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Daily kaizen routine board
Daily kaizen is the small, immediate improvement a team makes in its own area: no approval process, done the same day or within the shift. Repositioning a tool, fixing a label or adding a hook are typical. A daily kaizen routine makes it a habit: the team meets at its board for 10 to 15 minutes every day, each person brings one problem, the team picks one or two it can fix itself, and each fix gets one owner. Page 1 of this template is a week's board: two rows a day for the problem spotted, the small fix, the owner, the date done, the effect (time, quality, safety or other) and how much, and the days open, with the routine's time boxes, the week's count and the fix to share. Page 2 has the routine in seven steps, what counts as a daily kaizen, the weekly share-out and a worked example. The Excel version logs every fix, works out days open and a status against an open limit you set, and counts raised, done and open by week, effect and person, with a chart.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
When to use it
When to use a daily kaizen routine board
- When improvement only happens at kaizen events, and small problems wait weeks for one.
- To start a team on continuous improvement with something it can do every day in a few minutes.
- When the same small annoyances come up at every huddle and nobody owns them.
- To show, week by week, how many small fixes a team makes and what they changed.
How to fill it in
- 1
Set the time and the board
Pick 10 to 15 minutes at the start of the shift, standing at the team's board, and keep the time box. Fill in the team, the week and the board leader.
- 2
Check yesterday's fixes first
For each fix on the board, write the date done and the effect, or say what is stopping it. If a fix did not work, try again or take it further.
- 3
One problem from each person
Something that slowed them down, risked a defect or an injury, or annoyed them since yesterday. Write what and where in the day's row.
- 4
Pick one or two, give each one owner
Choose the problems the team can fix itself today, in its own area, with no approval beyond what the site lets a team decide. Write the small fix and one name. The rest go to the idea system or the supervisor.
- 5
Count the effect
Circle time, quality, safety or other and write how much: minutes a day, defects, a risk removed. A fix with no number still counts. Days open is the date done minus the day raised.
- 6
Share once a week
Count raised, done and open, move any fix open past the team's limit to the supervisor or the idea system, and show one fix to another shift or team.
What's on the board
What counts as a daily kaizen, and the weekly share-out
Four tests a problem must pass to be fixed on the board, and five things to do at the weekly share-out. They are on page 2 and on the Excel version's Rules sheet.
What counts as a daily kaizen
All four, or it goes to the idea system or a bigger project
- 1The team can make the change in its own area, today or this shift
- 2It needs no approval or budget beyond what the site lets a team decide
- 3It is safe to do, and changes to guards, electrics or a quality standard go to their owner first
- 4It removes something real: lost time, a defect risk, a safety risk or a daily annoyance
Weekly share-out
Five minutes, once a week, at the same board
- 5Count the fixes raised, done and still open
- 6The owner of each open fix says what is stopping it
- 7Fixes open past the team's limit go to the supervisor or the idea system
- 8Pick one fix to show another shift or team
- 9Thank the people behind the fixes by name
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkAn example: assembly cell 3 runs the routine at 07:00 for the week of 21 September 2026; the status is as of Friday 25 September (illustrative).
- Ten problems were raised in five days, two a day: a torque gun cable catching on the fixture, walking to the shelf for labels, a scanner battery dying mid-shift, gloves too big for small parts and six more.
- Eight were fixed, five of them the same day. The label roll holder was raised Monday and fitted Tuesday, 1 day open; the 8 done fixes took 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0 and 0 days, 3 ÷ 8 = 0.4 days on average.
- Three fixes were timed: the label holder saves 6 minutes a day, the spare scanner battery 10 and the kanban card holder at eye level 4, so 6 + 10 + 4 = 20 minutes a day.
- Two are open: an oil drip at the press feed has a drip tray as a stopgap while maintenance repairs the leak on a work order, and a longer air hose waits for stores.
The week's count: 10 raised, 8 done, 2 open, 0.4 days to done on average, 20 minutes a day saved, five people with a fix. At Friday's share-out the team showed the spare scanner battery to the other two shifts.
Common mistakes
Turning the routine into a meeting
Past 15 minutes people stop coming. Problems that need discussion go to the idea system, the supervisor or a separate session.
Fixes with no owner
A fix written on the board with two names or a team name waits. One person owns it, even if others help.
Taking on problems too big for a day
A daily kaizen is small and in the team's own hands. A machine repair, a layout change or a new process step belongs in a work order, a quick kaizen or a kaizen event.
Counting ideas, not fixes
The board is for changes made, not suggestions collected. Count what is done and what changed, and chase what stays open.
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
In LeanSuite operators submit an idea from the shop floor on the mobile app with a photo, a reviewer approves it, and an approved idea gets an implementor and is marked complete or becomes a Kaizen project, with reports on participation and the average time to implement.
In the lean glossary
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FAQ
Daily kaizen routine board: common questions
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