My Newsletter 3/28/19

Kaikaku - Kaizen - Kairyo
改革・改善・改良

Dear Reader,

Those are the words that are associated with “CHANGE” in the Japanese language. They differ depending on the level of change you intend to do. The first word of all of those words starts with “改”. This kanji character means “CHANGE” and the second character tell you how big the change you are intending to make.

Kaikaku 改革
Kaikaku is the Japanese term for "radical change". In business, Kaikaku is concerned with making fundamental and radical changes. You use this word when you are making a change to the foundation.

Kaizen 改善
Kaizen is the Japanese word for “improvement". You are trying to improve some part of the system, not the entire company or process. This does not apply to a particular part of the product either. The philosophy of Kaizen is one of Toyota’s core values to always improve.

Kairyo 改良
Kairyo means to find something that is not good and making it better. First, you need to identify what is not good and then you make that part better. This applies to the product or parts, not to the people or the system.

Depending on the level of change you want to make, you apply the level of change you want to use. If you are concerned about one aspect of the product or business, you do not have to nuke it (Kaikaku), you just need to change the problem parts (Kairyou).

Japanese products now tend to have better quality because of those CHANGE concepts. Management and people understand and always look for the problem and trying to improve the company by applying the right amount of changes. Every company can always improve, the level of change is based on the problem you have. So, you should always think about at least how to Kairyo.

S	M	T	W	Th	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

PSPINC CEO Kenichi Uchikura's Blog

freespace

Blog Thread