Kaizen event in a box

Where the method comes from

Every method statement in the guide traces to one of these; where the guide gives plant practice instead, it says so on the page. Read on October 18, 2026.

• Lean Enterprise Institute, Lean Lexicon: Kaizen (opens in a new tab)A kaizen event (kaizen blitz, kaizen workshop) commonly lasts five days; the team learns the principles, assesses the gemba, moves machines and tests the new cell, standardizes and reports to management; Ohno: there can be no kaizen without a standard; the standard is updated after a gain so it does not disappear.
• Lean Enterprise Institute, Lean Lexicon: Standardized Work (opens in a new tab)Standardized work rests on three elements: takt time, the work sequence within takt time, and the standard inventory; once posted it becomes the object of kaizen.
• Lean Enterprise Institute, Lean Lexicon: Plan, Do, Check, Act (opens in a new tab)PDCA is the foundation of kaizen; Act standardizes and stabilizes the change or begins the cycle again.
• Lean Enterprise Institute, Lean Lexicon: Gemba (opens in a new tab)Gemba is the actual place where value is created; a gemba walk grasps the current situation by direct observation and inquiry before acting.
• Lean Enterprise Institute, Lean Lexicon: A3 Report (opens in a new tab)A3 paper is 297 by 420 mm, roughly 11 by 17 inches; the A3 report puts problem, analysis, countermeasures and action plan on one sheet.
• US EPA, Lean in Government Starter Kit, Version 4.0 (2017) (opens in a new tab)Scoping meeting three to six weeks before the event, two to four hours, whole team present; team of 8 to 10, 15 at most; sponsor, team leader and facilitator roles; team leader checklist at 4, 3, 2 and 1 weeks (charter signed and baseline collected at week three); 5-day agenda (training, discovery, do, do-re-do-document, report-out) with a 4 p.m. daily report-out to management; report-out under 45 minutes with about ten minutes of questions, every member presenting, a dry run; weekly implementation meetings and 30, 60 and 90 day follow-ups, with 6 and 12 month checks; the parking lot for out-of-bounds ideas; the warning against a rapid planning event.
• US EPA, Lean Government Methods Guide (opens in a new tab)Kaizen events typically run three to five days, point kaizen events one to two; preparation steps: select the process, identify a facilitator, select the team with leaders, people who run the process and customers, write the charter in a pre-event meeting; the event maps the current process, then the new one, builds an implementation plan and reports out to leadership on the final day.
• Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Production System (opens in a new tab)Kaizen at Toyota is daily and incremental, done by all employees; the roots of TPS in jidoka and just-in-time.
• Kaizen Institute, What is KAIZEN (opens in a new tab)Masaaki Imai introduced the term to the West with his 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success; kaizen means improvement, continuing improvement in working life; go to the gemba to observe the challenges first-hand.

What this kit does not claim

• Typical savings, payback or percentage improvement figures for kaizen events. None of the primary sources read for this kit publishes a general number, so the kit gives none.
• A claim that five days is the only right length. The EPA guides give three to five days for a kaizen event and one to two for a point kaizen; this kit is built for five and says where to cut.
• Named customers, plants or events. The worked example is invented and labelled as such.

A kaizen event is five days in which a small team measures one process, finds the causes of its biggest loss, tries fixes on the floor, writes the new standard and trains it, then shows the result and the follow-up plan to the people who sponsored it. This kit is everything the facilitator needs to run that week: the guide, the two decks, the workbook and the board.