KAIZEN Philosophy – A Way to Continuous Improvement
Kaizen is a Japanese word that stands for “improving” or “making better” and refers to any kind of improvement no matter how insignificant it may seem: it concerns one-time and continuous changes, small- and large-scale ones. The approach was chosen as it simultaneously improves all aspects of the production (including supply chain management) and involves all people working for the company from assembly line workers to the CEO. The approach is universal and can be successfully used in a number of different fields (automobile industry, health care, banking, etc.). In Japanese, Kaizen mostly refers to industrial and business organizations (as it was first practiced by Japanese businesses in the post-war period and later heavily promoted by Toyota), whereas in English, the word is not associated with any particular sphere but usually signifies continuous improvement. There are two major types of Kaizen that differ mainly in the scope of their implementation: flow Continue reading