Kaizen incorporates several tools but the most well known are the Deming Cycle, "5 S", the "5 M Checklist", and the 5 Whys. Also central to Kaizen is the recognition and elimination of waste or Muda (see the section on the Wastes). 5 S and the 5 Whys are described in a separate sections. Visual management is a feature; making operations and quality visible through charts, displayed schedules, kanban, painted designated inventory and tool locations, and the like.

Standards are important in kaizen, to prevent slipping back to old ways. The Kaizen Institute believes there should be periods of consolidation to allow new ways to bed-in, rather than rushing ahead. This idea is absolutely compatible with Deming's "Standardise, Plan, Do, Check" sequence, or Juran's "holding the gains". Standards and Learning are inter-linked. The Joy Manufacturing Company, for instance, communicates value engineering improvements to sites around the world. At Toyota, engineers on new product development make extensive use of checklists. When an engineer learns something new, that knowledge is added to a checklist used for all future vehicles.

Recently, Imai has extended and elaborated on Kaizen in Gemba Kaizen. The Gemba concept is discussed in a separate section.

Kate Mackle of the British Kaizen Institute promotes Kaizen through a bottom-up learning process, which eventually permeates the whole organisation. For this a good champion is needed, and the Institute has developed a methodology for identifying suitable people.

Yuso Yasuda has described the Toyota suggestion scheme or "Kaizen system". The scheme is co-ordinated by a "creative idea suggestion committee" whose chairmanship has included Toyota chairmen (Toyoda and Saito) as well as Taiichi Ohno. Rewards for suggestions are given at Toyota based on a points system. Points are scored for tangible and intangible benefits, and for adaptability, creativity, originality, and effort. The rewards are invariably small amounts, and are not based on a percentage of savings. However operators value the token reward and the presentation ceremony itself. Note the contrast with typical Western Suggestion Schemes. Toyota recognises that all suggestions or kaizen ideas may not be beneficial. The Pareto law certainly applies. There will be many ideas that are not really worthwhile, but at the other end of the distribution there will be few hugely beneficial ideas which make the whole scheme very worthwhile. One is reminded of the classic statement about advertising, "I waste half of the money I spend but the problem is I don't which half".

Further reading
Maasaki Imai, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success, McGraw Hill, New York, 1986
Maasaki Imai, Gemba Kaizen, McGraw Hill, New York, 1997
Yuasa Yasuda, 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas, Productivity Press, Cambridge MA, 1991, ISBN 0-915299-74-7

The Kaizen Institute (UK), 4 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RA Tel 0171 713 0407