What is Kaizen?
Kaizen (改善) means “change for the better”. In business it means continuous improvement: the people who do the work look for small ways to make it faster, safer, cheaper or better — and are encouraged to make those changes.
Kaizen is both a mindset (nothing is ever “finished”) and a method (structured improvement events and daily suggestion systems).
How to run a Kaizen event in 6 steps
- Pick one process with a visible problem — e.g. order dispatch takes 3 hours.
- Form a small team of the people who actually do the work.
- Map the current process and measure it (time, errors, cost).
- Brainstorm small changes; remove steps, move things closer, standardise.
- Try the changes immediately, for a day or a week.
- Measure again, keep what works, and write it into the standard way of working.
Kaizen example
A catering kitchen found staff walked to the store room 40 times a shift. Moving the 15 most-used ingredients to a rack beside the stove cut prep time by 25 minutes per shift — no investment, one afternoon's work.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating Kaizen as a one-off project instead of a habit.
- Ideas from staff that are never acted on — suggestions stop coming.
- No measurement before and after, so nobody knows what improved.
How DOOfy helps
Kaizen needs a steady supply of small problems to fix. AIMOS One surfaces them from your daily data — delays, wastage, repeat errors — so teams always know where the next improvement is, and can see whether a change actually worked.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main idea of Kaizen?
Continuous, incremental improvement involving everyone — from leaders to front-line staff — rather than relying on occasional large changes.
What is the difference between Kaizen and Lean?
Lean is a complete management system focused on removing waste. Kaizen is the continuous-improvement habit at the heart of Lean, and can also be used on its own.