The Kaizen Method in Project Management
Big Idea Kaizen Kaizen (改善, かいぜん), the Sino-Japanese word or Continuous Improvement (CI) is a strategy where employees at all levels of a company work together proactively to achieve regular, incremental improvements to the manufacturing process. In a sense, it combines the collective talents within a company to create a powerful engine for improvement.[1] It has a dual nature, as an action plan, where events are organized focusing on improving specific areas within a company, and as a philosophy, where all employees are actively engaged in suggesting and implementing improvements to the company.[1]
History Kaizen has its origins during World War II. When the United States entered the war, a group of Americans led by W. Edwards Deming, an engineer and statistician, set out to convert car factories into tank factories, quickly and with minimal resources. To achieve their lofty goal, Deming and his colleagues asked the workers to find small ways to improve their processes and quickly found out that small changes led to significant, measurable, and innovative results.[2]
Application Kaizen Events: 1.Set goals and provide any necessary background. 2.Review the current state and develop a plan for improvements. 3.Implement improvements. 4.Review and fix what doesn’t work. 5.Report results and determine any follow-up items.
PDCA Plan: develop a hypothesis Do: run experiment Check: evaluate results Act: refine your experiment; then start a new cycle
Limitations 1.Short-term Kaizen events may lead to a shallow and short-lived burst of excitement that may be abandoned. 2.Companies with a culture of closed communication and territorialism need to focus on culture changes before something like Kaizen would be well-received. [3]
Bibliography [1]https://www.leanproduction.com/kaizen/#:~:text=Kaizen%20(Continuous%20Improvement)%20is%20a,a%20powerful%20engine%20for%20improvement. [2]https://www.kartalegal.com/insight/what-is-kaizen-in-law-methodology [3]https://planergy.com/blog/kaizen-method/
