Mysterious Art of Kaizen reveals way of salvaging a failing business

Well, Kaizen is more than just a “buzz word” that’s been making the rounds in business circles lately – it’s a way of life!

In Japanese Kaizen means “improvement” or “change for the better”.

It usually refers to the art of  continuous, daily, improvement in business, manufacturing, engineering, and management. But it’s a philosophy that can be applied to any endeavor. And it’s a philosophy that can revolutionize your business and your life.

How do you get started? My business is failing…

It’s easy! Well, the “Kaizen way” is easy to learn, but like most life skills it can be difficult to master. You start by asking small questions, thinking small thoughts, and taking small actions towards salvaging your business whether its offline or online…

These small actions usually simplifies your over complicated systems and processes that is causing your business to fail. According to SCORE: 70% of businesses fail not because of an ineffective leadership, but because of the lack of business knowledge on the part of the owner to immediately take action steps to prevent the failure.

For example… if you want to lose weight… you DON’T start by eating raw food, running ten miles a day, and lifting heavy dumbbells. Usually this would lead to inconsistency and dramatic shifts in the pattern of your system that could lead to severe deterioration in your health.

Instead of extremism (most people are by nature), you start by taking the smallest step possible… You eat one less spoonful of food. You walk ten more steps every day. You add one more pound to your dumbbells… That is the ART OF KAIZEN!

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

The philosophy of “Kaizen” is simple. But don’t underestimate it’s power! Kaizen principles have been the leading core foundation for visionary companies such as Toyota.

Therefore, in order to master the effectiveness of Kaizen in turning your failing business into a well-oiled machine, you will need a Kaizen Event Fieldbook.

About the Book  

Kaizen Event Fieldbook: Foundation, Framework, and Standard Work for Effective Events

For lean transformation success, the Kaizen Event Fieldbook would be the perfect solution for business owners because 90% of businesses fail because they have:

• Little or no measurable business impact
• Poor linkage to strategic and value stream imperatives
• Unsustainable results
• Unfavorable employee experience
• Limited organizational learning and growth
• Insufficient foundation for daily kaizen

The Kaizen Event Fieldbook addresses the root causes of those symptoms (failing businesses) by providing the necessary insight, in the context of lean theory, lean leadership principles and standard work to successfully plan, execute, and follow-through on effective kaizen events. Practical examples, over a hundred figures and tables, and many real-life “Gemba Tales” give the reader an enriched learning experience. Also included is a chapter on the deployment of a kaizen promotion office, a glossary, and two appendices, which offer blank forms and an overview of daily kaizen. The foreword, written by lean scion Art Byrne, touches upon the early U.S. application of kaizen events and outlines the transformative power of effective kaizen events.

Who It’s for

The Fieldbook is written primarily for three groups of lean practitioners, applicable to all industries and organizations at every level of lean maturity:

1. kaizen promotion office (a.k.a. the lean function, operational excellence group, etc.) — the “KPO” is the enterprise’s internal lean subject matter and deployment experts whose primary role as change agent is to teach, advise and facilitate effective kaizen activities at all levels of the organization. The KPO must know, teach, maintain and apply kaizen event standard work.

2. Lean leaders – without effective lean leaders there is no hope for transformation success… period! Lean leaders at the corporate, business unit and value stream level as well as those serving on steering committees must know how to apply lean within the framework of a lean business system and drive HIGH IMPACT, SUSTAINABLE kaizen events to fulfill strategic imperatives, execute value stream improvement plans and develop lean thinkers and doers within the organization.

3. Kaizen event team leaders – successful leaders of cross-functional, multi-level kaizen teams have a solid understanding of the kaizen event process, including pre-planning, follow-through and event work strategies.