What should a kaizen event tracker include?

The event and its area, the sponsor, process owner, facilitator and team, the dates, the status, one main metric with its baseline, target and result, the open actions, and the 30, 60 and 90 day checks. Savings are worth tracking too, kept separate as hard and soft.

What is the difference between the process owner and the facilitator?

The facilitator runs the event: the method, the schedule and the report-out. The process owner runs the process every day and owns the actions and the result once the event is over. The sponsor sets the scope and clears roadblocks.

What statuses should a kaizen event have?

A simple set works: proposed, approved, scheduled, event week, follow-up, closed, plus on hold and cancelled. Follow-up is the stage that matters most, from the report-out to the 90-day check.

What are 30, 60 and 90 day checks after a kaizen event?

Walks of the area 30, 60 and 90 days after the report-out to see whether the new standard is followed, the metric is holding and the open actions are closed. They catch the slide back to the old way while it is still easy to fix.

How do you measure the result of a kaizen event?

Compare the result with the baseline and the target on the same measure. The % of the gap closed, (result − baseline) ÷ (target − baseline), shows how far the event got: 100% is the target reached, more than 100% is beaten.

Free template

Updated October 1, 2026

Kaizen event tracker

A kaizen event tracker is the list a CI lead keeps of every kaizen event in the plant, from the day it is proposed to the last follow-up check: who owns the process, who facilitates, who is on the team, when it runs, where it stands, what it set out to move and what happened. Events fail most often after the report-out, when the open actions drift and nobody checks whether the new standard holds, so the tracker keeps the follow-up in view as well as the event itself. Page 1 of the PDF is the tracker, one row per event with a status circle from proposed to closed, the metric's baseline, target and result, actions open and total, and boxes for the 30, 60 and 90 day checks. Page 2 is the record of one event: the team and their roles, the metrics from baseline to the 90-day result, the open actions and the sustain checks. The Excel version takes up to 40 events and an action list, and works out the % of the gap closed, whether the target was met, the open and late actions for each event, when each check is due, the next check, and a flag for overdue checks, events past their end date and events ready to close, with a summary by status.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the kaizen event tracker: fields for site, year and CI lead, a status key from proposed to cancelled, and a 14-row table with event, area, process owner, facilitator, team, dates, a status circle, metric, baseline, target, result, actions and three check boxes. — One row per eventProcess owner, facilitator, teamStatus from proposed to closedBaseline, target, result% of gap closedOpen and late actions30, 60 and 90 day checksEvent record sheet

When to use it

When to use a kaizen event tracker

When a site runs more than a handful of kaizen events a year and needs one list of where each one stands.
At the weekly or monthly CI review, to go through the events in follow-up and the actions still open.
To make sure every closed event had its 30, 60 and 90 day checks and the result held.
To report results to the plant manager or Finance: targets met, savings and what is still open.

How to fill it in

1
Add the event when it is proposed
Name the problem and the area, and put down the sponsor and the process owner. An event with no process owner has nobody to keep the result after the report-out.
2
Fill in the roles and dates from the charter
Facilitator, team members and team size, the event dates and the report-out. The kaizen event charter template has the full scope, schedule and sign-off.
3
Set one main metric
The measure the event will move, its unit, whether lower or higher is better, the baseline and the target. Measure the baseline before the event, not during it.
4
Write the result and the open actions at the report-out
The result on the last day, and every action the team could not finish on the action list with the event's number, an owner and a due date. The Excel version counts the open and late actions for each event.
5
Do the 30, 60 and 90 day checks
Walk the area with the process owner: is the new standard followed, is the metric holding, are the actions closed? Mark each check holding, slipping or lost.
6
Close the event only when it has held
Move it to closed after the 90-day check, with no open actions. The Excel flags events ready to close and checks that are past their date.

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example tracker for one plant's CI program (illustrative), with the same events as the Excel worked example.

Press 4 changeover: baseline 55 minutes, target 25, result 22. (22 − 55) ÷ (25 − 55) = 110% of the gap closed, target met. All six actions done and the 30, 60 and 90 day checks holding, so it is closed.
Kitting for line 2: line stops for parts from 14 a week to a target of 4, result 6, so 80% of the gap closed and the target not met. Two of its five actions are still open. The 30-day check held and the 60-day check was due on August 18.
Packing cell 5S and layout: walking per order from 180 m to a target of 90 m, result 95 m, 94% of the gap. Its 90-day check was due on August 6.
Weld spatter rework is scheduled for October 19 to 23, and an office event on order entry errors is proposed.

Five events: one closed, two in follow-up, one scheduled and one proposed. Of the three with a result, one met its target. Both events in follow-up have a check past its date, which the Excel flags as Check overdue, and the two open kitting actions are what stands between that event and closing.

Common mistakes

Closing the event at the report-out
The report-out is the middle of an event, not the end. Without the 30, 60 and 90 day checks, a good result often slides back within weeks.
No process owner
The facilitator moves on to the next event. The person who runs the process every day has to own the actions and the result.
A result with no baseline
If the baseline was not measured before the event, nobody can say how much it improved. Measure it the same way you will measure the result.
Actions kept in someone's notebook
Put every open action on the list with an owner and a date, against the event's number, so the open count on the tracker is true.

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 every Kaizen sits in a live portfolio with automatic reminders for 30-60-90 day sustaining tasks, and workflow rules require Finance to sign off on the savings before a project closes.

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