I have recently been introduced to ways of being both for in life and in organisations. Kaizen and Gemba are Japanese concepts and I start to discover have been woven into each other as processes and methodologies that can be introduced into organizations to facilitate in efficiency, productivity and mindfulness. This blog will explore Kaizen.
There are very interesting case studies found online, luckily the one I know of was personal and shared recently while getting my hair styled! The hair stylist introduced me to Kaizen as a process he went through when working for an international hair company Tony & Guy. The hair stylists were gathered, and each given a model head of hair, and were asked to work specifically on one movement of cutting and find the most efficient way. The team of stylists found the exercise revolutionary and integrated Kaizen into their work practice. The exercise resulted in the Kaizen inspired collection that was launched in 2013.
Kai
CHANGE
Zen
GOOD
Let me link you to a Kaizen source for further case studies. I also found this scholarly article on Sage Journals interesting and for the academics out there:
I did find it helpful to work with a simple explanation of Kaizen found on the Kaizen Institute website and I am not going to try and rephrase what is already very clear and concise: Kaizen is the practice of continuous improvement. Kaizen was originally introduced to the West by Masaaki Imai in his book Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success in 1986. Today Kaizen is recognized worldwide as an important pillar of an organization’s long-term competitive strategy.
Kaizen is continuous improvement that is based on certain guiding principles:
Good processes bring good results
~
Go see for yourself to grasp the current situation
~
Speak with data, manage by facts
~
Take action to contain and correct root causes of problems
~
Work as a team
~
Kaizen is everybody’s business
~
One of the most notable features of kaizen is that big results come from many small changes accumulated over time.
Reference links
Please do get in touch if you would like to find out more.