kaizen

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Japanese 改善 (かいぜん, kaizen); introduced to English in 1959, by Boyé Lafayette De Mente, in his book Japanese Etiquette and Ethics in Business.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkaɪˌzɛn/

Noun

kaizen (plural kaizens)

1. a Japanese business practice of continuous improvement in performance and productivity
2. continuous improvement in a general way

Translations

a Japanese business practice of continuous improvement in performance and productivity

• Japanese: 改善 (ja) (かいぜん, kaizen)
• Malay: kaizen (ms)
• Russian: кайдзен (ru) (kajdzɛ́n) m, кайдзэн (ru) (kajdzén) m

• Serbo-Croatian: kaizen (sh)
• Turkish: kayılık (tr), kailik (tr)

See also

• quality circle