What is Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)?

Kaizen is a philosophy that focuses on implementing activities that continuously improve business operations over time. It is derived from two Japanese words: kai, or change, and zen, or good. Together, the words translate to continuous improvement.

The term first gained prominence in 1986, when Masaaki Imai, organizational theorist, and management consultant, wrote Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success.

Improvement in workplace productivity is seen as a gradual process involving every employee, from CEOs to assembly line workers. Kaizen makes the workplace more efficient and productive by creating a team atmosphere, improving day-to-day operations, and boosting employee engagement.

Today, it is recognized as a fundamental component of lean manufacturing, a production method aimed at minimizing waste while maximizing productivity.

Learn more about what is kaizen as we cover the following topics below:

What are the five principles of kaizen?
What are the benefits of using kaizen in lean manufacturing?
What are the 5 S’s of kaizen?
What are some examples of kaizen?
How do I apply continuous improvement in lean manufacturing?

What are the 5 principles of kaizen?

The five principles of kaizen are: know your customer, let it flow, go to gemba, empower the people and be transparent. Implementing these principles is crucial to improving workplace efficiency and labor-management relations.

Know your customer: This principle focuses on creating customer value. It’s important to identify customer needs and expectations before selling products or services to them.
Let it flow: This philosophy strives to eliminate waste. Waste is defined as anything that does not bring value to the customer.
Go to gemba: This term translates to “the real place” in Japanese. Gemba focuses on knowing what’s happening in every department to maximize productivity.
Be transparent: This principle focuses on measuring progress with data to see where a business needs improving on.
Empower people: This technique focuses on organizing teams, setting goals and providing resources to employees to improve processes.

What are the benefits of using kaizen in lean manufacturing?

Kaizen strives to improve operations at every level, from production processes to everyday tasks.

Some of its benefits include:

Decreasing waste by eliminating overproduction
Improving the quality of products or services
Boosting worker efficiency by reducing idle time and unnecessary tasks

What are the 5 S’s of kaizen?

The five S’s of kaizen refer to workplace practices that enhance the efficiency of workers and processes. In a lean manufacturing environment, these five actions (which all begin with “s”) form a repeatable, continuous process.

Sort: This term refers to tools, parts, materials and paperwork that are sorted into needed and unneeded items. The unneeded items should be thrown out.
Straighten: This technique revolves around organization. The production process becomes much more efficient when everything, from the workers to the products, are organized.
Shine: This method involves keeping production stations clean and spotless, which reduces product defects.
Standardize: Production work needs to be standardized into written procedures to help prevent any mistakes.
Sustain: Once the first four S’s are accomplished, the process repeats in order to sustain production quality.

What are examples of kaizen?

Kaizen can be applied to a wealth of business operations. For example, a manufacturer of fans may find new and innovative ways to standardize production processes to avoid error.

Or a manufacturing plant might purchase a new forklift after identifying inefficiencies in current machinery. The operator of the forklift may move inventory around to ensure faster loading and unloading time at each station.

How do I apply continuous improvement in lean manufacturing?

Continuous improvement is made possible when every employee focuses on optimizing production processes and reducing waste. We recommend following the four steps below to successfully implement kaizen:

Step 1: Map the value stream.

The value stream in lean manufacturing refers to certain tasks that need to be performed to create products or services. It’s important to identify what will create value for the customer. Once that’s been confirmed, the process to create that value can be mapped.

Step 2: Implement the 5 S’s of kaizen.

It’s important to apply the five S’s in manufacturing to improve workplace practices and employee productivity.

Step 3: Identify the 7 types of muda.

Muda is the Japanese word for waste. The seven types of muda are overproduction, idle waiting, moving unnecessary parts, overprocessing, excessive inventory, unnecessary movement of people and defective parts. It’s important to avoid all waste to continuously improve manufacturing processes.

Step 4: Optimize processes.

Once you’ve implemented the five S’s and looked for the seven types of muda, you’re ready to optimize processes. You’ll have a better idea of how to tackle inventory, production and day-to-day tasks once you’ve completed the above steps.

Step 5: Measure progress.

It’s important to measure progress and do a before and after comparison. Stakeholders will have greater insight into whether these changes have made a difference.

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Interested in learning how Augmentir’s suite of connected worker tools can help you digitize and standardize your work instructions? Get in touch with us for a free demo.