3 Essential Ks: Kaizen, Kaikaku, and Kakushin

For companies to remain profitable and competitive in today’s economy, it is essential for them to adopt and ingrain-in three important concepts of Kaizen (Change for Better), Kaikaku (Revolutionary Change), and Kakushin (Innovation). Organizations do benefit from these through continual improvement of their processes, transformation of their organizational culture, and becoming an innovative entity.

It was about 40 years ago when the philosophy of Kaizen entered the western culture via automotive industry. It basically pointed out the fact that by elimination of non-value added work (Muda / 7+1 types of waste) in the work processes, companies will become more efficient and as a result be more profitable and competitive. This great philosophy of Kaizen that encourages incremental continuous improvement, in the last decade, has spread out among other service oriented industries, i.e. Healthcare, IT, Retail, … , where the need for a more rapid and agile methodology was felt. It was realized as a necessity to be able to deliver products and services to the customer quicker, while maintaining the high quality and lower cost.

Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corporation, who made Kaizen philosophy famous, has also started questioning how Kaizen could be improved upon to address the requirement of being able to implement changes more rapidly. And to respond to it, the concept of Kaikaku was born.

Kaikaku is Radical Change, where emphasis is on revolutionary change and big improvements. It allows organizations to reform and transform their culture and work habits into greatness via implementation of fundamental changes in the existing production systems. It is a large-scale and wide-ranging activity that is initiated and invested in by the executives and top management.

To clarify this more, let’s look at different scenarios in an automotive manufacturing plant. When we perform projects to reduce the production time, implement 5S, or redesign the assembly line, we are implementing Kaizen. On the other hand, when we introduce a new lighter material to be used for the vehicle’s body or install robots to weld, press, or paint the vehicle, we are applying Kaikaku.

So far you have explored making either small incremental improvement changes to better the production processes (Kaizen) or big revolutionary changes to reform existing production systems (Kaikaku). However, there are times that new revolutionary and breakthrough ideas, products, or services are desired and needed and thus we have to renew our way of thinking and doing and become innovative. This innovation and renewal is called Kakushin.

The concept of Kakushin was mentioned by former President of Toyota, Mr. Katsuaki Watanabe; during interviews with Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review in 2007 as a Radical Innovation. He elaborated this concept by saying that if we could make simplified cars by cutting the number of parts in half and design more flexible production lines to manufacture many different car models rapidly, then we had made a new revolutionary reform in our production system and that is Kakushin.

In conclusion, effectively applying these three essential concepts of Kaizen, Kaikaku, and Kakushin is the right solution for any organization who wants to deliver a sustainable high quality product or service and to ensure a steady growth in the global market.