In addition to internal audits to improve quality, my company also hosts internal kaizen trainings for various process to make continuous improvements. I have never heard of a kaizen until I joined this company but it is the Japanese word for “improvement”. In business, kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching, government, banking, and other industries. By improving standardized programmes and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste.

Last month I attended a kaizen hosted by our design quality department on our artwork approval process. At the meeting management and key players discussed 1) the current process, 2) models practiced by other divisions 3) ways to improve the current process 4) set long term goals to improve the process/implementation model.