The Art of Lean Software Development

Kaizen

In Japanese, Kaizen means “continuous improvement.” It is derived from the Japanese words kai (meaning “change”) and zen (meaning “good”).

Kaizen is therefore a system of slow, continuous, incremental improvements. As such, it involves every employee, from top management to the clerk. Everyone is encouraged, even expected, to come up with small suggestions for improvements on a regular basis. Typically, a supervisor will review an improvement suggestion within 24 hours, and if approved, it will be quickly implemented.

Toyota, for example, has been practicing company-wide Kaizen for over 50 years, and it still implements tens of thousands of improvements each year. At Canon, Inc., supervisors are required to set aside 30 minutes each day for workers to identify problems and suggest solutions. Other meetings are not to be held during “Kaizen Time,” and supervisors are not even supposed to answer the phone.

This is a cultural system that must be actively supported by top management. It is literally the opposite of the “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, being more of an “improve it even if it isn’t broken, because if we don’t, we can’t compete with those that do” mentality.

Driving the cultural changes required to bring Kaizen to an entire company is only possible with strong and consistent support from the very top. It is not possible for an individual manager or engineer involved in software development to do this alone. But you can bring it to your team, project, or ...