Kaizen: How To Successfully Transition Into A Lean Organization

Book excerpt: This book provides a practical and user-friendly approach to successfully transform an organization into a lean organization throughout the business value chain. The author describes comprehensively how lean management principles enable organizations to concentrate on value-adding activities and processes to achieve a long-term and sustainable competitive advantage. The book shows how lean management principles are ultimately applied in industries and explores the concepts of Kaizen and Lean Management thoroughly. Kaizen and Lean Management are innovative and modern concepts that help organizations gain a competitive advantage. Kaizen is the permanent improvement in small steps, while Lean Management is a set of principles focusing on customer satisfaction. The foundation of these two concepts is grounded in the principle of eliminating waste and concentrating on value added processes for which the customers are willing to pay for. Through this, organizations will become more efficient throughout the value chain including internal functions, partners and suppliers, and will achieve a long-term competitive advantage.