Kaizen - Science method

You can use Six Sigma with DEMAiC steps,

By defining Lower and upper specification limit and then calculating Process Capability & Process Capability Index to improve the process, don't miss also FMEA analysis.

Good luck

Kaizen leadership is a philosophy that emphasizes continuous improvement in all aspects of an organization over time. The word “kaizen” roughly translates to “change for the better” in English. The philosophy is applied to business with the goal of improving all aspects of an organization over time, from the most meager of tasks to the highest level of management.

I also think that kaizen and anti-kaizen always coexist. The factors affecting the mutual proportions may be of interest. I am convinced that considering the whole of phenomena is better than the sum of the parts. Hence, the interaction of kaizen and anti-kaizen gives the entire organization a feature that develops in accordance with the resultant of this interaction. Thus, the advantage of kaizen over anti-kaizen will be understood as development and vice versa as degradation.

Sample Size Rule

Sekaran (2013) wrote:

"Roscoe (1975) proposes the following rules of thumb for determining sample size:

Sekaran, U., 2003. Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

This is a very interesting question

The most effective tool and strategy is the application of the theory of constraints (TOC). This is a management paradigm that views any manageable system as being limited in throughput by at least one constraint. TOC uses a focusing process to identify the constraint and restructure the rest of the process or production line around it. The underlying premise of the theory of constraints is that processes can be measured and controlled by variations on three measures: throughput, operational expense, and inventory. Inventory is all the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell. Operational expense is all the money the system spends in order to turn inventory into throughput. Throughput is the rate at which the system generates money through sales.

See, first of all, the book

Cox, Jeff; Goldratt, Eliyahu M. (1986). The goal: a process of ongoing improvement. : North River Press. ISBN 0-88427-061-0.

Next step is the of the discrete event simulation modeling that allows playing different 'what-if' scenarios to identify a constraint, and develop the ways of eliminating or mitigating it.

Kaizen is never dead. When applied, Kaizen provides a structure of continuous improvement, and the organisational change or transformation require continuous organisational development. Along with industrial revolution, I believe Kaizen has evolved over the years.

Innovations shape the global landscape and modern concepts of business management should consider the disruptive implications of the digital economy. It is evident that digital technologies influence management operations, production, and marketing. Hence, modern concepts of business management should focus on creating value through innovation without relegating the sustainable development framework.

No problem Adyl,

All the best with your research.

Dear Pavel,

Very interesting and practical question! I am a developer of a personality assessment and an engagement survey, and naturally interested in similar questions. I am not aware of such papers, I can only share my hypothesis based on my consulting experience. I think people's attitude towards change are mostly influenced by their objective interests (did my work get easier, more enjoyable, meaningful...), by their general work-engagement, by their cognitive perception about the change, and by their social connections to engaged/disengaged employees. Personality may play a smaller role, and probably Optimism, Agreeableness and Openness to Experience may make some difference, but I would not expect anything in the significant range.

To me, Kaizen philosophy is positive and circular economy is negative, kind of like the yin and yang. Kaizen philosophy attempts to improve production, while circular economy attempts to eradicate waste. The two work symbiotically, such that each presupposes the other. 

Thank you for your answers. I' m making this research in the field of marketing. The aim is to develop a measurement scale for a new construct. To do so, I followed the steps of Churchill (1979). In this context, I m searching for the required number of experts in the marketing field to help me answering to the following question: what are the items that really correlate to the construct?...  

Dear Siyanda,

Maybe this paper will be of help for you:

Best regards,

Lidia

Kaizen is a continuous process of change in small incremental steps, and contrasts with the rip and replace approach of some other methodologies.

It requires involvement in detailed process changes to be part of the regular work cycle, and you need to understand the cultural implications of this, in the workplace to determine if it is feasible and if it is appropriate.

In many banks you can apply this approach, as the workforce is well educated and flexible, and thus the small changes can be rapidly explained documented and introduced, although measurement of the improvement will still be required, if the costs and effort to implement is small a "lets try it and see" approach may be adopted. I do not consider this sensible, you need to have some metric that will expose the success or otherwise of every change.

Are the management willing to have an "organic" driver of change rather than a prescriptive top down driver? You need to consider this in the context of your bank.

In many banks you cannot use this approach, as the senior staff, managers and executives are not going to permit it. They would argue that the risks implicit in new processes which have not been carefully considered and examined in advance are too large. This argument I think is wrong, but common.

So the answer is examine the organization first. Is it a rule based culture with all decisions coming down from the top, if so Kaizen is unlikely to be welcomed.

My example would be a small cooperative bank in an advanced economy might find it possible to use this approach. A bank in an economy which has been restricted or controlled in great detail by its managers or regulators might not been able to make use of it.

I tried to use it in a bank in Qatar and frankly it was not well received, partly because of the ego issues in the senior executives. Partly because the staff were of mixed levels of ability to accept new ways of working. These are the issues to consider.

In agree with dear Nageswara thar any era Kaizen will always be relevant

The Sino-Japanese word "kaizen" simply means "good change", with no inherent meaning of either "continuous" or "philosophy" in Japanese dictionaries or in everyday use.

Many well known Japanese companies such as Toyota and Canon use Kaizen, with a group approach which includes everyone from CEOs to janitors on the factory floor. This group approach has been adopted successfully in other regions of the world as well, but Japanese workers have refined it to an art form. It is Kaizen mindset and process-oriented thinking, as opposed to the result-oriented thinking favored by most Western firms, that has enabled Japanese industry to attain its competitive edge in the world markets.

It has been suggested that Kaizen works particularly well because Japan is a collective culture, and Kaizen relies on collective values. People in more individualistic cultures may struggle with some of the basic principles of Kaizen.

Kaizen also suggests that everything constantly has room for refinement and improvement. Under the Kaizen philosophy, perfection can never be truly reached, and this value is contrary to the beliefs of many Westerners. The Western philosophy places a high value on the achievement and maintenance of perfection.

Here is fine paper which I have dig out of ResearchGate publications data base!