Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous incremental improvement. It means making small, continual changes for the better. The roles in kaizen include top management establishing it as a strategy, middle management implementing policies, supervisors applying it functionally, and employees participating through suggestions. Kaizen reduces waste, improves quality and space utilization, and boosts morale. It can be used widely in manufacturing and non-manufacturing. A case study showed a printing company used kaizen to identify issues with their estimating process. They generated and selected solutions, reducing overruns from 700 to 310 copies daily and eliminating overruns on some editions, saving over £14,000 annually.

1. Introduction of kaizen
Kaizen is the name given by the Japanese to
continuous improvement. Continuous improvement
really means “continuous incremental improvement.”
改 ('kai') KAI- change
善 ('zen') ZEN- good
Kaizen means making changes for the better on a
continual, never-ending basis.

2. Objective of kaizen
 Role of top management --- top management is
responsible for establishing Kaizen as the overriding
corporate strategy and communicating this commitment to
all levels of the organization and allocating the resources
necessary for Kaizen to work.
 Role of middle management --- responsible for
implementing the Kaizen policies established by top
management; establishing, maintaining and improving
work standards; ensuring that employees receive the
training necessary to understand and implement Kaizen,
and ensuring that employees learn how to use problem
solving and improvement tools.

3.  Role of supervisors --- responsible for applying the Kaizen approach
in their functional roles; developing plans for carrying out the Kaizen
approach at the functional level; improving communication at the
workplace; maintaining morale; providing coaching for teamwork
activities; soliciting Kaizen suggestions from employees and making
Kaizen suggestions.
 Role of employees --- responsible for participating in Kaizen through
teamwork activities, making Kaizen suggestions, engaging in
continuous self-improvement activities, continually enhancing job
skills through education and training, and continually broadening job
skills through cross-functional training.
Eg. Toyota is well-known as one of the leaders in using Kaizen. In 1999
at one U.S. plant, 7,000 Toyota employees submitted over 75,000
suggestions, of which 99% were implemented.

4. Scope of kaizen
Reduces waste- like inventory waste, time waste, workers motion.
Improves space utilization, product quality
Results in higher employee morale and job satisfaction, lower
turn-over.
Widely acceptable-can be used in both manufacturing and non-
manufacturing environments, for processes as well as people.
Highly effective and success-oriented-Kaizen events will generate
quick results, measurable results, establish the baseline and
measure the change.
A learning experience-every member of a Kaizen Team will walk
away from the event learning something new

5. Relivance

6. Lean Case Study –Kaizen

7.  Business: Printing
 Methodology: Kaizen
 Issue: Overrun of 700 copies a day
 delivered to mail room for dispatch.
 At 10p/copy, this equates to an annual cost of
£25,410.

8. Concern methodology
 Kaizen methods used to identify issues with
estimating process and current practice.

9. Confirm solutions
 Solutions generated, and evaluated. Selected
solutions implemented.
 Overrun minimised
 - Software modified
 - Edition stops added
 - Reel usage reduced

10. Recommendations
 Result: Overrun reduced from 700 copies to 310
copies per night on final editions and eliminated
on 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions
 Impact: Process and raw material cost savings.

11. Conclusion
 Reduction in overrun from 700 copies to 310 copies
per night resulted in annualised savings of £14,150
and reduction of newspaper reel usage by 64 reels,
equating to a cost saving of £25,600.