A great interview with Dr. Goldratt. Many of his comments remind me of the MIT Sloan beer distribution game. What I continue to get from reading Dr. Goldratt is that people solve problems, not processes. While the Theory of Constraints, Six Sigma, Lean, are all good tools, they are implemented by people. Just think about how Bill Smith started using Six Sigma at Motorola or how Taiichi Ohno brought the Toyota Production System together. These were people using the scientific method to solve problems and ultimately improve their companies.

Before I get to much further in this series I think it’s important to talk about the culture that this works best in.  Kaizen is a way of thinking about your organizational culture, the concept of continuous improvement and the elimination of waste.  A key element in the Toyota Production System (TPS), it seeks to humanize the workplace while increasing efficiency and revenue.  Ok, so what is it?  The Kaizen method consists of five basic elements which are:

1. Teamwork
2. Personal Discipline
3. Improved Morale
4. Quality Circles
5. Suggestions for Improvements

You will often hear Kanban and Lean Software Development mentioned in the same body of work as Kaizen but it does not only apply to these techniques.  The Kaizen organization is one that is constantly looking to improve itself, one that is open to critique and one where its employees feel empowered to participate in improving it.  These characteristics are not common place in many organizations, but given the current state of the global economy they may well start to be.

Figure 1 depicts how I think about Kaizen as it relates to TOC and Agile.

Figure 1 - Kaizen, TOC, Agile relationship