Saudi restaurant chain’s success based on Kaizen business philosophy: Al-Romansiah founder.

The founder of a leading restaurant chain in Saudi Arabia believes that the success of his company can be attributed to remaining committed to the Japanese business philosophy Kaizen.

Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning change for the better or continuous improvement.

In an interview broadcast by MBC on March 22, Yahya Mohammed Al-Mualm, Al-Romansiah’s founder, said he learnt about Kaizen in 2013 from an engineer who worked in Japan.

Al-Mualm said he wanted to introduce a new and improved production process that would reduce customer waiting times.

He then decided to conduct an experiment and had five restaurant employees placed in a 50-meter space, with a long table, to package meals for five minutes.

Al-Mualm said the staffers produced 12 packaged meals in the time allotted.

As a second part of the trial, the space was reduced to 25 meters, with three employees, and the stock reduced by 50 percent.

Al-Mualm said the staff felt more pressure if there was too much food to package.

In the second trial, also over five minutes, the workers were able to produce 23 packages.

Al-Mualm said he then decided to travel to Japan and was invited to visit a Toyota factory where he was able to learn from their production processes.

After the trip, Al-Mualm signed a contract with the Japanese company to introduce a new Al-Romansiah production process.

Al-Romansiah serves traditional dishes consisting of chicken and rice, such as mandi and madfon, along with other classic Arab offerings including hummus, stuffed vine leaves and mixed grills.