Kaizen was created in Japan following World War II. The word Kaizen means "continuous improvement". It comes from the Japanese words "Kai" meaning school and "Zen" meaning wisdom.

Kaizen is a system that involves every employee - from upper management to the cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a year, or monthly activity. It is continuous. At Japanese companies, such as Toyota and Canon, 60 to 70 suggestions per employee, per year are written down, shared and implemented.

In most cases these are not ideas for major changes. Kaizen is based on making little changes on a regular basis--always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness, and reducing waste.

Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production or marketing. Kaizen is based on making changes anywhere that improvements can be made. The Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, improve it. because if we don't, we can't compete with those who do."

In business Kaizen encompasses many of the components of Japanese businesses that have been seen as a part of their success. Quality circles, automation, suggestion systems, just-in-time delivery, Kamban and 5S are all included within the Kaizen system of running a business.

Kaizen involves setting standards and then continually improving those standards. To support the higher standards Kaizen also involves providing the training, materials and supervision that is needed for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis.

A critical component of Kaizen is an unbiased view of the current state. Particularly when companies are profitable and customers are generally satisfied, changes to any process can seem both a waste and a risk. There may be bias against change when the people who created a process are the same people who need to continuously change the process. In order to overcome this it is necessary to understand the current process, particularly any shortcomings. By studying, understanding and documenting the current process you can identify areas that would benefit from change.

Once the current state is understood and documented and the future state defined you are then ready to create and implement your improvement process. The most successful improvements involve everyone who is part of the process that is being changed. The actual steps and methods of changing aren't the focus of Kaizen. There are several tested and documented methods of improving a process. Which tools and techniques are suitable for a specific situation must be determined by all the factors involved whether it is a SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die), Kanban, or Poka-Yoke that will best address the issue; until they are implemented they aren't improving the process.

The nature of Kaizen actually becomes most evident after a process change. By benchmarking the process before the change and comparing the results after, the net effect can be measured. Often, after a project is completed, everyone involved moves on to other issues. Creating a company culture of continuous incremental improvement will increase the potential for success. Through a continuous cycle of identification, inspection and implementation you have the ability to become a little better every day.