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Kaizen (改善) is

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life and business. When applied to businesses, it aims to continually improve all functions from manufacturing to management through small, incremental changes. It was first implemented in Japanese businesses after WWII, including Toyota, and focuses on eliminating waste and standardizing processes. Kaizen involves employees at all levels making suggestions to improve their work through a process of plan-do-check-act cycles. While changes may seem small individually, the compound effect leads to significant productivity gains over time.

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Sujai Balasubramaniam
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90 views

Kaizen (改善) is

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life and business. When applied to businesses, it aims to continually improve all functions from manufacturing to management through small, incremental changes. It was first implemented in Japanese businesses after WWII, including Toyota, and focuses on eliminating waste and standardizing processes. Kaizen involves employees at all levels making suggestions to improve their work through a process of plan-do-check-act cycles. While changes may seem small individually, the compound effect leads to significant productivity gains over time.

Uploaded by

Sujai Balasubramaniam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Kaizen

Kaizen () is Japanese for improvement. It is a Japanese philosophy that


focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. When applied
to the workplace, Kaizen activities continually improve all functions of a business
from manufacturing to management and from the CEO to the assembly line
workers. By improving the standardized activities and processes, Kaizen aims to
eliminate. Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses during
the country's recovery after World War II, including Toyota, and has since spread
to businesses throughout the world.

Introduction
Kaizen is a daily activity whose purpose goes beyond simple productivity
improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanizes the
workplace, eliminates overly hard work (both mental and physical) "muri", and
teaches people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific
method and how to learn to spot and eliminate waste in business processes.
To be most effective kaizen must operate with three principles in place:

consider the process and the results (not results-only) so that actions to
achieve effects are surfaced;
systemic thinking of the whole process and not just that immediately in
view (i.e. big picture, not solely the narrow view) in order to avoid creating
problems elsewhere in the process; and

a learning, non-judgmental, non-blaming (because blaming is wasteful)


approach and intent will allow the re-examination of the assumptions that
resulted in the current process.

People at all levels of an organization can participate in kaizen, from the CEO
down, as well as external stakeholders when applicable. The format for kaizen
can be individual, suggestion system, small group, or large group. At Toyota, it is
usually a local improvement within a workstation or local area and involves a
small group in improving their own work environment and productivity. This group
is often guided through the kaizen process by a line supervisor; sometimes this is
the line supervisor's key role.

While kaizen (at Toyota) usually delivers small improvements, the culture of
continual aligned small improvements and standardization yields large results in
the form of compound productivity improvement. Hence the English usage of
"kaizen" can be: "continuous improvement" or "continual improvement."
This philosophy differs from the "command-and-control" improvement programs
of the mid-twentieth century. Kaizen methodology includes making changes and
monitoring results, then adjusting. Large-scale pre-planning and extensive
project scheduling are replaced by smaller experiments, which can be rapidly
adapted as new improvements are suggested.

Translation
The original kanji characters for this word are:
In Japanese this is pronounced "kaizen".

("kai") means "change" or "the action to correct".


("zen") means "good".

In Chinese this is pronounced "gai shan":

("gi shn") means "change for the better" or "improve".


("gi") means "change" or "the action to correct".
("shn") means "good" or "benefit". "Benefit" is more related to the
Taoist or Buddhist philosophy, which gives the definition as the action that
'benefits' the society but not one particular individual (i.e., multilateral
improvement). In other words, one cannot benefit at another's expense.
The quality of benefit that is involved here should be sustained forever, in
other words the "shan" is an act that truly benefits others.

History
In Japan, after World War II, American occupation forces brought in American
experts in statistical control methods and who were familiar with the War
Department's Training Within Industry (TWI) training programs to restore the

nation. TWI programs included Job Instruction (standard work) and Job Methods
(process improvement). In conjunction with the Shewhart cycle taught by W.
Edwards Deming, and other statistics-based methods taught by Joseph M.
Juran, these became the basis of the kaizen revolution in Japan that took place
in the 1950s.

Implementation
The Toyota Production System is known for kaizen, where all line personnel are
expected to stop their moving production line in case of any abnormality and,
along with their supervisor, suggest an improvement to resolve the abnormality
which may initiate a kaizen.
The cycle of kaizen activity can be defined as:

standardize an operation
measure the standardized operation (find cycle time and amount of inprocess inventory)
gauge measurements against requirements
innovate to meet requirements and increase productivity
standardize the new, improved operations
continue cycle ad infinitum.

This is also known as the Shewhart cycle, Deming cycle, or PDCA.

Masaaki Imai made the term famous in his book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's
Competitive Success.
Apart from business applications of the method, both Anthony Robbins and
Robert Maurer have popularized the kaizen principles into personal development
principles. The basis of Robbins' CANI (Constant and Never-Ending
Improvement) method in kaizen is discussed in his Lessons in Mastery series.
In their book The Toyota Way Fieldbook, Jeffrey Liker and David Meier discuss
the Kaizen Blitz and Kaizen Burst approaches to Continuous Improvement. A
Kaizen Blitz, or rapid improvement, is a focused activity on a particular process
or activity. The basic concept is to identify and quickly remove waste. Another
approach is that of Kaizen Burst, this is a specific point Kaizen activity on a
particular process in the Value Stream.

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