The five Kaizen principles all apply when looking at improving a given process:
1. Know your customer - we need to intimately understand the motivators and frustrations of everyone involved with the process. The ultimate customer but also those contributing to it.
2. Let it flow - mapping our current state and identifying waste by observation and techniques such as timing steps in the process will help us identify opportunities for improvement
3. Go to Gemba - observe the process as it is actually being carried out, not just what SMEs have told you
4. Empower people - use the folks who run the process to map the current state, identify the pain points, and come up with potential improvements
5. Be transparent - let data drive the decision making around which improvements to focus upon Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
I concur with Kiron on this.
Also, want to add that steady application of Kaizen creates immense long-term value by developing the culture that is needed for truly effective continuous improvement. Saving Changes...
LORI WILSONRETIRED - Technical Project Manager| RETIRED - LifePoint HealthClarkston, Wa, United States
Kiron and Anish are right, but Kaizen can be as simple as looking for personal areas of improvement in your role as a PM or looking for product areas of improvement, identifying small tasks that could be implemented for the project, prioritizing actions, tracking project progress - all these are simple Kaizen principles that come into play when doing a process improvement. Saving Changes...
You need to have a system in place which tries to improve the process on a continuous basis. Saving Changes...
Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
There are various cycles / steps taught as part of Kaizen, depending on who is teaching it.
As Anish said, though, Kaizen is often thought of as more of a cultural characteristic. So it's not limited to a "Kaizen event" to improve a single process, it's a organization-wide drive to constantly inspect and improve over time. From that perspective, "Kaizen" is not a part of your process improvement; rather, your process improvement is encouraged as part of Kaizen. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I'm with Lori on this one: you don't need to make it complicated or difficult - just pick one area to optimize at a time. Saving Changes...
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