260- Kaizen

Continuous Improvement – Core Idea

• Ongoing, incremental advancement is essential for individuals, teams, products, and the whole business.
• Lack of regular improvement ⇒ obsolescence (e.g., BlackBerry case).

Kaizen (Japanese for “continuous improvement”)

• Emphasizes many small, incremental changes rather than large disruptive ones.
• Easier team acceptance; minimizes push-back.
• Improvement sequence: People → Products/Services → Business results.

PDCA / Deming Cycle

• Widely used quality-improvement loop.
• Phases: Plan \rightarrow Do \rightarrow Check \rightarrow Act then repeat.
  • Plan: set the change or test.
  • Do: implement on a small scale.
  • Check: measure & evaluate results.
  • Act: standardize if successful or adjust & restart cycle.
• Never “complete” – the loop restarts continuously.

Agile Iterative Cycle (parallel concept)

• Steps mirror PDCA:
  Plan \rightarrow Develop \rightarrow Evaluate \rightarrow Learn \rightarrow Plan \,(again)
• Reinforces short feedback loops and perpetual adaptation.

Organizational Focus

• Improvement must involve everyone (individual contributors, teams, senior management).
• Enhancing people’s skills/capabilities drives sustainable product & service upgrades.
• Continuous improvement is an organization-wide culture, not a one-time project.

Quick Recall Keys

• “Kaizen = small, constant steps.”
• “PDCA = P \rightarrow D \rightarrow C \rightarrow A repeat forever.”
• People first → Products next → Business success last.
• Change resistance lowers when changes are incremental.
• Continuous improvement = dynamic, never-ending process.