What is Kaizen? | Definition and Examples

If you are looking to improve your business and its environment you need to have a set of rules. You need to motivate your team and keep them focused. That is what you call Kaizen. If you are keeping a good feel in your team, you will get more productivity.

Get started now

Every business needs to make progress in some amount of time. Although the higher authorities are working their best in the market and the team members are working for the best of the company by working on bigger projects, the company is still not getting progress.

Here all the external factors are working for the betterment of the company but the thing that is lacking is the internal factors. In the business or any company’s success, the 20% role for success and improvement is made by external factors like huge projects with great scope. Other than this 20%, the remaining 80% of the success comes from the internal factors of the company.

The internal factors can be the smallest efforts of all employees individually. These things and their working are taught by Kaizen. If you are searching for an answer to what is kaizen, here we will tell you all that you need to know about what is kaizen and its benefits.

The definition of Kaizen for a business.

The word kaizen is a Japanese word that when translated to English means “good change”. Apart from its meaning in the literature, it stands for the improvement continuously for a business. This is a statistical process that not only controls the quality of your business in every field, but it also has several benefits for the employees that end up being beneficial for your business in the long-term.


In traditional business management, employees are only allowed to work, and their ideas are not brought into consideration. This stops innovation from coming towards a certain company. When Kaizen is implemented, every little detail that seems to be beneficial for the business is encouraged and this helps in the growth of the business.

History of Kaizen.

This happened almost 3o years ago when Masaaki Imai wrote the book Kaizen. This was the book that told the western world of business about the reasons for the success of Japanese businesses and the long-term success of their organizations.

From then on, the companies have been implementing the rules mentioned in the book and almost all of them have found Kaizen to be beneficial for their business.

How can Kaizen be used for the daily working environment?

Most of the time people think that implementing a new terminology to their already running business can not only be very complex, but it can also be very difficult to carry on with. But this is not the case with Kaizen. If we take a look at the lifestyle of Japanese people, we can see that they are very organized people who make every move according to some calculations.


Not only this, but they also believe in the teachings of their elders. A Kaizen is one of the historical teachings from the Japanese to the whole world, its chances of failing in any community or at any grounds is fairly low. However, people still can find it very difficult to implement it in their company daily.

Here we will like to tell you that Kaizen is something that can be implemented in 4 easy steps that can not only be used for the bigger tasks, but they can also be implemented on the smallest tasks for the best management. Here we will discuss all of these 4 steps.

1. Plan.

For every task or goal without caring about its scope or size, you must pal about it. When you plan about doing things, doing them becomes very easy because now you are not only mentally prepared to deal with things and if the scope of any task is very bi, planning can help break the task into different parts for easier management.

2. Do.

This is the step that required working. So, when you are following Kaizen, you must do it according to the plan.

3. Check.

Once you are done with the working step, the next thing is to check the progress. This is very important as this is the step where a lot of flaws can not only be recognized, but they will also be learned to be ignored in future tasks. So, check is the step for implementing Kaizen that is very important for the best quality and better progress.

4. Act.

While you check for different things, this is a must thing that some mistakes or flaws will be found in the work. So, this step allows you to deal with those flaws and eradicate them from your product.

These were the 4-simple steps that are needed for the implementation of Kaizen in any kind of business. As these are fairly simple these can be implemented and used on a daily basis.

This is because these steps can work for simple problems, but in the case of a complex problem, immediately drain storming for finding some great ideas, and then acting upon these 4 steps can be beneficial for a business.

What are the benefits of Kaizen?

Looking for what is Kaizen /then you must be amazed to find some of its benefits. So, here we will discuss some amazing ways in which Kaizen can be beneficial for you.

Everyone will be treated on the same platform.

Employees are the main asset of a business or a company that can help it achieve the success it deserves. However, when employees are working at different levels and in different departments, there is a sense of difference between the way they are treated. Kaizen teaches us to equally treat each employee at the same platform.

This makes the employees know that they are not less than any other person working in the field and their views will be equally valued.

People will have a growth mindset.

Although it is very important to work daily, it is only enough for survival these days. When Kaizen is implemented, people will have a mindset of growth in the market. This will be beneficial in the following ways.

  • Every employee will share the same mindset.
  • The company will collectively approach the imperilment.
  • The whole company will be unitedly working under the same concept of improvement.

Members will stay motivated.

As kaizen tells us that small tasks are very important in the development of any business, employees will know their worth for the development of their company. When their worth will be valued in any way, they will feel encouraged and entitled. This will keep them motivated to work for the betterment of the company.

New Ideas will be welcomed in a better way.

Traditional business management suppressed the ideas of employees as they are only allowed to take part in the physical tasks. When Kaizen is implemented, every employee is treated on the same platform. This makes the employees share their ideas. With a lot of new ideas, this becomes very easy to bring innovation in the market.

With the new and innovative ideas, it becomes very easy for the company to become successful.

Your business will undergo continuous improvement.

With a lot of employees that are not only motivated to work, but they also know that they are worthy of the company and above all this, they know that they are being valued for their worth. They will be more dedicated to the success of the company.

This will keep the company on the road of continuous success because the employees will now be putting efforts into every small detail

Communication gaps will be removed.

When every employee is being treated at the same level, the lower level employees will feel better because they will stop feeling inferior because of this. This will allow these employees to freely communicate with their higher employees and this will kill the communication gap between the lower-level workers and the higher authorities.

This will be one of the greatest things for the success of a company because now the working employees will have a better understanding of what they are required to do.

Better teamwork means better progress.

When Kaizen is implemented, the old traditional company working culture will be replaced with this efficient working methodology. Now all the employees will be encouraged to work as a team where they can collectively deal with the tasks and challenges faced by the company.

This teamwork initiative will bring up a sense of collaboration between the employees that will develop a strong and dedicated workforce.

Conclusion.

In this world of fast-growing intensive competitions, survival has become very difficult. This is because every different market has different sorts of competitions going on. As it is difficult for new businesses to take their place in the market, it is also getting more difficult for the established ones. So, people are trying different methodologies.

Ready to simplify your project management?

Start managing your projects efficiently & never struggle with complex tools again.