What is (Project) Kaizen?

by Hal on December 2, 2005

in lean, project kaizen

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I mentioned yesterday that we'd be featuring one additional blogger writing on project kaizen each day. While we're not starting our co-blogging 'til Monday I couldn't wait to call attention to a great first effort. At least one blogger has jumped the gun! (Not one of the gang members.) Someone from the needle trades!

Kathleen Fasanella writes the weblog Fashion Incubator. Yesterday she wrote What Is kaizen? Kathleen tells a great story of what kaizen is and why it is important to a business. I really liked the story. She writes in a way that I can hear her speaking. This wasn't her first posting on lean manufacturing. Kathleen is interested in the sustainable factory floor. Lean thinking and practices are a big part of that. Look for more from Kathleen over the next week.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Bob Wells December 3, 2005 at 1:39 pm

Hal,

One of the commenters on Kathleen’s weblog recommended a book (One Small Step Can Change Your Life : The kaizen Way, by Robert Maurer) about self-improvement using kaizen. The author is director of behavioral sciences for the Family Practice Residency Program at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. The premise of the book is that fear of change can stifle initiative or impede a person’s resolve. He relates severals stories how patients overcame their inability to make positive changes in their lives, using kaizen. He puts all this in the context of brain anatomy and how small changes are able to sidestep our own brain based fear mechanisms.

What impications does this have for organizational behaviorists and agents for industrial change?

I went out and bought this last night — it has encouraged me to find some personal kaizens.

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