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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.
2012: "Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense Approach to a Continuous Improvement Strategy, 2nd Edition" (McGraw Hill) 1997: "Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-cost Approach to Management" (McGraw Hill) 1986: "KAIZEN™: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success" (McGraw Hill) 1975: "Never Take Yes for an Answer: An Inside Look at Japanese Business."
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.
Kaizen costing is a cost reduction system used a product's design has been completed and it is in production. [1] Business professor Yasuhiro Monden [ 2 ] defines kaizen costing as The maintenance of present cost levels for products currently being manufactured via systematic efforts to achieve the desired cost level.
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.
Hammer, M. (1999). How process enterprises really work. Harvard Business Review (November–December). pp. 108–118. Hammer, M (2001), The Agenda – What every business must do to dominate the decade, Crown Business, New York Imai, Masaaki (1986), Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
Each of these approaches and methods has met with success and failure. Some common differentiators between success and failure include commitment, knowledge, and expertise to guide improvement, scope of change/improvement desired (Big Bang type changes tend to fail more often compared to smaller changes) and adaption to enterprise cultures.