Kaizen Basics
What kaizen is, PDCA, going to the gemba, the 5 whys and where the ideas came from.
What Kaizen Means: The Word, Its Origins and Its Core Ideas
A plain-English guide to kaizen: what the word means, how Masaaki Imai introduced it to Western management in 1986, and the few ideas that make it work.
Read · 6 min read →Kaizen BasicsPDCA and PDSA: Shewhart, Deming and the Improvement Cycle
How the improvement cycle grew from Walter Shewhart's 1939 idea into Deming's PDSA, why Deming preferred Study to Check, and how to run a cycle that teaches you something.
Read · 6 min read →Kaizen BasicsGoing to the Gemba: Why Kaizen Starts Where the Work Happens
What gemba and genchi genbutsu mean, why lean leaders go and see for themselves, and how to make a gemba walk respectful and useful instead of an inspection tour.
Read · 6 min read →Kaizen BasicsThe 5 Whys: Root-Cause Thinking and Where It Falls Short
How Taiichi Ohno's habit of asking why repeatedly gets past symptoms to causes, how to run a 5 Whys session well, and the limits to watch for with complex problems.
Read · 6 min read →Kaizen BasicsSmall Steps vs. Big Leaps: Why Incremental Change Works
Why kaizen favors small, frequent improvements over occasional overhauls, when a bigger leap makes sense, and how to keep small changes adding up instead of fading.
Read · 5 min read →Kaizen BasicsRespect for People: The Human Side of Kaizen
What Toyota means by respect for people, how it sits beside continuous improvement in the Toyota Way, and what it looks like in day-to-day practice on any team.
Read · 6 min read →