Masaaki Imai Quotes

The message of the Kaizen strategy is that not a day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company.

Progress is impossible without the ability to admit mistakes.

The Kaizen Philosophy assumes that our way of life - be it our working life, our social life, or our home life - deserves to be constantly improved.

Kaizen means ongoing improvement involving everybody, without spending much money.

Where there is no standard, there can be no improvement. For these reasons, standards are the basis for both maintenance and improvement

You can't do kaizen just once or twice and expect immediate results. You have to be in it for the long haul.

All of management's efforts for Kaizen boil down to two words: customer satisfaction.

Kaizen is like a hotbed that nurtures small and ongoing changes, while innovation is like magma that appears in abrupt eruptions from time to time

The standard is not writ on the stone. The definition of the standard is that it is the best way to do the job for now. It should be regarded as a next step to make further improvement.

I believe that management should focus on two particular areas. One is Gemba (shop floor) and the other is customer (not the shareholder).

Under the lean system, any tools which are required for solving problems are used.

Control charts are one of the statistical tools for solving quality related problems.

I am beginning to see a large-scale introduction of various management tools, philosophies and practices in the service sectors and have a high hope that it will become a global trend.