Kaizen

The philosophy

Kaizen (改善, “improvement”) is a Japanese management philosophy at the heart of the Toyota Production System. Its main principle: processes should be improved constantly, by everyone, through many small changes rather than rare radical transformations.

Unlike Western BPR (Business Process Reengineering), Kaizen does not assume “rethinking from scratch”. Each improvement should be small, testable and within reach of any employee.

The PDCA cycle

Kaizen is based on Deming’s PDCA cycle:

• Plan — plan a change
• Do — carry it out on a small scale
• Check — measure the result
• Act — roll it out or adjust

The cycle repeats endlessly, which is what makes improvement continuous.

Kaizen tools

Although Kaizen is a philosophy, it uses a number of practical tools:

• 5S — order in the workplace (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize, Sustain)
• Gemba — managing at the place, studying the process where it happens
• The seven wastes — a catalog of typical waste to look for
• Quality circles — regular staff meetings to discuss improvements

How it is used

Kaizen is applied not as a notation for describing processes but as a cultural approach to improving them continuously. In most mature Lean deployments Kaizen is an operational practice into which tools like VSM and process-documentation systems are integrated.

Limitations

• Not a notation — there is nothing to “draw”
• Requires cultural maturity in the organization
• Delivers results slowly compared with BPR