Kaizen

1. Kaizen Group 2: Rocillo Piscos Mateo Rañola Vinoya

2. What is Kaizen?

4. Kaizen JAPANESE. refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, game development, and business management. when used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers.  by improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste. first implemented in several Japanese businesses after the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers who visited the country.

5. Continuous improvement - Concept Works on small and continuous improvements. Small improvements make it easy to implement. This also creates less or no resistance in the system for two reasons. First since the changes are small, so people will not see it as a complete change of way that they are used to work. Secondly and more importantly proposals for changes are coming from themselves not from somebody above them. Kaizen Continuous improvement process will make sure your system is always getting updated. Kaizen is the effort put in to get everyone involved in the improvement process.

6. Kaizen: A Japanese Theory very popular in the business world. It’s a gradual process which focuses on continuous improvement. At the same time this theory encourages active involvement of the workforce. This fact cannot be ignored that with the implementation of this theory from the top management to the cleaning crew all have active participation in the organization. was initiated when Japan faced tremendous downfall after the World War II. “Kaizen” is derived from the Japanese word “Kai” which means change or to correct and “Zen” means good. does not need any specific area for implementation. In Japan this theory brings improvement in both business, home life and in varied social activities. Everyone is encouraged to make suggestions on regular basis. It can bring improvement in space utilization, product quality, employee retention and use of capital. provides immediate results as it focuses on the on-going processes and continuously makes small changes.

7. Toyota Kaizen Theory • In industry, Toyota has been the highest profile practitioner of the Kaizen. • Kaizen when used at Toyota, all people from CEO’s to Janitors can participate in kaizen. • At Toyota, Kaizen usually involves an individual and his/her small group improving their particular area, keeping in mind the whole value chain. So for the group, if they were working at their area and someone suggests a better way of doing things which could improve quality, reduce waste etc, they get the chance to apply it but supervised by a line supervisor whose key role often is to supervise the Kaizen process. • Then the Kaizen methodology is applied which involves making changes and monitoring results, then adjusting. Thus instead of the old model where someone says do this, do this and calls for the overhaul of a system - with Kaizen constant never ending smaller experiments are carried out, results are monitored and if all is well and quality is improved in the system, these experiments become the practice until replaced, as the slow and steady process of Kaizen moves on. Over time, the constant improvements in the system delivers massive results.

8. The philosophy behind kaizen is to do it better and improve it even if the situation is not too bad.

9. Masaaki Imai, author of 'KAIZEN, The Key to Japan's Competitive Success', says "KAIZEN is the single most important concept in  Japanese management - the key to Japanese competitive success."