A framework for implementation of the Kaizen(R) Management System Audit

Since its establishment in Europe in 1992, Kaizen(R) Institute has been designing and implementing tailor-made programmes to assist a wide range of businesses to improve. This approach has provided a broad base of experience on what companies need to have in place to make an improvement system truly continuous. In 1997, we consolidated this experience into a structured set of questions which captured the approach an experienced consultant would take on assessing the improvement status of a company being visited for the first time. During 1998 this diagnosis tool was developed into a model which shows not only where a company´s improvement system is now, but what they should be aspiring to in the future. This is what we now call the Kaizen(R) Management System Audit. The Audit has since been used with all of Kaizen(R) Institute´s long-established UK clients and has proved an effective means for measuring attainment of those aspects of the change process which are not reflected in conventional business indicators