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KaizenMonday, October 14, 2002
Japanese term KAIZEN was originally defined in the book "Kaizen, the Key to Japan's Competitive Success", by Masaaki Imai in 1985. Since then Kaizen has become an extremely well known and widely-practiced management philosophy. According to the Kaizen Institute website , a global management consulting company that was founded by Masaaki Imai, Kaizen means improvement, but moreover it means "continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life. When applied to the workplace Kaizen means continuing improvement involving everyone - managers and workers alike". The Kaizen method is also used in Conceptis. According to Dave Green, president of Conceptis Puzzles, "working with Japanese publishers poses constant challenges but at the same time provides a valuable tool for continuously improving our company - both its products as well as its processes". Apart from the daily difficulties created by the language and cultural barriers, Japanese publishers - as any other customer in Japan - demand a very high standard. According to Green "Top artistic quality, good appeal to the Japanese graphic taste, timely puzzles delivery and excellent service" are just a few of their requirements. "To meet these requirements" Green ads, "each puzzle undergoes multiple quality control steps to assure the best possible visual and intellectual results. Through the ongoing interactive process with our publishers, of puzzle creation, feedback and improvement, Conceptis is doing its best to follow the footsteps of the Japanese Kaizen method" |
