From the course: Lean Six Sigma Foundations

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Continuous improvement

Continuous improvement

- If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. Pretty good advice from Pat Riley, the famous basketball coach. You simply cannot stand still because your competitors are continuously getting better and passing you by. You also must continuously improve. The business world knows this too. Most of us work in a continuous improvement environment and use lean principles to some extent. Every lean tool is intended to enable improvement in the process through the reduction of waste and wasteful activities. The lean expression is kaizen, a Japanese word that means gradual and orderly continuous improvement. Kaizen is intended to be used in all business activities. Not just in the production area, but also in services, administration, safety, transportation, new product development, and literally every part of the organization. So any effort to improve any part of your business is technically a kaizen event. With a kaizen philosophy, you're not trying to make the process perfect. You…

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