Kaizen

Kaizen is a concentrated approach to process improvement. The term comes from the Japanese words kai (“continuous”) and Zen (“improvement” or “wisdom”). Kaizen management, therefore, focuses on continuous improvement — slow and incremental, but constant.

We often use kaizen to implement action plans based on a Value Stream Map or A-3 Thinking. During a kaizen event, your team will use lean techniques, brainstorming, and problem solving to rapidly improve specific areas or processes. Immediate, tangible results —typically attained within 3 to 5 days — result in improvements to manufacturing processes. In addition to upgrading your processes, kaizen will help you develop a checklist of further improvement opportunities for your team to investigate and implement in the future. 

Benefits

Kaizen will help you gain:

• Immediate results and impact
• Workforce involvement
• Visual tracking of progress toward goals
• Improvement ideas you can apply now and in the future
• Better communications
• Improvement through creativity vs. capital investments
• Business-oriented thinking among employees
• Smooth implementation through the team concept