Culture of continuous

improvementKanban - Chapter 5

What is Kaizen?• kai = „change“

• zen = „good“

• Kaizen is a culture of continuous improvement

改善

Goals of improvement

• focus on the process of improving quality, productivity and customer satisfaction.

• involvement of all employees

• high social capital

Preconditions• be able to make own decisions• work and solving problems in the team• acting without fear• process oriented and systematic thinking• active participation of the employees

Kanban and Kaizen

Kanban causes• process transparency: motivation and

responsibility to keep up the workflow• WIP limits cause Stop-the-Line mentality• WIP limits: problems need to be solved in the

team • cross functional teams• WIP limits and classes of service enable self

organization

Kanban as a forerunner

• improves cooperation• increases social capital• transparent process• improvement and change is motivating

and spread virally

Kanban is the perfect basis for a Kaizen culture to

evolve.

Conclusion• KAIZEN means ‚continuous improvement‘• creates transparency and shows the

effects of action and inaction• WIP limits allow to pull work and make

prioritization for every involved person • increase collaboration of swarming on

problems