Lean Archives - Quality During Design

Understanding the Purposes behind Kaizen

In the quality world, kaizen is a tool for continuous improvement under the umbrella of a Lean philosophy. The quality-tool kaizen is just one layer of a larger, overarching idea that we benefit from small, incremental improvements made consistently. Kaizen as a tool involves all employees of the company toward continuous improvement. The way kaizen events are…

What are TQM, QFD, Six Sigma, and Lean?

You may have heard of QMS but are not sure how your activities fit in. Or, you’ve heard of QFD, ISO 9000, Six Sigma, Lean…these cryptic names that you’re not sure what they’re about. You may be doing activities under one of your company’s procedures and asking, “Why am I spending time on this?” Sometimes it’s good to re-orient to the big picture.…