’ point of view, allows to study the organization of trade networks, the development of entrepreneurial strategies, as well as the establishment of migrant trader communities.

The project’s focus on anthropological methodology and epistemological interest is the basis for the comparison within the project, even though the conditions in the research countries differ.

The key research questions of the project are as follows: What kind of trade do African and Asian states support? What are the ideological and historical themes that characterize the policies of these countries? What can be found out about the experiences of migration that Africans and Asians encounters in the respective foreign cultural context? Do these experiences differ from those made migrants in Europe? To which extent have these processes modified trade and contributed to the formation of new networks? What kind of discourses have been developed about the activities of Asians in Africa and vice versa? How do Africans evaluate the infrastructural development and the provision of goods in contrast to the increasing presence of strangers? How is competition for African enterprises created and whose cultural difference is often interpreted negatively? Do these evaluations have an impact on the trade networks? How is trade organized on the level of personal interaction?

One major research focus of the project lies on trade goods in order to find answers to these questions mentioned above. Following particular items like tea not only enables the project to understand supply chains from Chinese producers over traders in import and export to the market mechanisms in West African countries like Mali. This approach also reveals insight in the long history of trade and transformation of Green Tea from a mere product to a cultural practice, which is deeply rooted in Malian society today and becomes increasingly prominent in adjacent countries. A case study in Thailand among Malians, who trade with precious stones, revealed that Africans establish networks in Asia through modifying and adapting successful models that were developed in an African context. These activities give a clear idea about “African agency” in trade. Furthermore, they reverse simplistic notions of Africa only being the receiver of processed goods and exporting raw material.

Another focus of research are the activities of Chinese traders in South Africa. Thousands of Chinese traders arrived in the last 25 years from mainland China. While first-comers benefitted from the high demand in low-priced consumer goods; market saturation and macro-economic tendencies influence and transform the Chinese trader communities nowadays. Traders who have developed a sense for the demands in South Africa, found niches or were able to diversify their businesses, do have an advantage. These activities go often hand in hand with development of social, cultural and political ties in the host countries, where a relatively stable community of Chinese does already exist or is in the making. In all cases, the research showed that successful trade often depends on highly skilled brokers, not only in the economic arena, but also as cultural intermediaries. Researching interpersonal relationships allows to paint a profoundly more complex picture than mere generalizations of Asian/African dependencies, which this project aims to do.

Research is carried out in West Africa (Cameroon, Mali) and in South Africa as well as in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and China. The broad regional choice provides opportunities for the comparison of historically and culturally divergent regions.

The research is conducted by the following team of scholars:

Ute Röschenthaler researches in close cooperation with Antoine Socpa Cameroonian and Malaysian trade networks, in cooperation with Birama Diakon the network of Malian and Chinese traders in Mali and China, and with Shigehiro Sasaki African trade networks in Japan. Mamadou Diawara explores Malian migrants in Indonesia and returnees in Bamako. Matthias Gruber researches Chinese/South African trade networks in South Africa.