Kaizen is an approach to total quality management which can be described as continuously improving by making
small improvements, mainly in process, every
time the process is seen not to be as good as it could be.
Kaizen stands for two japanese
words "
kai" (change) "zen" (good or for the better) so it's change for the better. The idea here is continual improvement.
Kaizen focus:
- elimination of the 6 types of waste
- the five-S framework
- standardization.
Kaizen works well in slow-growth economy whereas Six
Sigma is better adaptive in a fast-growth economy. Kaizen tends to involve everybody and the pace of improvement is gradual and
small.
Kaizen is used for continual or small incremental improvement over a long time span rather than a drastic breakthorugh or revolution