Consider the difficulty of making a big change, perhaps a lifestyle change like losing weight or remodeling a house. In a business environment, the big change could be a merger or the launch of a new product line. In each of these cases, the project can seem overwhelming. An easier way to tackle big changes is to work on breaking projects down into small pieces. Making many small changes which, when taken together, can have a large impact. This essentially is the concept of kaizen.

Defining Kaizen

Masaaki Imai, founder of the Kaizen Institute, published Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success in 1986. Since then, kaizen, (kai = change, zen = good), or “good change” has been one of the most successful continuous improvement approaches of the twentieth century. Mark Hamel, in his Kaizen Event Fieldbook, explains that kaizen is a “prerequisite for lean transformation success” as it provides the “necessary transformational jump-start, momentum, organizational learning and engagement, and sustainable, step-function improvements.” The following guiding principles of kaizen, offered by the Kaizen Institute, are designed to support continuous improvement:

• Good processes bring good results
• See for yourself to grasp the current situation
• Speak with data, manage by facts
• Take action to contain and correct root causes of problems
• Work as a team
• Kaizen is everybody’s business

Without Kaizen there is No Lean Transformation

One of the core concepts of lean is continuous improvement and this is precisely what the principles of Kaizen echo. Toyota, known for many groundbreaking ideas, also is responsible for the idea of empowering employees. During a time when assembly line workers were more like automatons, Toyota, took the initiative to empower all of its employees with the ability to improve their work environment. It is important to highlight the fact that Kaizen is not a directive from management to employees. Instead, Kaizen is focused on managing proactively and consistently while creating an environment in which employees feel safe and empowered to bring up problems and offer solutions. Every employee is encouraged to have an opinion on aspects that pertain to their job such as quality and safety issues, environmental issues, and any other ideas one might have about boosting productivity, eliminating waste, or adding value to a particular product or service. “While Kaizen continuous improvement initiatives are driven from the bottom, there still needs to be adequate support and direction from management. Once management has created a strategy to empower employees with a way to improve work processes, they must ensure that labor relations are in a place to accept the need for continuous improvement” (Haun, Mothersell & Motwani, 2015).

Kaizen and Lean Are Not Short Term Fixes

Organizational transformation happens when lean methodology meets Kaizen. Lean is focused on eliminating waste, and increasing productivity and value adds for the consumer while Kaizen focuses on continuous improvement. This transformation is not a short term fix for the problem of the day. It is achieved by making incremental changes over time with the goal of improving processes, efficiency, quality, and the overall work environment. Although the tools and techniques of lean may be implemented by managers, everyone is responsible for kaizen.

Kettering Online's Innovative Master's Degree in Lean Manufacturing

The only program of its kind in the United States, Kettering University's online Lean Manufacturing master's degree program teaches the modern manufacturing process knowledge and Lean Six Sigma skills needed to improve quality output, streamline processes and reduce waste

The lean program at KUO truly enhances your skill set by learning to think lean. Lean thinking is a mindset and developing them here at KUO will promote you to apply it and make some strides in your career. The resources and learning materials have been revised and updated to include the latest research and methods. The methodologies learned will help you to bring about better efficiencies to your processes. The faculty are all well versed and continue to apply lean methodologies at their work and life to stay on a path of continuous improvement.

References: Haun, J., Mothersell, W.M., & Motwani, J. (2015). Implementing kaizen in the workplace: A case study. International Journal of Management and Behavioral Sciences, 6-7, pp. 321-325.