Kaizen events are one of many lean Japanese introductions to American manufacturing culture. Toyota, again, is usually credited with the first use of the word in this process improvement context. According to Masaaki Imai, author of the book entitled Kaizen (McGraw-Hill, 1986), kaizen means "gradual unending improvement, doing 'little things' better; setting and achieving even higher targets." In this application, from the perspective of the shop floor, it means that fast bursts of energy and focus are pursued on specific processes to support continuous improvement. These focused events are a very efficient form of continuous improvement. Kaizen events normally are performed using one of two popular approaches.

One approach, the twenty-four-hour version, is all about a short burst of activity meant to get as much as possible done on a specific process element in one day. The other popular approach, the one-week version, is longer, but still very much focused on accomplishing as much in the week as possible. These high-energy approaches have proven to be very helpful in getting more process improvement accomplished in the short run as compared to working this activity concurrently with other normal daily requirements. As is widely understood, "working it concurrently" sometimes is better in intention than implementation. Both the twenty-four-hour and the week-long versions have their place in Class A plans and execution.

The twenty-four-hour kaizen is frequently done at the request of a sponsor and as support to a business imperative. One of the most...