The Power of Kaizen
Lean Nation, Today I want to talk about kaizen. Kaizen is actually two words: Kai = change, and Zen = for the better. Taken together kaizen is change for the better. In the spirit of continuous improvement, organizations use a kaizen event to deliver meaningful team-based change. The DNA of a kaizen event is to apply an entire cycle of the scientific method in a compressed time. A kaizen event is traditionally a 4.5 consecutive day endeavor. Of note is some organizations run 4-5 teams in the same kaizen event so there is a small distinction between kaizen events and kaizen teams. The investment in personnel time and leadership time to complete a kaizen is not insignificant. The amount of time, however, is not as cri...