Kaizen is the Japanese word for “Improvement”. The literal translation is “Change for Better”.

Within Lean is often referred to as Continuous Improvement, even though this is not in the literal translation is implied in its use. Continuous Improvement is one of the two base pillars of Lean, the other being respect for people (or respect for humanity).

The process of Kaizen is built around the philosophy that you should always strive to better yourself or better the processes of your business. Eliminating waste is the main focus of Kaizen and it is beneficial for both the workers and the company. One should always strive to root out waste and make daily improvements. The big improvements may be impressive, but the small improvements add up over time and make a culture of improvement present within all layers of the company. Each time an improvement is made it becomes deeper engrained in the culture of the company.

Exactly how these improvements are made differ through many different tools and methods. In the workplace the method of 5S is common to organize and set in order for an efficient work environment. When it comes to more advanced improvements it is common to work within the framework of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act).

No matter how you go about it you should always document the improvements made, this is important not only for benchmarking but also to learn and fully understand what has been done and why. Also, it is a great help if you are to spread a particular solution to other parts of the business. Due to the documentation some companies refer to form where you document your improvements as Kaizen and they are sometimes divided into different levels depending on the size of the improvement.