Change for Good: Kaizen

There are many methods about quality such as 5S, Lean Management, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma. You’re likely to have heard of Kaizen which is a philosophical thought rather than a ‘to-do list’, actually it has many meanings.

Kaizen means in Japanese, Kai (change) and Zen (better) words. A very deep philosophical thought is also important for Industrial Engineers. Kaizen is a principle of Total Quality Management and It plays an important role in the production line developments as well as process developments.

As a result of the Eastern philosophy, Kaizen is not a big leap in a single stage, but in small steps continuously. This continuity, as a form of habit, brings about not being satisfied with the current situation and striving to achieve better.

Focused Kaizen (Kobetsu Kaizen); “instead of addressing the problem as a whole, it separates the problem into sub-problems and focuses each sub-section on a separate basis and improves these sub-sections within the framework of the systematic Kaizen approach.”

Who is Responsible for Quality?

It is important to include everyone in the process while implementing the continuous improvement methodology. Because everyone is responsible for quality, so everyone must have support in the improvement steps.