Benefits of Kaizen
Kaizen a word usually used in business management is a Japanese word that typically means continuous improvement. This word originally referred to subtle and gradual improvements which are made over a period of time. Kaizen is now internationally recognized and is often modified to suit various business environments and cultures. The basic concept behind Kaizen is to organize all the aspects of a system in order to ensure that it ever remains at the peak of efficiency. Below are more benefits:-
1. Work improvement
While most western models employ radical shifts to increase productivity in their businesses, Kaizen on the other hand takes on a continuous, long term method to improving a business or system. This is because Kaizen considers business productivity as a process which continues to unfold with time. The emphasis of this therefore helps to better the relations of people in the work place and as such people are encouraged to work hard.
2. Promotes well-being of employees
With Kaizen, all employers are encouraged to better themselves because they all take part in decision. This kind of emphasis makes the companies which utilize the Kaizen approach more oriented towards welfare of all their employees. Unlike a number of other management techniques which take employees as only numbers to be cranked up for maximum efficiency, Kaizen uses the opposite outlook. It essentially proposes that an employee who is well and happy will consequently be a productive employee.
3. Immediate results
Kaizen does not focus on large and capital intensive improvements. Instead it concentrates on investments which can continually solve several problems creatively. However much large and major changes are important, with Kaizen, the ongoing processes will definitely make small improvements which are rid of waste and mistakes.
As with most useful ideologies, Kaizen too has drawbacks some of which include wasted time because of pulling people out of their work to discuss the way forward among many others.
