A quick search for definitions of "kaizen" on the web brings one to many sites that give the mistaken impression that kaizen is a "gradual," or "incremental" approach to process improvement. To begin with, kaizen is based on an ideal that is radical in contemporary manufacturing: production needs to be limited. The sub-title to Taiichi Ohno's book on the Toyota Production System is "Beyond Large-Scale Production." This is still a radical idea for conventional businesses that continue to value economies of scale.
One of the first priorities in kaizen is to be able to STOP production. Conventional wisdom among business owners, managers, shop floor supervisors, or operators fails to see the need or the advantage in stopping production. Most think that overproduction is the least of their worries.
Imagine what such a radical change in priorities requires of an organization. Take the duty of the operator on a moving line to pull the andon cord and stop the line when anything goes wrong. This is a well-known aspect of a Toyota auto assembly line. If the line stops for more than a few minutes the matter is escalated immediately, level after level, and executive management is notified in a matter of minutes. I have not personally seen any manufacturing facility outside of Toyota that has adopted this priority and expected so much teamwork among operators, supervisors, maintenance, engineering, and management. To begin with, in most major American factories management and engineering offices are far from the production line and their occupants are not likely to hear about problems until days later. True kaizen would eliminate such physical distance between team players -- the office buildings would be sold off and their staff brought down to the shop floor.
To effect kaizen one must be ready to to turn an organization on its ear. From what I have seen, kaizen eliminates entire warehouses filled with years of inventory in a matter of months; avoids millions in equipment investment by inventing in-house, right-sized machines; and cuts lead times for commercial airplanes to less than half -- hardly a "gradual" approach.
It is delusional to think that kaizen calls for "gradual" changes. I suspect that those who consider kaizen to be no more than sporadic, minor changes in the production line are more interested in "business as usual" than true, soul-searching improvement. Kaizen is continual. That should not be confused with "gradual."
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