Kaizen: Continuous Improvement Strategy Helping Vietnamese Businesses Enhance Efficiency

Date: 2025.05.29

In today’s volatile business world, companies seeking to survive and develop sustainably cannot rely solely on technology or budget. One of the key success factors of leading Japanese companies like Toyota is the Kaizen philosophy – continuous improvement.

So what is Kaizen?Why has it become a widely adopted improvement strategy among global businesses ?
This article will help you understand the essence of Kaizen and how to apply it in Vietnamese businesses to increase productivity, reduce waste, and enhance flexibility.

1. What is Kaizen? Definition and Core Meaning

“Kaizen” (Japanese: 改善) is continuous improvement – small but consistent steps aimed at making every process and task better each day.

Kaizen is no longer limited to manufacturing as before but has expanded to many fields: services, offices, retail, construction, IT… Every manager, employee, and engineer can practice Kaizen.

2. Differences Between Kaizen and Conventional Improvement

・Conventional Improvement: Solving problems, fixing imperfections. Once completed, it’s finished.

・Kaizen: Always seeking ways to do better, even when already performing well. It never stops.

・The Kaizen mindset is “work while finding ways to do better” – helping businesses not rest on their laurels.

3. Benefits of Kaizen for Businesses

・Increased Productivity: Eliminate redundant operations and time waste

・Cost Savings: Small improvements accumulate to create significant changes

・Enhanced Participation: Employees have a voice and motivation to improve their work

・Develop Corporate Culture: Positive thinking, continuous learning and adaptation

4. Steps for Effective Kaizen Implementation

① Identify Problems: Find inefficiencies, redundant steps, and waste in processes.
② Propose Improvements: Brainstorm small, highly feasible ideas.
③ Implement and Evaluate: Pilot implementation, monitor effectiveness, adjust and standardize the processes.

Continuity – The Foundation of Kaizen

Kaizen has no stopping point. After each improvement, we start a new cycle: identify problems, propose solutions, implement, evaluate…

– Identify and List Problems: First, carefully observe the current situation to identify all existing problems and inefficiencies. These could be unreasonable points in processes, redundant steps, wasted waiting time, safety risks, etc. Thoroughly solving problems helps us see clearly what needs improvement. Once inefficiencies are listed, share them with everyone in the team/group/factory for discussion. It’s important to clarify the benefits of solving each problem.
For example: if fixing error A reduces time by what percentage, if eliminating waste B saves how much cost… Visualizing specific benefits will motivate people to participate actively in Kaizen.

– Propose Improvement Solutions: Once problems are clearly understood, the next step is brainstorming ideas for improvement. Each problem may have multiple different solutions – encourage everyone to contribute creative ideas.
Important note: think in terms of “how to make the current good situation better” rather than just focusing on fixing what’s wrong. In other words, don’t fall into the passive rut of “fix problems as they arise,” because if you only focus on patching errors, once the bad points are fixed, people easily feel the job is done and stop there. Instead, ask “How can we make things better than they are now?” and generate ideas based on that. Only this way will Kaizen ideas not be limited, and after addressing weaknesses, we continue to have direction to elevate work quality.
For example, instead of just thinking “how to reduce error rates to acceptable levels?”, think “how to eliminate errors completely?”. Instead of just reducing redundant steps, think “is there a way to automate this step?”… Thinking toward ideal states will inspire more bold and breakthrough improvement ideas.

– Implementation and Evaluation: After selecting feasible solutions, implement them at an appropriate scale. During implementation, closely monitor results and new developments. Usually, when implementing Kaizen, many new points to note or improvement ideas emerge – record all of these. After the trial period, evaluate effectiveness: Were the set goals achieved? Did new problems arise? Were results as expected?… Based on this evaluation, we adjust solutions if needed and standardize what has been improved. More importantly, evaluation results will be the basis for planning the next Kaizen cycle – returning to step 1, continuing to identify new problems and repeating the process. Always remember, Kaizen is a continuous cycle, not a project with an endpoint.

