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The Kaizen Method
Reading time : 5 min.
The Kaizen Method.
Summary: This article presents the Kaizen method, a management approach based on continuous improvement. It aims to encourage small progressive and durable changes to reach excellence at every level of an organisation. This article explains the fundamental principles of the Kaizen method as well as its implementation.
QuimeO – June 24th, 2025
1. Origin & author
The Kaizen method originated in Japan where it has been developed after WWII. It was introduced by Masaaki Imai, a Japanese consultant in management, with the aim of revitalise the Japanese industry and promote continuous improvement practices. Inspired by the Toyota Production System principles, the Kaizen approach quickly gained in popularity across the world for its efficiency in the optimisation of processes and results.
In 1986, Masaaki Imai published a book: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success, which played an important role in the Kaizen method spreading at global scale. Imai’s approach then became an important reference regarding management and quality. In this way, his ideas had an important influence on various companies.
2. Definition
The Kaizen method is a Japanese approach of continuous improvement that aims to bring small incremental sustainable changes. The word “Kaizen” (改善) is composed by two characters: KAI (改) meaning “change” and ZEN (善) meaning “good”. It can also be understood as “continuous improvement”. This approach aims to create a continuous improvement culture where positive changes are encouraged, tested and integrated regularly and durably. The Kaizen method can be summarised in several fundamental principles:
- A common participation: Encourage everyone to share their ideas, expertise and experience and then capitalise on the collective intelligence.
- A continuous improvement process: Do not bring important changes overnight, but search for constant and regular improvement.
- Waste elimination in processes: Encourage identification and reduction of unnecessary movements, waiting or excessive inventories by using the 7 wastes approach for instance.
- A factual approach based on data: Foster data collection, problem analysis and strategic decision making.
- Autonomy and individual responsibility: Encourage each member of the organisation to take initiatives, solve problems and contribute actively to bring positive changes.
- Human respect: Encourage a favourable workspace in which everyone is listened, respected, and valorised for its contributions. It also participates in skills development.
In the end, the Kaizen Method has the advantage of allowing to reach operational excellence, thanks to small modulable changes realised step by step.
3. Setting up
The Kaizen methodology can be implemented by following these steps:
- Create a continuous improvement culture: Communicate clearly the objectives at every level and foster participation from all employees. They must feel implicated in idea proposal, decision making and improvement implementation.
- Train employees: Share knowledge about problem-solving techniques, quality tools and data collection methods. Training sessions and workshops can be organised to reinforce necessary skills.
- Prioritise according to the impact: Identify specific domains of the organisation that can beneficiate the most from improvement (production process, workflow, quality management, etc.).
- Set feasible and specific improvement goals: Decompose goals in smaller feasible steps to maintain motivation and facilitate the advancement follow-up. They must be feasible or smart and aligned with expected goals.
- Implementation of efficient solutions: Use tools and techniques such as problem-solving systems to help for problems and root cause analysis. Some includes for example Pareto diagram, Plan-Do-Check-Act, etc.
- Follow regularly the changes: Set-up implementation follow-up mechanisms, measure results to evaluate realised progress (data collection, KPI, etc.) and ensure that improvement actions are efficient. It is essential to recognise success and contribution of everyone to maintain motivation and engagement.
Organisations can integrate easily the Kaizen method and foster continuous improvement at every level by following these steps or thanks to continuous improvement software like QuimeO.
4. Conclusion
The Kaizen approach highlights the importance of creating a continuous improvement culture in organisations. Companies can improve their processes, increase their efficiency and obtain lasting results while adopting this methodology. Finally, it is an approach that aims to reach operational excellence thanks to small changes made step by step, which also offers the possibility to change back to the previous changes. However, the key success factor of this approach is constant engagement and collaboration from the organisations.
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