Kaizen Desk Reference Standard: The Complete Guide for Applying Kaizen to Continuously Improve Business Results

'This book is one impressive source for learning and applying the concepts of Kaizen to any business model and on any scale.'

The Kaizen Desk Reference Standard is a continuous improvement encyclopedia of procedures, steps, tools, and principles that genuinely work to produce proven and amazing business and personal results. Much is written in the popular business improvement literature about the importance of execution, waste elimination, human capital development, high-performance work systems, building to last, etc., but most of these works fail to boil down in a systematic and teachable way how to make these concepts come to life. This book is one impressive source for learning and applying the concepts of Kaizen to any business model and on any scale. The KDRS has an adaptable two-track approach. First, serious-minded continual improvement achievers have at their disposal a teaching tool that provides the concepts, principles, and operations for acquiring and applying Kaizen. Second, the KDRS is a ready reference for guiding every business leader through the steps needed to successfully apply Kaizen to their business. This book fills a glaring hole in the Kaizen marketplace by providing a documented and systematic knowledge base of tools and methods to apply Kaizen repeatedly and consistently. The KDRS is organized and referenced for ease of use. It begins by educating the reader about the knowledge underpinning Kaizen; it then methodically takes the reader through the lifecycle of a Kaizen event. At every step along the way, tips and checklists prompt and stimulate the reader to ensure knowledge acquisition and execution. Most importantly, this practical guide recognizes that, apart from elevating business results, the critical outcome for Kaizen is boosting the energy, initiative, passion, and alignment of that key determinant of sustained high performance¿namely, the people of the enterprise. In fact, the authors point out that no improvement tool will realize its potential contribution without the engagement and alignment of the people of the enterprise. It is the quality of these people who make the dream of sustained high performance a reality. Few consultants and business leaders truly realize this simple but profound insight. The KDRS authors do, and while they are passionate about their 'tool,' they are uniquely honest in the requirements needed to get the benefits of this process. This book is a 'must have' for every business leader serious about building high performance.

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Kaizen Desk Reference Standard is a must

This is a complete reference manual which has allowed me to achive and surpass my goals and objectives. I have used other Visual organization tools and Kazien tools and have found this manual to be to best by far. It is both easy and simple to use because it lays out in detail the whole process for performing a kaizen event and no other book I have read has ever done this. :Stick to the process and you cant go wrong. I found the CD with the tools to be a great addition and it really supports your effort. A must for any Kaizen facilitator.

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'This is the most comprehensive treatment of Kaizen that I have ever seen.'

Nice job! This is the most comprehensive treatment of Kaizen that I have ever seen. You are to be congratulated for a professionally executed and thorough treatment of performing Kaizen. The book not only captures the technical aspects of Kaizen but also accomplishes it in the true spirit of helping people 'do' this thing called Kaizen and, in the process, improve themselves and their environments. I give the book my highest marks for thoroughness, step-by-step logic, having a 'doing' focus with examples, combining technical content with addressing the issues of people and their growth, and offering an invitation to a broader community to try Kaizen. I especially found the narrative description of an actual Kaizen, from conception through follow up, immensely helpful. And the tool kit included with the book is outstanding. My only add is to emphasize the importance of a high level analysis of the business to determine the positioning of Kaizen from a strategic perspective. Guidance is provided for this approach in the 'Customizing Kaizen' chapter. If you want to reap broad business benefits from Kaizen, you need to go to that chapter and study carefully the sections on Guidelines for the Sustained Use of Kaizen and Building the High-Performing Organization.

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'This book is one impressive source for learning and applying the concepts of Kaizen to any business model and on any scale.'

Absolutely superb reference for performing a Kaizen event from start to finish. This book takes over where other Kaizen volumes leave off. Most other Kaizen books deal generally with Kaizen philosophy, benefits, and usually not at all about the detailed methodology of Kaizen. This Kaizen reference is like having a detailed road map for Kaizen. My Kaizen events have been much more consistent, since I started following the methodology as described in this volume. Additionally, our Kaizen teams are rewarded with more successful events from a team building as well as a financial standpoint. This book has been so helpful to me that now all of my Kaizen facilitators are trained according to the method described in this Kaizen Desk Reference Standard. I truly wish I had this reference 10 years ago when we struggled to put the Kaizen concepts into practice.

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