Masaaki Imai Quotes

• It is impossible to improve any process until it is standardized. If the process is shifting from here to there, then any improvement will just be one more variation that is occasionally used and mostly ignored. One must standardize, and thus stabilize the process, before continuous improvement can be made.

  Masaaki Imai

  Variation, Shifting, Impossible

  79 Copy quote

• The Kaizen Philosophy assumes that our way of life - be it our working life, our social life, or our home life - deserves to be constantly improved.

  Masaaki Imai

  Philosophy, Home, Kaizen

  80 Copy quote

• Progress is impossible without the ability to admit mistakes.

  Masaaki Imai

  Mistake, Progress, Impossible

  81 Copy quote

• The message of the Kaizen strategy is that not a day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company.

  Masaaki Imai

  Business, Kaizen, Messages

  116 Copy quote

• Where there is no standard, there can be no improvement. For these reasons, standards are the basis for both maintenance and improvement

  Masaaki Imai

  Maintenance, Improvement, Reason

  Masaaki Imai (2012). “Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense Approach to a Continuous Improvement Strategy, Second Edition”, McGraw Hill Professional

  65 Copy quote

• Kaizen means ongoing improvement involving everybody, without spending much money.

  Masaaki Imai

  Mean, Kaizen, Ongoing

  69 Copy quote

• You can't do kaizen just once or twice and expect immediate results. You have to be in it for the long haul.

  Masaaki Imai

  Long, Kaizen, Results

  55 Copy quote

• The standard is not writ on the stone. The definition of the standard is that it is the best way to do the job for now. It should be regarded as a next step to make further improvement.

  Masaaki Imai

  Jobs, Next Steps, Definitions

  Source: blog.deming.org

  31 Copy quote

• I believe that management should focus on two particular areas. One is Gemba (shop floor) and the other is customer (not the shareholder).

  Masaaki Imai

  Believe, Two, Focus

  Source: blog.deming.org

  21 Copy quote

• I have a theory that among the large Western companies (mostly American) the higher an executive is promoted, the more wisdom is lost and by the time he or she reaches the top becomes a complete idiot. Certainly they do not deserve the outrageous salary.

  Masaaki Imai

  Salary, Idiot, Lost

  Source: blog.deming.org

  25 Copy quote

• All of management's efforts for Kaizen boil down to two words: customer satisfaction.

  Masaaki Imai

  Two, Effort, Satisfaction

  36 Copy quote

• Kaizen is like a hotbed that nurtures small and ongoing changes, while innovation is like magma that appears in abrupt eruptions from time to time

  Masaaki Imai

  Change, Organization, Innovation

  33 Copy quote

• Japanese management practices succeed simply because they are good management practices. This success has little to do with cultural factors. And the lack of cultural bias means that these practices can be - and are - just as successfully employed elsewhere.

  Masaaki Imai

  Mean, Practice, Good Man

  32 Copy quote

• Under the lean system, any tools which are required for solving problems are used.

  Masaaki Imai

  Tools, Problem, Problem Solving

  Source: blog.deming.org

  9 Copy quote

• There are various non-statistical tools that have been typically developed by lean companies, notably by Toyota for minimizing variability in production, such as standardization, introduction of takt time, synchronization, shortening the total production lead time which I am fond of referring to as non statistical tools.

  Masaaki Imai

  Tools, Introduction, Toyota

  Source: blog.deming.org

  7 Copy quote

• Control charts are one of the statistical tools for solving quality related problems.

  Masaaki Imai

  Quality, Tools, Problem

  Source: blog.deming.org

  9 Copy quote

• To assure the prosperity of a firm should be a long-term strategy and the turnover of key managers should be taken into account from the stand point of long-term consideration and not from the monthly or quarterly flavors.

  Masaaki Imai

  Taken, Keys, Long

  Source: blog.deming.org

  9 Copy quote

• I am beginning to see a large-scale introduction of various management tools, philosophies and practices in the service sectors and have a high hope that it will become a global trend.

  Masaaki Imai

  Philosophy, Practice, Tools

  Source: blog.deming.org

  9 Copy quote

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