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What is Kaizen?
Loosely translated the word kaizen means to change for the better. Taking it a bit further,
with kaizen there's actually a sense of breaking down the current process, removing the
unnecessary parts, and putting it back together in an improved manner.
Kaizen is also a cornerstone of the lean enterprise as it works together in harmony with other
lean tools and concepts such as standard work and heijunka, or level loading.
In the same spirit, rather than looking at drawings or other forms of documentation it helps if
we look at the actual parts… which is what the word genbutsu means. So, instead of looking
Finally, getting the facts doesn't mean a divorce from "feelings" and "theories". Rather, it
simply means we need to get facts that either prove or disprove our ideas in a non emotion
manner. This is what the word genjitsu means. It helps us understand what's really
happening. In other words, it helps us understand what words like "rarely" or "always"
actually mean.
Often times when we get the facts we see that something else is causing the problem, or we
realize that the problem may be bigger, or smaller, than we think it really is. Once our team is
armed with the facts, it'll be a lot easier to convince people of the changes we hope to
implement.