Kaizen: The Japanese Art of Continuous Improvement

Kaizen

Kaizen, the Japanese word for continuous improvement, is a business and management strategy developed after World War II. It has helped put Japanese business practices among the most respected in the world. Sometimes called the “Toyota Way,” Kaizen can be applied to personal life as well. While it can be applied to industry, it focuses mainly on the management of people. There are several components and sub-components..

The main components currently seem to be:

• the Shewhart cycle, or PDCA cycle

• the 5 why? questions

• the 20 Focus Areas

Sub-components of the 20 Focus Areas:

• the 4 “foundation keys”

• 5s

PDCA

The Shewhart Cycle is based upon the scientific method.

Plan: make a plan

Do: execute the plan

Check: measure results

Act: make adjustments as needed

This is the basic formula for continuous improvement, or kaizen. It is also used as a method for critical thinking, taught throughout organizations down to the lowest rungs. It is believed that a company whose culture is based around kaizen, and PDCA in particular, will have a competitive advantage in innovation and problem solving. At Toyota, this is what they call “building people before building cars.”

The Five Whys

This is straight forward. Take a failure event and ask why it happened. Then take those parameters and ask why those happened. Then the why of the why until the true root(s) of the problem are uncovered. This is a form of root cause analysis, and it is beneficial in both business and in life. Simple, but deeply challenging.

The 20 Focus Areas, 4 Foundation Keys, and 5s

The 4 Foundation Keys and the 5s’ are eminently applicable in personal life. The 4 Foundation Keys being:

1. Clean and tidy (this is where 5s is applied):

   1. sort: remove what is unnecessary

   2. set in order: create processes that make work easy

   3. shine: make the work space clean and fresh

   4. standardize: execute processes in a manner that creates consistent results

   5. sustain: utilize self discipline to uphold the changes and manage the processes

2. Goal alignment: energy should be directed properly

3. Small group activities: break down problems into smaller components to tackle independently

4. Leading: one must lead himself first before leading others

This is a short breakdown of the basic concepts of kaizen, or the way of continual improvement. Unfortunately, the 20 Focus Areas are a bit beyond the scope of this publication, however, for further reading check this article out, and for a full treatise on kaizen, check out The Toyota Way.

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