KAI ZEN Change Goodness Unisex T-shirt | Gift for Lean Manufacturing Experts

KAIZEN IS THE WAY

Kaizen means continuous improvement, but KAI translates to CHANGE and ZEN (roughly) translates to GOODNESS.

A cool gift for lean manufacturing practitioners, industrial engineers, process improvement experts, and six sigma black belts. 

Offered in five striking color combinations. Also offered in a women's fashion fit.

#IYKYK. If you don’t know…

The Toyota Production System (TPS), aka lean manufacturing, has two pillars: respect for people and continuous improvement. That is, improvement in all processes, not only those found on the shop floor. 

Continuous improvements are necessarily small improvements. These are kaizen improvements. The benefits stack up, like compound interest. With kaizen, you aim near to go far, and before you know it, your processes are reliably great. 

The godfather of kaizen is Masaaki Imai. He introduced kaizen to the Western world…the term and the concept. 

We could arm wrestle and say that Womack and Jones made the initial introductions, but it was the Imai who wrote the book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. Later he wrote Gembakaizen: A Commonsense, Low-cost Approach to Management. "Gembakaizen," spoken as one word, is so much more fun to say. BTW, “gemba” is “the real place,” or “where the real work is done."

“Lean is easy. Find the problem, solve the problem.” 

That’s a quote from Gary Peterson, Executive Vice President, O.C. Tanner Company. Gary’s remark is a shorter version—with an editorial addition—of Masaaki Imai’s, “The starting point for improvement is to recognize the need. This comes from the recognition of a problem. If no problem is recognized, there is no recognition of the need for improvement.” See also Alcoholics Anonymous’s step 1 of 12. 

 If you look around your processes and see no opportunity for improvement, well friend, look again. Lean practitioners sometimes feel like Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live. We have the waste-revealing sunglasses and we can’t take them off. 

We’ve also heard our second nature likened to nine-year-old Cole Sear (pronounced see-er. We’re on to you M. Night.) in Sixth Sense who sees dead people who don’t know they’re dead. We see waste that the people around us don’t see.

 Regardless of the pop culture reference you prefer, you gotta see the problem before applying kaizen.

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Offered exclusively to QI Curiosities customers.

Here at Quality Improvement Curiosities, buying in small batches pays! Get an escalating discount when you buy multiple shirts in any combination. Buy 3-4 and get 15% off. Buy 5 and get 20% off. Buy 6+ and get 25% off.

Our comfy t-shirts are soft and lightweight with the right amount of stretch.

• 100% combed and ring-spun cotton (Heather colors contain polyester)
• Fabric weight: 4.2 oz./yd.² (142 g/m²)
• Pre-shrunk fabric
• Side-seamed construction
• Shoulder-to-shoulder taping
• Blank product sourced from Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, or the US

This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!

Size guide