2012 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 1-23
The importance of Kaizen activities in companies is pointed out in many literatures, but there are various impediments against its continuity, and accumulation of research on how to sustain Kaizen activities are still at developing stage. This paper first analyzes two literature case studies, and extracts all sets of cause-effect relationship related to successful continuity of Kaizen activities. The paper then analyzes familiarity among extracted relationships, for the purpose of clarifying managerial factors for effective continuity of Kaizen activities. As a result, the paper clarifies that extracted relationships can be categorized into seven factors; they are, “Policies group,” “Acknowledgement of issues group,” “Understanding of risk,” “Approach to proceed Kaizen activities group,” “Actions by managers,” “Results of Kaizen activities” and “Internal capabilities of the company.” The paper also proposes rigid procedure specifying seven managerial factors, which functions as a fundamental in extracting key success managerial factors for continuous Kaizen activities.
