- Kaizen (or ‘continuous improvement’) is an approach ofconstantly introducing small incremental changes in a business in order to improve quality and/or efficiency.
- This approach assumes that employees are the best people to identify improvements in the way things are done since they see the processes in action all the time.
- A firm that uses this approach therefore has to have a culturethat encourages and rewards employees for their
- Improvements are based on many, small changes rather than the radical changes that might arise from Research and Development
- As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement
- Small improvements are less likely to require major capital investment than major process changes
- It helps encourage workers to take ownership for their work, and can help reinforce team working, thereby improving worker motivation
- Whilst staff suggestions can help to enrich the work for many employees, Kaizen can be seen as an unrelenting process.
- Some firms set targets for individuals or for teams to come up with a minimum number of ideas in a period of time. Employees can find this to be an unwelcome pressure, as it becomes increasingly difficult to find further scope for improvement.
- Some firms, especially Japanese-owned, conduct quality improvement sessions in the workers’ own time, which can lead to resentment unless there is appropriate recognition and reward for suggestions.
