Kaizen Events - When and How to use them

Kaizen Events are a great tool - they can motivate teams, bring people together across departments and create quick and lasting improvement.
So when should you use them and how do they work?

Kaizen Events are high-intensity, short-duration improvement efforts: within a couple of days, or at least not more than 1-2 weeks, you go through a full Process Improvement project.
This, of course, doesn't suit all types of processes - if you're thinking about optimising settings, testing several production runs or using trend analyses to decide on best proven standards, Kaizen Events are probably NOT your best choice. If, on the other hand, you're looking into more logistical processes, synchronising ways of working, breaking through organisational barriers, or any other process where agreement on best work standards is likely more important than analysing specific process-mechanical optimums, then Kaizen Events can seriously boost your effectiveness.

They do need some preparation and a whole lot of aftercare, but condensing the decision-making work into a short timespan forces people to come to an agreement, creates momentum and shows everybody involved that your Continuous Improvement program can bring real change.

For a great course on Kaizen Leadership, I recommend checking out this course by my friends over at Belt Course: https://www.beltcourse.com/a/21478335...
It’ll go through a lot more than what we’ve covered in this video, but if using and managing Kaizen Events is interesting to you, than this full Kaizen Leadership training package sure will be too.


#continuousimprovement #kaizen #processimprovement
   • Kaizen Events - When and How to use them  

00:01 Introduction
01:14 Lean vs. Six Sigma
04:02 Challenges in Six Sigma
06:30 Problem Solving with Kaizen
08:17 Structuring for Success
10:57 Duration and Follow-up
14:09 Organisational Impact