Kaizen

The practice of continuous, incremental improvement driven by the people who do the work. A core idea in Lean. The word is Japanese for improvement.

When you'd see it: Lean and manufacturing environments, often as 'Kaizen events' or 'Kaizen boards.'

Why it matters: Kaizen bets on many small improvements from the front line over occasional big top-down redesigns. It only works where workers are empowered to change their own process.

Related Lean, Six Sigma