An Introduction to Kaizen

464 Words2 Pages
Kaizen Report Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy that encourages a continuous improvement in every business aspect such as manufacturing, quality, leadership, and safety. Rather than applying this on big projects of improvement, businesses often apply the Kaizen philosophy on everyday tasks. These everyday tasks may seem insignificant at first but they eventually accumulate to become a big improvement. This is why “Kaizen” means continuous improvement. The philosophy applies to every worker in a business. To a worker in the upper management, Kaizen could include being a supportive and encouraging leader. To a worker in the cleaning crew, Kaizen could be applied by going an extra step to make the business’s facilities a better place for its customers. Generally, the main role of the workers is improving their respective aspects of the business on a regular basis. Some factors of motivation for the workers can be a pleasant working environment that would encourage workers to put their best effort into their everyday tasks. If a worker was well-treated in her work place, then the quality of her tasks would be reflected by the positive treatment. Another factor of motivation could be small perks that are available to workers because they are effective ways to reward workers for their continuous efforts. The last factor of motivation is to provide workers with the correct training that will teach them how to work with the Kaizen philosophy in mind. A well educated worker will feel confident about her performance in the work place. An advantage of Kaizen is that it could be applied to everyday tasks. If workers had this philosophy in mind, then it would eventually become a healthy habit that would assure top quality performance. Another advantage of Kaizen is that it encourages constant effort rather than doing tasks at the last minute. This creates a very
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