Kaizen, is a topic under Lean. It is usually referred to as incremental improvement but on a continuous basis and involving everyone.
Kaizen is Japanese for continuous improvement .
Kai means Change
Zen means Good or For the Better
The Kaizen strategy involves:
- Kaizen management.
- Management maintains and improves operating standards.
- Process versus results: Improvement of processes is the key to success.
- Use the PDCA/ PDSA cycles.
- Quality first: Quality is of the highest priority.
- The next process is the customer.
PDCA – plan do check act or plan do check adjust
PDSA – plan do study act or plan do study adjust
- Plan: Create a plan for change, identifying specifically what you want to change. Define the steps you need to make the change, and predict the results of the change.
- Do: Carry out the plan in a trial or test environment, on a small scale, under controlled conditions
- Check (or study): Examine the results of your trial. Verify that you’ve improved the process. If you have, consider implementing it on a broader scale. If you haven’t improved the process, go back and try again.
- Act: Implement the changes you’ve verified on a broader scale. Update the standard operating procedures.
