ABSTRACT
Kaizen should be practiced every day to achieve incremental improvement, it is often useful to form a team and dedicate a short period of time to resolving a specific problem. Kaizen events are focused, team-based activities aimed at doing specifically that. Kaizen events are of course aimed at making improvements to some defective or wasteful part of the process, but they are also intended to teach specific lean tools and build skill and experience in their application to real problems. Kaizens are a powerful way to make improvements quickly and in a way that engages all stakeholders. Quality circles are another kaizen process that originated in Japan and then gained popularity in the western world in the 1980s and 1990s. A kaizen event involves three major phases: planning; the workshop itself; and the follow-up. Kaizen events can be used to address a variety of problems and improvement opportunities.
