Kaizen as a Way of Life
One of the driving concepts behind Lean production is “Kaizen”. “Kaizen” (roughly translated) is Japanese for “Continuous Improvement”. Kaizen is a true philosophy that many people live by (if they are aware of it or not).
As it applies to Lean manufacturing, kaizen is the continuous improvement of a process – mainly continuously finding ways to eliminate waste from the system. The kaizen process never stops. After a cycle of improvements, the process is reevaluated for additional waste that can be removed and future ways to improve productivity are sought after. These ways are generally small steps in the right direction – fast, massive innovation is “kaikaku” whereas kaizen focuses on long term, continuous, small incremental improvements that are easily conceived and executed. With enough small kaizen improvements over time, a process can be nearly perfected in terms of productivity – however the kaizen process never truly stops, as it is continuous improvement. There is always room for improvement in any process – and in any person.
Kaizen can be applied to any Life, regardless of how seemingly perfect the individual may be or at least perceive themselves to be – obviously no one is perfect – and never will be, no matter how hard they try. “To error is human.” Perfection is simply impossible in our Lives.
What we can do however, is to continuously strive toward its direction. Through improving, continuously and always working to do better than our last, we may come close to obtaining it. If you strive for self-improvement, to learn new skills, to break bad habits, to improve your physical or mental conditions, to be more productive in your day-to-day activities or to improve virtually any aspect of your Life (and continue to strive in this regard) you are indeed practicing Kaizen - you are continuously bettering yourself. Removing any waste from your Life is the most applicable improvement to the common definition of Kaizen.
I believe there is a certain spiritual side of Kaizen that needs to be considered. Since we, as divine beings, are given infinite potential by our Creator, we have the obligation to fulfill and make use of our potential. It is through continuous improvement that we can come closer to making use of the true capacity of the potential our Creator has provided us with.
Additionally, many of us at some point in our Lives become aware of, discover or define our Life’s purpose(s). Once this occurs, it is our divine obligation to utilize every tool and do everything within our power to fulfill our purpose. As it relates specifically to the removal of waste in our Lives, Kaizen works to remove those obstacles and non-necessities that interfere with us carrying out our mission.
Thus, through applying Kaizen to our entire Life, we may 1) strive in continuous improvement to come closer to fulfilling our divine potential and 2) remove any wastes or obstacles in our path that hinder our fulfillment of our missions / purpose or reaching our goals.
Lee Ridenour |
