Question

There are three faces of change that all improvement activities can be classified as: ◦ Kaizen, ◦ Kaikaku, ◦ Kakushin. 1. Define the three concepts. a. How are the three different from each other? b. How do they complement each other? c. Explain the link between these concepts and the lean and six sigma approach (Include Examples)

Answer 1

a)

Kaizen	Kaikaku	Kakushin
Kaizen works on continual Improvements as every business and its processes are to be improved over time to serve best in the market and to improve satisfaction at the organizational level. Here, It works on existing system improvement We require low investment for such activities or initiatives Usually we will play with the old game.	It works on breakthrough improvement, here; we want to improve yield value with the output of the system. We will be working on existing system but, we will consider new practices and rules to implement breakthrough initiatives. We require moderate investment for pursuing such initiatives. Here, we will consider old game with new policies and rules.	Here, we will bring disruptive changes and we will innovate New business processes and New concepts. Here, we will construct new environment as to bring disruptive improvement. We require heavy investment value for pursuing such initiatives and we will alter the business processes much significantly. Here, we will consider entirely new game with new policies.

b)

They can complement each other, here; we need to understand the requirements of the market. As all changes are not to be disruptive, we should analyze the market requirements and necessities. For example, system could have installed a modern system as to suit with the current business environments; however, we could go with incremental changes and improvements as to keep the existing system rich with its performance, productivity.

C)

Lean works on removing or eliminative non value added activities or waste, where as six sigma consider statistical procedure to reduce variation in the process and to reduce defect in the process. We require Kaizen, Kaikaku and kakushin. All these also come under lean initiatives as through such initiatives we will be building either new system or improving existing system that further will reduce non value added activities within the system.