Kaizen - Culture of Continuous Improvement and Lean Thinking
Last updated: October 20, 2025 Read in fullscreen view
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KAIZEN - RAPID IMPROVEMENT PROCESSES
Kaizen, or rapid improvement processes, often is considered to be the "building block" of all lean production methods. Kaizen focuses on eliminating waste, improving productivity, and achieving sustained continual improvement in targeted activities and processes of an organization.
Read on: Lean software development - the game-changer in the digital age
Lean production is founded on the idea of kaizen – or continual improvement. This philosophy implies that small, incremental changes routinely applied and sustained over a long period result in significant improvements. The kaizen strategy aims to involve workers from multiple functions and levels in the organization in working together to address a problem or improve a process. The team uses analytical techniques, such as value stream mapping and "the 5 whys", to identify opportunities quickly to eliminate waste in a targeted process or production area. The team works to implement chosen improvements rapidly (often within 72 hours of initiating the kaizen event), typically focusing on solutions that do not involve large capital outlays.
Also Read: Kaizen and DMAIC: What's the differences?
The 5 whys technique
Click on each picture to learn more about the 5 Whys
KAIZEN TYPES
KAIZEN PDCA
1981 Japanese PDCA Cycle - Plan, Do, Check, Act
In 1985 the Japanese PDCA Cycle was revised, utilizing additions from Kaoru Ishikawa.
The Japanese PDCA cycle was changed to include other things within the Plan, Do, Check, Act steps:
- Plan: Now divided into two steps - define goals and targets as wells as decide on ways to reach the end goal.
- Do: Now divided into two steps - participate in education and training as well as implement the plan.
- Check: Analyze the results to verify whether or not the plan has had the intended effect.
- Act: If the results of the cycle were not satisfactory go back to plan. If the results were satisfactory, standardize the solution.
The PDCA cycle functions a bit like the scientific method with people testing out hypotheses to see what works and then developing new procedures based on outcomes.
A key thing to remember is that these cycles are ongoing. Standards are important to have, but they aren't set in stone. Workplaces are dynamic and business conditions change, so standards must change, too.
Shewhart Cycle
In 1986, Deming revealed a modified Shewhart cycle. He confirmed that it was a revised version of the original 1950s version.
The new cyclical steps were:
- "What could be the team's most important accomplishments? What changes might be desirable? What data are available? Are new observations needed? If yes, plan a change or test. Decide how to use the observations.
- Carry out the change or test decided upon, preferably on a small scale.
- Observe the effects of the change or test.
- Study the results. What did we learn? What can we predict?
- Repeat step one, with knowledge accumulated.
- Repeat step two, and onward.
10 principles of Kaizen
Because executing Kaizen requires enabling the right mindset throughout a company, 10 principles that address the Kaizen mindset are commonly referenced as core to the philosophy. They are:
- Let go of assumptions.
- Be proactive about solving problems.
- Don't accept the status quo.
- Let go of perfectionism and take an attitude of iterative, adaptive change.
- Look for solutions as you find mistakes.
- Create an environment in which everyone feels empowered to contribute.
- Don't accept the obvious issue; instead, ask "why" five times to get to the root cause.
- Cull information and opinions from multiple people.
- Use creativity to find low-cost, small improvements.
- Never stop improving.
THE DUAL NATURE OF THE KAIZEN SYSTEM
Kaizen is part action plan and part philosophy.
- As an action plan, Kaizen is about organizing events focused on improving specific areas within the company. These events involve teams of employees at all levels, with an especially strong emphasis on involving plant floor employees.
- As a philosophy, Kaizen is about building a culture where all employees are actively engaged in suggesting and implementing improvements to the company. In truly lean companies, it becomes a natural way of thinking for both managers and plant floor employees.
Kaizen works hand-in-hand with Standardized Work. Standardized Work captures the current best practices for a process, and Kaizen aims to find improvements for those processes. Note the emphasis on current; Standardized Work is living documentation (it continually evolves through Kaizen).
KAIZEN EVENTS
A typical Kaizen event has a process that goes something like this:
- Set goals and provide any necessary background.
- Review the current state and develop a plan for improvements.
- Implement improvements.
- Review and fix what doesn’t work.
- Report results and determine any follow-up items.
This type of Kaizen process cycle is frequently referred to as PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Act). PDCA brings a scientific approach to making improvements:
- Plan: develop a hypothesis
- Do: run experiment
- Check: evaluate results
- Act: refine your experiment; then start a new cycle
IN SUMMARY
Kaizen can dramatically improve the efficiency and standardization of your company’s workflows, processes, and procedures. Kaizen can make a significant impact on employee engagement and culture, as well as workflow improvements. Kaizen is a way to transform the way your business works if everyone in it is committed to making positive changes at all levels of the company.
Interestingly, Kaizen as an action plan is exactly what develops Kaizen as a philosophy. When Kaizen is applied as an action plan through a consistent and sustained program of successful Kaizen events, it teaches employees to think differently about their work. In other words, consistently applying Kaizen as an action plan creates tremendous long-term value by developing the culture that is needed for truly effective continuous improvement.
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