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The Kaizen Attitude
Many observers consider kaizen-a philosophy of
ongoingimprovement involving everyone, from top managers to
thelowest level worker-to be the single most important element
in
Japan's competitive success in manufacturing. Onecommentator's
characterization of kaizen distinguishes
Japan's process-oriented view of thinking from the
est'sinnovation-and results-oriented view. !n practice, kaizen is
asystem for communicating ideas up and down the companyhierarchy"
everyone is encouraged to seek out and e#ploit new
opportunities, and institutional barriers to the information$ow
are dismantled. %he kaizen attitude helps to e#plain whyJapanese
&rms are so adept at e#ploiting new technology, evenwhen they
are not its originator. aizen-driven &rms do notsu(er from )not
invented here) syndrome. !deas are not thee#clusive preserve of *+,
corporate planning, or marketresearch" every new idea is welcomed
and )channels) areforsaken.
n e#ample of kaizen's e(ectiveness is issan's e#perience
with welding robots. /irst introduced in 0123, within a
decadetheir use had cut work time per unit by 45 percent
andincreased overall production e(iciency by 65 percent. %hesegains
were achieved through a series of kaizen programs thatsearched out
improvements that cut time by as little as half asecond. %he
programs, initiated within three to si# months ofone another,
formed a staircase, each step occasioning a briefperiod of
stability before the ne#t rose, ine#pensively, a littleabove
it.
%he logic of kaizen is that breakthroughs result not frommassive
reorganizations or large-scale investment pro7ects butfrom the
cumulative e(ects of successive incrementalimprovements.
)*ebuilding a factory,) wrote illiam 8.avidow and Michael 9. Malone
(The Virtual Corporation:ew ;ork< 8arper=usiness, 0116>,
00?@, )reAuires replacingalmost every brick in the old plant. o
that too Auickly and the
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structure will collapse. %he only practical way is
throughkaizen.)
%hat kaizen and business process reengineering are
e#plicitlydi(erent philosophies is apparent in the contrast between
the
foregoing observation and 8ammer and Bhampy's assessmentof
kaizen. %o be sure, Auality programs and reengineeringshare a
number of common themes. %hey both recognize theimportance of
processes, and they both start from the needsof the process
customer and work backwards from there.8owever, the two programs
di(er fundamentally. Cualityprograms work within the framework of a
company's e#istingprocesses and seek to enhance them by means of
what the
Japanese call kaizen, or continuous incremental improvement.
Kaizen and Re-Engineering
%he aim is to do what we already do, only to do it
better.Cuality improvement seeks steady incremental improvementto
process performance. *eengineering, as we have seen,
seeks breakthroughs, not by enhancing e#isting processes, butby
discarding them and replacing them with entirely newones. DMichael
8ammer and James Bhampy,Reengineeringthe Corporation: A Manifesto
for Business Revolution :ew
;ork< 8arper=usiness, 0113>, E1.@
%he di(erence between kaizen and business processreengineering
is fundamentally a di(erence in duration andmagnitude of change"
kaizen posits change as a sustainedseries of incremental
ad7ustments, reengineering as an all-outcommitment to wrenching
reconstitution.
aizen charges management to prioritize, standardize, andimprove.
9tandardization and measurement are the keys tokaizen. ithout
detailed and speci&c metrics of Auality andperformance, there
is no basis for moving forward" goals thatcannot be measured are
7ust rallying cries.
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Kaizen and Continuous
Improvement
Characterizing kaizen as simply "continuous
improvement"trivializes the concept an portrays it as cautious an
lackingin imagination! a criticism freuently levele #y avocates
of#usiness process reengineering$ More typically! theimplementation
of kaizen re%ects a raical commitment to an
entire &ay of operating that reuires %oor'to'ceiling change
inmanagement! &ork! manager'&orker relationships!
iscipline!ecision making! an the organization of kno&lege!
thattransforms an organization into a feeration of
pro#lemsolvers$
Continuous improvement treats every variance from target asa
pro#lem to #e solve an everyone as a responsi#lecontri#utor$
