Why Kaizen?

Kaizen literally means to break apart or separate for the better.

The word itself has been “Kaizened” to change for the better. In the US we have defined a Kaizen Breakthrough to mean using a cross-functional team dedicated for 4-5 days (depending on scope) to identifying & eliminating wastes, with a relentless bias for action.

If we asked Toyota how many Kaizen workshops they do a year what do you think they would say?

Origin of Kaizen Breakthrough Events

The origin of a Kaizen Breakthrough event can be traced to the Shingijutsu CG. The Shingijutsu firm was founded by a group of Toyota engineers in the late 1980's. They were responsible for extending Lean principles to Toyota suppliers. These engineers worked for Taiichi Ohno the founder of the Toyota Production System.

The first Kaizen events conducted in the United States were called three days and a night due to the long hours required. The Shingijutsu Sensei's (masters) were contracted on a per week basis. Many of the Lean Consulting firms today have ties to the Shingijutsu Consulting Group including Leanbreakthru CG.

Kaizen Breakthrough at Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is experienced daily. Toyota has done an outstanding job of implementing the Toyota Production System, a system that is intolerant to waste in all its forms.

Kaizen: A Source of Inspiration

Kaizen Inspires people to create solutions to issues that are crucial to improving their environment. These solutions are team based not management based. Why do people often behave differently during a Kaizen Breakthrough experience? Many become infected with a desire to seek & destroy waste. We often here team members tell us how they were up all night thinking of solution to problems they uncovered.

How Many Kaizen Breakthrough Events should you be doing?

Be very careful not to fall in the trap. Most companies beginning on the Lean Journey measure success by the number of Kaizen events they have done. Do not do it. The question needs to be, are we seeing the results we had planned? Is activity level or number of Kaizen workshops directly related to exceeding your strategic plan? So how do you get bottom line results? Stay focused by creating a model line area, Avoid the sprinkle effects of Kaizen caused by the attraction to low hanging fruit. Stay narrow and deep to realize significant savings and then you will "See the money".