Unfortunately, several British factories think they are doing kaizen, but their brand of kaizen is "passive" or left to chance. Improvements are left to the initiative of operators or industrial engineers or managers. If they make improvements - good. If they don't - "oh well, sometime". Passive incremental may also be termed "reactive". A reaction takes place in response to a crisis. By contrast, enforced improvement is proactive. "Crises" are actually engineered and the pressure kept on. For example, Intel brings out a new chip at regular, paced intervals and does not wait passively for technological breakthrough. 3M dictates that 30% of revenues will come from new products every year. This forces the pace.

Passive improvement has been around for many years, and it too is found in two categories - incremental and breakthrough. Classic "passive incremental" improvement approaches are the suggestion scheme and the quality circle. Passive breakthrough is classic industrial engineering or work-study, especially where such methodologies are used for factory layout, and new technology introduction.