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Abstract

kaizen. (‘Ky-zen.’) The principle of PERPETUAL IMPROVEMENT, embodied in the Japanese technique of JUST-IN-TIME. The philosophy behind kaizen is that nothing is ever optimized: some improvement, however small, must be possible, and must be found, as a part of normal operating duties. This very gradual but constant series of small improvements to a process or product results in a steady increase in performance, and thus competitive position. Some of the benefits resulting from kaizen are tiny in themselves — for example, 0.4 seconds removed from a cycle time — but constitute a profound dedication to improvement which is at the heart of JUST-IN-TIME manufacturing. For a discussion of the concept, see M. Imai, Kaizen — the key to Japan’s competitive success, Random House (New York, 1986).