The Definition of Kaizen, by Maasaki Imai

A transcription of the Youtube video at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WqKMlRJUAJk

Transcribed on April 7, 2017 by Christopher Mahan.

Continual Improvement

Today I’m going to talk about KAIZEN.

KAIZEN is a Japanese word which means continual improvement.

And we use these Chinese characters.

This means KAI, and KAI means change. And ZEN means for the better.

So together, KAIZEN means continual improvement. At least it has been the common interpretation of the meaning of KAIZEN, as continual improvement.

But I’m beginning to feel that continual improvement is not a good enough translation, because it does not carry forth this tremendous self-discipline and the commitment that everybody has when doing KAIZEN.

So I now have a new interpretation of the word KAIZEN.

So I say KAIZEN is every day improvement, everybody improvement, and everywhere improvement.

Every day

For instance, in some companies, people may have conducted some improvement project such as Six Sigma, and they have completed some project three months ago and they’re now taking it easy, and they think maybe three months from now we’re going to work on something new. But this is not every day improvement. If KAIZEN is every day improvement, as soon as you have completed one project yesterday you should be starting to do something today. So every day is a challenge to find a better way of doing things. So it gives a tremendous self-discipline and commitment. So that is every day improvement.

Everybody

Everybody improvement — or everyone improvement means — that normally, many managers think that KAIZEN is for those guys on the shop floors: Those are the guys that have to work on KAIZEN.

But that is the biggest mistake. KAIZEN should start from the top. It should start from managers.

Management has to show its commitment, its determination, its guidance, so that everybody will be working on KAIZEN. And for that matter, the top management of the company has the most important role in implementing this KAIZEN approach, and then every manager, then it goes down to rank-and-file employees. If you’re employing some part-time people they should also be involved.

That is the meaning of everyone.

Everywhere

Thirdly, I say KAIZEN is everywhere improvement.

Many people think that KAIZEN is on the shop floor, in the manufacturing environment.

But KAIZEN is everywhere. For instance, in offices — in the admin offices, or where the technical people are developing a new process, a new product, or the sales and marketing people are talking to the customers. The KAIZEN is everywhere. It’s not limited to the shop floor.

So KAIZEN should be introduced as a company-wide program.

The New Definition

So, for all these reasons, I would say KAIZEN is not simply continual improvement, but it is every day improvement, everybody improvement, and everywhere improvement.

This is a tremendous, grand-scale, company-wide improvement project.