Kaizen Overview

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.

But to be sure, kaizen is not a revolutionary

process where all the knowledge and
experience of the past is thrown out.

Rather when we do kaizen correctly, we take

a look at the current process, break it apart
and put it back together again… as such the
results should be an improved process that
fully utilizes all the experience and skill of the
people involved.

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.

The Three Gens or Actuals

In order to effectively practice kaizen we must first understand 3 key philosophical concepts
we refer to as the 3 Gens, sometimes called the three actuals.

First, when we do kaizen, we must go to the

genba, or gemba as it's most commonly
referred.

The word gemba literally means the actual place.

In other words, it's the place the work is done.

For some, the gemba might be the factory floor,

or a construction site, or the operating room in a
hospital. To be sure, the chance of kaizen success is much higher when we go to gemba
instead of spending all our time in a board room drawing on flip charts and white boards.

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

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at a flow chart, as an example, we'd be better off if we spent the time walking and
experiencing the process for ourselves.

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.

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