5. Case Study: Toyota – The Secret of Success Lies in the Culture of “Asking Why”

Toyota is famous for its deep-rooted Kaizen culture. Employees are encouraged to continuously ask: “Why do we do it this way?”, “Why hasn’t waste been addressed?”… That’s the difference: Kaizen is not just a tool, but a way of working.

Toyota, Japan’s leading automotive company, is considered the “cradle” that gave birth to and developed Kaizen philosophy systematically. Toyota pioneered the application of Kaizen and achieved resounding success, to the extent that Kaizen became synonymous with the famous Toyota Production System.

At Toyota, Kaizen is considered the core at the center of work, not something to do when free. A distinctive cultural trait at Toyota that embodies the Kaizen spirit is the habit of always asking “Why?”. Toyota employees are encouraged to seriously question their work: Why do we do it the current way? Is there a better way? Why does this step need many people? Why hasn’t that data been visualized?… They regularly ask why about every issue in their work.

For example, a Toyota employee might ask: “Why do we have to perform this process the current way?” or “Why haven’t those good improvements/ideas been scaled to other departments?”.

Always asking “why not better, how to be better” has become deeply ingrained in Toyota people’s thinking. Thanks to this, all employees proactively seek improvement opportunities within their work scope, creating synergistic power that helps Toyota continuously improve and enhance efficiency sustainably. It’s no wonder Toyota maintains superior competitive strength even during recession or crisis periods – because Kaizen culture has become their core advantage. Kaizen is not an empty slogan; it’s the daily habit of every Toyota worker.

6. Advice for Promoting Kaizen in Businesses

If your business is already practicing Kaizen or just starting to implement it, the following key points can help ensure more effective:

– Visualize Work Processes: Visually represent processes and work stages (through diagrams, charts, management software, etc.) so everyone can clearly see the current workflow. Seeing the process helps identify specifically where Kaizen should focus. In other words, to clarify Kaizen content, the step of visualizing current processes is indispensable. When processes are mapped out, we can easily point out bottlenecks and waste at which stages and focus improvement in the right places, instead of groping around.

– Apply Technology and Digital Transformation (DX): Don’t hesitate to invest in applying new technology systems to work. Tools like production management software, automation systems, AI, IoT… may be expensive initially but if used properly will help free up labor and dramatically improve efficiency. The ultimate goal is still “making the workplace better,” so if a digitization solution helps achieve that goal, it should be considered for implementation. The new era requires combining traditional Kaizen with Industry 4.0 technology to create breakthrough leaps.

– Include Kaizen in Employee Evaluation Criteria: Kaizen is ultimately implemented by workers themselves. If employees aren’t enthusiastic about participating, results will be limited. Therefore, businesses should encourage and recognize employees’ Kaizen efforts, for example by including “improvement contribution” criteria in the reward-evaluation system. When employees know their Kaizen initiatives are valued (even linked to salary increases, promotions), they will have stronger motivation to proactively improve. A culture that honors “Kaizen stars” will also create positive ripple effects throughout the company.

– Promote Inter-Departmental Cooperation: Kaizen is not limited to one individual or department, but ideally is a company-wide improvement effort. Many improvements will require cooperation between departments (for example: production improvements may need support from engineering, quality, logistics departments…). Leadership can establish inter-departmental Kaizen groups, or simply organize regular exchanges between departments to discuss improvement ideas together. This increased connectivity ensures that when collective effort is needed to solve problems, departments will be ready to coordinate smoothly.

Kaizen will be much more effective if the entire organization operates as a united team rather than everyone working independently.

Additionally, commitment from senior management is indispensable. Leaders need to play roles in encouragement, resource support, and creating an environment that encourages innovation. When bosses value Kaizen, employees will feel secure and enthusiastic about implementation. For Kaizen culture to be sustainable, it must be nurtured from the top down and spread from the bottom up.

7. Conclusion: Kaizen – Sustainable Thinking, Long-term Foundation

Kaizen doesn’t require large investment or mean high cost increases. The key to success with Kaizen is commitment, unity, and sustained effort from the entire organization.

Start with the smallest changes in daily work, because Kaizen is a journey – not a destination.