In the business management context, continuous improvement means a never-ending effort to identify and eliminate the root causes of problems that produce errors or diminish customer value. Most often, it consists of many incremental improvements rather than one drastic change. Continuous improvement is an integral part of Japanese culture, which endeavors to improve on an ongoing basis. In Japan, improvement involves everyone, including management and labor, in finding and eliminating waste in materials, labor, machinery, and production methods.

The Japanese word Kaizen is often used interchangeably with the idea of continuous improvement. The Japanese character kai means change, and the character zen means good. Thus, Kaizen is good change.

Even though Kaizen is a Japanese idea, many companies in the US have implemented it with great success by joining the best of traditional Japanese management practices with the strengths of Western businesses. By combining the benefits of teamwork with the individual's creativity, the best of both worlds results. Kaizen is closely associated with lean manufacturing in the West because continuous improvement combined with just-in-time manufacturing principles form the foundation of lean.

What is an A3 Strategy?

Strategy deployment is a periodic planning technique that sets a company’s goals, performance indicators, targets, and helps the team develop a month-to-month deployment plan to get those achievements. The plan is laid out on one A3-size piece of paper (11” x 17”), which becomes the organization’s strategy execution plan. You can think of it as a map that shows where you are today (What’s actually happening), where you want to go (What should be happening), and ultimately, the planned road to get there. Modern companies use software rather than paper and pencil for A3 planning. 

At the 2021 Virtual Indiana Lean Healthcare Summit, several incredible Lean leaders shared their experience fostering a state of healthcare excellence within their organizations. This blog post is a recap of one speaker's presentation, Deanna R Willis MD MBA FAAFP FNAP, Otis R Bowen Professor of Family Medicine at Indiana University, in which she discussed “Engaging Physicians in Lean.”

The world’s most successful organizations are relentless in their quest for flawless processes and perfect execution. The ability to reliably produce quality outcomes with minimal waste is elusive but achievable with the right leadership and attention. That’s why many organizations turn to proven process improvement methodologies and techniques.

Hi, my name is Morgan Wright. I am the Customer Marketing Manager at KaiNexus, and began working here April 2021. I was born and raised in Austin, TX - and in my opinion, the best city on earth. Even though I grew up in Austin, I still find new things to do all the time. The best part is all the things to do outside - I love to go on hikes, spend the day at Barton Springs, paddleboard, or try new workout classes in my free time. Thank goodness the warm weather allows for (almost) year-round outdoor activities!