Kaizen refers to continuous improvement involving all employees. It focuses on improving all business functions through small, ongoing changes rather than large, innovative changes. The Kaizen process involves standardizing operations, measuring performance, identifying areas for improvement, innovating new standards, and repeating the cycle continuously. It relies on teamwork, personal discipline, improved morale, quality circles, and suggestions for improvement from all levels of the organization. Management maintains current standards through policies and discipline while also aiming to improve standards through Kaizen's small, continuous efforts.

1. KAIZEN

2. What is Kaizen?Kaizen means "improvement". Kaizen strategy calls for never-ending efforts for improvement involving everyone in the organization – managers and workers alike.

3. The Term Kaizenis a Japanese word adopted into English referring to a philosophy or practices focusing on continuous improvement in manufacturing activities, business activities in general, and even life in general, depending on interpretation and usage. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen typically refers to activities that continually improve all functions of a business, from manufacturing to management and from the CEO to the assembly line workers.[People at all levels of an organization can participate in kaizen, from the CEO down, as well as external stakeholders when applicable. The format for kaizen can be individual, suggestion system, small group, or large group.

4. The cycle of kaizen activity can be defined as:Standardize an operationMeasure the standardized operation (find cycle time and amount of in-process inventory)Gauge measurements against requirementsInnovate to meet requirements and increase productivityStandardize the new, improved operationsContinue cycle ad infinitum

5. The five main elements of kaizenTeamworkPersonal disciplineImproved moraleQuality circlesSuggestions for improvement

6. Kaizen and ManagementManagement has two major components:maintenance, andImprovement improvement. The objective of the maintenance function is to maintain current technological, managerial, and operating standards. The improvement function is aimed at improving current standards.

7. Maintenance componentsUnder the maintenance function, the management must first establish policies, rules, directives and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and then work towards ensuring that everybody follows SOP. The latter is achieved through a combination of discipline and human resource development measures.

8. Improvement componentsUnder the improvement function, management works continuously towards revising the current standards, once they have been mastered, and establishing higher ones. Improvement can be broken down between innovation and Kaizen. Innovation involves a drastic improvement in the existing process and requires large investments. Kaizen signifies small improvements as a result of coordinated continuous efforts by all employees.