Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning continuous improvement. It is a long-term approach in which everyone in an organisation makes small, incremental changes to processes and systems, typically through repeated PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycles, to reduce waste in time, materials and resources. Improvements are made against an established standard, and the standard is updated once a gain is achieved so the gain is kept.

Source checked2/2 values · 2026-10-25Methodology

Specification

1 source

Kind	methodology
Origin	Japan

Study notes

Kaizen was introduced to the world by Masaaki Imai in 1986.
The kaizen process is based on PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycles.
Taiichi Ohno, creator of the Toyota Production System, stated that there can be no kaizen without a standard.
Standardized work is established first as a baseline; targets are set against it, and the standard is updated after a measurable gain.
Eight steps for kaizen: background, current-state definition, current-state analysis, goals, target-condition definition, implementation plan, check results, follow up and standardize.
A kaizen event (also called kaizen blitz or kaizen workshop) commonly lasts five days and implements a significant improvement in a process.
Kaizen event example: creating a continuous flow cell within a week by analysing, implementing, testing and standardizing a new cell.
Kaizen event sequence: participants learn continuous flow principles, go to gemba to assess conditions and plan the cell, move machines and test the cell, then standardize and report to senior management.
Daily kaizen and kaizen events are distinguished: events make rapid substantial changes, while daily improvement develops frontline problem-solving capability.
Source cited: Smalley, Art. 2018. Four Types of Problems: from reactive troubleshooting to creative innovation. Cambridge: Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc.

Safety

Kaizen events can fail when the number of events held becomes the critical KPI instead of meaningful metrics such as safety, cost, quality and delivery.
Gains made during a kaizen event can be rapidly lost when workers and managers return to the previous way of working.
Kaizen events can fail when management does not involve frontline workers in the event.
Improvement led by specialized engineers removed from day-to-day operations, rather than by frontline management and operators, is listed as a failure mode of kaizen events.
Kaizen requires a stable operating condition first (machines working, workers present, repeatable jobs with quality, material available); without it, improvements are made on top of chaos and gains rapidly vanish.