ABSTRACT
Kaizen is a Japanese term for “continuous improvement” or “continual improvement”. A philosophy that involves making the work environment more efficient and effective. Kaizen aims to eliminate waste such as “activities that adds cost but does not add value”. It also means “to take it apart and put it back together in a better way”. This is then followed by standardization of this ‘better way’ with others, through standardized work. The key objectives are: elimination of waste, quality control, just in time delivery, standardized work and the use of efficient equipments. Implementation of kaizen costing system in a restaurant business would mean to achieve the given objectives. To incorporate this principle in the various operations of the business, to measure it’s effect against requirements and continuously standardize the operations to achieve maximum productivity with respect to cost reduction, profitability, employee’s satisfaction and customer service.
INTRODUCTION
Kaizen can be defined as a means of continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life. At the workplace, Kaizen means continuing improvement involving everyone—managers and workers alike. The Kaizen business strategy involves everyone in an organization working together to make improvements without large capital investments. To adopt Kaizen means to be ever willing to change. Instead of spending more money in buying machinery or running them for a longer duration, Kaizen veers an organization towards paying attention to small but significant details. Managers are encouraged to improve the efficiency of existing infrastructure instead of investing in more of the same. It requires managers to ensure sustained improvement to continuously improve the organization 's ability to meet expectations of high quality, low cost products and on-time delivery. Kaizen can be also called as a holistic approach to management as it
References: 1. Target costing and kaizen costing in Japanese automobile companies by Monden, Yasuhiro, Hamada, Kazuki, Journal of Management Accounting Research, 10492127, Fall 91, Vol.3. 2. MIT Sloan Management Review 3. www.lifepositive.com, Changing with Kaizen by Swati Chopra 4. KAIZEN by Masaaki Imai