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A kaizen process. Some successful implementations use the approach known as kaizen (the translation of kai ('change') zen ('good') is 'improvement'). This method became famous from Imai's 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. [7] Key features of kaizen include:
Masaaki Imai made the term famous in his book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. [1] In the Toyota Way Fieldbook, Liker and Meier discuss the kaizen blitz and kaizen burst (or kaizen event) approaches to continuous improvement. A kaizen blitz, or rapid improvement, is a focused activity on a particular process or activity.
In keeping with his philosophy of never-ending Continuous Improvement, Mr. Imai founded Kaizen Institute in 1985, a global management consulting firm promoting kaizen and lean practices. The concept of kaizen is to make simple, common-sense improvements and refinements to critical end-to-end business processes- supporting the overall CI ...
The principles of the Toyota Way are divided into the two broad categories of continuous improvement and respect for human resources. [7] [8] [9] The standards for constant improvement include directives to set up a long-term vision, to engage in a step-by-step approach to challenges, to search for the root causes of problems, and to engage in ongoing innovation.
Example of a worksheet for structured problem solving and continuous improvement. A3 problem solving is a structured problem-solving and continuous-improvement approach, first employed at Toyota and typically used by lean manufacturing practitioners. [1]
Quality circles were at their most popular during the 1980s, but continue to exist in the form of Kaizen groups and similar worker participation schemes. [2] Typical topics for the attention of quality circles are improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and improvement in the workplace and manufacturing processes.
Many of these topics form the building blocks of the Toyota Production System, [10] [12] [22] [26] [27] which, in turn, is the basis for what came to be called Lean Manufacturing in America. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] For example, a book on Lean Accounting [ 30 ] [ 31 ] can be seen as Westerner's guide to creating a Toyota-like accounting system.
Lean thinking was born out of studying the rise of Toyota Motor Company from a bankrupt Japanese automaker in the early 1950s to today's dominant global player. [4] At every stage of its expansion, Toyota remained a puzzle by capturing new markets with products deemed relatively unattractive and with systematically lower costs while not following any of the usual management dictates.