Japanese management practices succeed simply because they are good management practices. This success has little to do with cultural factors. And the lack of cultural bias means that these practices can be - and are - just as successfully employed elsewhere.

Kaizen means ongoing improvement involving everybody, without spending much money.

Where there is no standard, there can be no improvement. For these reasons, standards are the basis for both maintenance and improvement

I believe that management should focus on two particular areas. One is Gemba (shop floor) and the other is customer (not the shareholder).

Under the lean system, any tools which are required for solving problems are used.

Japanese management practices succeed simply because they are good management practices. This success has little to do with cultural factors. And the lack of cultural bias means that these practices can be - and are - just as successfully employed elsewhere.

It is impossible to improve any process until it is standardized. If the process is shifting from here to there, then any improvement will just be one more variation that is occasionally used and mostly ignored. One must standardize, and thus stabilize the process, before continuous improvement can be made.