In 1985, Mr. Masaaki Imai published a book with the title, \"KAIZEN, the Key to
ID: 1954003 • Letter: I
Question
In 1985, Mr. Masaaki Imai published a book with the title, "KAIZEN, the Key to Japan's Competitive Success." Mr. Imai is recognized as the first person to introduce the concept of kaizen (pronounced ki-zen) outside Japan. Kaizen is a Japanese word constructed from two ideographs: kai, which means "continuous" and zen, which means "improvement," "good," or "for the better." The kaizen philosophy, therefore, is defined as making "continuous improvement"--slow, incremental but constant. Although widely applied in organizations throughout the world, kaizen is a philosophy that can be applied to any area of life, including--as you have pointed out--science.Now, there is a difference between continuous improvement and continual improvement. Continuous improvement is defined as an ongoing, uninterrupted effort to improve something (e.g., products, services, or processes). Continual improvement is defined as step-by-step, incremental changes that recur regularly, building on existing efforts.
From Mr. Imai's book, there are 10 steps to continuous improvement:
1. Problems create opportunities
2. Ask "Why?" five times
3. Seek ideas from everyone
2. Think of how to do it, not why it cannot be done
5. Re-evaluate conventional ideas
6. Excuses are not needed
7. Choose a simple solution; not a perfect one
8. Correct mistakes immediately
6. Do not just spend money for kaizen, use your wisdom
10. Continuous improvement is endless
Class, how do you think the "constant revising" in science might relate to this philosophy of kaizen?
Explanation / Answer
Science is very similar to this concept as it a continually improving knowledge base. Many of the things we know now are based on a chain of continually improvement. Earth was once thought to be flat. FOr many years this idea stood, until it was proven to be round. The earth was thought to be the center of the solar system, then that was disproven. Now we know we are just a small speck in a galaxy. Science had initially placed a simple solution to the earth. Technology and more observations eventually led us to improve our understanding.