Abstract

Maintaining the customer's trust is a critical element for an organization's survival. Another important element for business is creativity, which involves continuing innovation to provide increasing value to the customer. A vital strategy for addressing these elements is kaizen, in both its main aspects: 1) the use of very small, incremental steps to improve quality, and 2) the use of very small moments to inspire new products and services. Presenting numerous short examples, the article explores the use of kaizen to increase quality, reduce costs, improve employee health, reduce errors, and innovate products and services. The challenge for organizations is to create a kaizen culture in which each employee comes to work each day wanting to enhance the quality of the product or service to the customer.