Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success

For the professional manager or student of management, a comprehensive handbook of 16 Kaizen management practices that can be put to work. KAIZEN uses more than 100 examples in action and contains 15 corporate case studies.

Books about Japanese management have become kind of a cottage industry, from Theory Z ( LJ 5/1/81) to The Art of Japanese Management ( LJ 8/1/81) and The Mind of the Strategist ( LJ 6/1/82) to Kaisha: the Japanese corporation ( LJ 12/85). This volume covers some of the same groundthe current superiority of Japanese management stylebut approaches things from a different perspective. Essentially, Imai contends that the Japanese edge can be found in a philosophical orientation captured in the concept of Kaizen. Kaizen management is anchored in the notion of perpetual improvementeven if all is going well. In contrast to U.S.-style management, it takes a longer-run view and is process-oriented rather than geared to immediate results. Importantly, the Kaizen philsophy is also quantifiable , rooted in the mathematics of quality control theory. Recommended. Gene Laczniak, Coll. of Business Administration, Marquette Univ., Milwaukee
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