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Kaizen

Following the Introduction to Kaizen below are articles below show Kaizen in practice through real-world examples, applications, and tips for holding your own Kaizen event effectively and successfully.

What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is a daily song, the purpose of which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work (“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. In all, the process suggests a humanized approach to workers and to increasing productivity: “The idea is to nurture the company’s human resources as much as it is to praise and encourage participation in kaizen activities.” Successful implementation requires “the participation of workers in the improvement.” People at all levels of an organization participate in kaizen, from the CEO down to janitorial staff, 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. Kaizen on a broad, cross-departmental scale in companies, generates total quality management, and frees human efforts through improving productivity using machines and computing power.

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. 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.

Kaizen in Everyday Life

by Pete Abilla on January 12, 2012

This article is a guest post from Noeradji Prabowo, a continuous improvement practitioner in Indonesia. In this article, he shares a simple and effective application of Kaizen and the Kaizen frame of mind to a common activity in business meetings: drinking coffee. Learn more about Noeradji Prabowo after the article. Beginning in November 2011, we [...]

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Medical Records Storage: A Kaizen

by Pete Abilla on August 29, 2011

medical records storage cmopanies, kaizen

In early 2007, a friend I met from a conference on which he and I both spoke, shared an interesting project with me. He gave me permission to share this project, but without any names involved. At this person’s family practice, the clinical team had been dealing with unorganized medical records, leading to an unusually [...]

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Death By a Thousand Cuts

by Pete Abilla on February 28, 2011

free cash flow, lean manufacturing, six sigma

Lean Thinking advocates the participation of many in continuous improvement, over the long term. Indeed, we improve by Kaizen. This approach is sometimes described as “a thousand small rocks” as opposed to organizations that only focus on a “few big rocks”. Similarly, most organizations don’t begin their descent into mediocrity through large, swooping, events. Rather, [...]

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Kaizen Training

by Pete Abilla on January 28, 2011

John Wooden shares with us the spirit and approach of Kaizen – Kaizen Training. This way of doing things requires small improvements everyday and that type of training leads to lasting and sustained improvement. But don’t let me tell, John Wooden words can do that: When you improve a little bit each day, eventually big [...]

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Kaizen for Personal Improvement

by Pete Abilla on December 13, 2010

In general, Kaizen is manifested in an organization via the following characteristics: Total company involvement Small improvements, but many of them, steady, over a long period of time Improvements are measured, in careful experimentation using PDCA Given the above characteristics of Kaizen, one could easily apply it to ones personal life and not just business. [...]

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Mixed Martial Arts and Kaizen

by Pete Abilla on October 29, 2010

Kaizen, as a mindset, can be seen everywhere. Yes, even mixed martial arts. Kenny Florian, an up-and-coming, lightweight shares how he’s risen up the ranks in the lightweight class: I’m real blessed to be able to fight for the UFC and have them keep giving me top level guys. That’s what I’m in the sport [...]

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Earth Kaizen

by Pete Abilla on September 8, 2010

In May 2010, Jeff Bezos held a press conference where he fielded questions about environmental stewardship and what Amazon.com is doing about it. Here are a few key points and how Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com are using the principles of Lean thinking toward environmental stewardship. Earth Kaizen Bezos shared several examples within the Amazon.com fulfillment [...]

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Kaizen: They Must Increase, I Must Decrease

by Pete Abilla on August 26, 2010

The true spirit of Kaizen isn’t just about improving the organization, but it is also in teaching, guiding, and in effectively stretching people beyond their current capabilities. Indeed, it is in developing people and in increasing their capability to contribute and add value. Staying true to the spirit of Kaizen has a few implications on [...]

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