| Masaaki Imai | |
| Known For: | Founding Kaizen Institute |
| Birth Date: | 1 September 1930 |
| Birth Place: | Tokyo, Japan |
| Spouse: | Noriko Imai |
| Children: | 2 |
, 1930–2023, was a Japanese organizational theorist and management consultant known for his work on quality management, specifically on kaizen. Known as the father of Continuous Improvement (CI), Masaaki Imai has been apioneer and leader in spreading the kaizen philosophy all over the world.[1] [2] [3]
In 1986, Imai published "Kaizen, The Key to Japan's Competitive Success", which was an instant global bestseller, firmly embedding the word kaizen in the corporate lexicon. It wasthe first book to introduce the Lean philosophy to the world. His firsthand account isbased on his close associations and travels with Shoichiro Toyoda and Taichi Ohno and revealsthe secrets behind the success of Toyota and other Japanese companies.
Mr. Imai’s sequel book on this subject, "Gembakaizen: A Commonsense, Low-costApproach to Management", was published in 1997. This book uses relevant case studies todetail 21 practical kaizen management practices, including methodologies and tools to apply where the real action occurs. The result: greater productivity, quality, and profitsachieved with minimal cost and time.
In keeping with his philosophy of never-ending Continuous Improvement, Mr. Imai foundedKaizen Institute in 1985, a global management consulting firm promoting kaizen and lean practices. The concept of kaizen is to make simple, common-sense improvements andrefinements to critical end-to-end business processes- supporting the overall CI strategy of theorganization. Today, companies around the world have used kaizen for greater productivity,speed, quality, and profits with minimal cost, time, and effort to get results and to becomerecognized industry leaders. Masaaki Imai continues to play a significant role as theAmbassador and visionary of the organization while actively participating.
In November 1998, Masaaki Imai received the Asia-Pacific Human Resource Development.Award in recognition of his immense contribution to business efficiency and productivity throughthe application of the philosophy of step-by-step improvement. In June 1999, he received theShingo Research and Professional Research Prize for his book Gembakaizen. In 2010, he wasawarded the first Honorary Fellowship of Quality Control in India. Further, in 2019, MasaakiImai was awarded by the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation with "The BrandLaureate Legendary Award".
After retirement, he has been actively engaged in spreading the Toyota Way in Japan andabroad. In 2012, he published a book, “Toyota Production System” (in Japanese only), acollection of some 50 cases of his own consulting.Masaaki Imai’s latest book "Strategic KAIZEN™" was published in 2021 and completed thetrilogy of his authoritative work on the kaizen approach.
"KAI" means change, and "ZEN" means for the better, together "Change for the better".Kaizen refers to a philosophy or practices that focus upon Continuous Improvementregardless of the type of business or process. Masaaki Imai acknowledged that kaizenstarts with the detection of needs and problem definition:
"The starting point for improvement is to recognize the need. This comes fromthe recognition of a problem. If no problem is recognized, there is no recognition of theneed for improvement. Complacency is the archenemy of KAIZEN™." [9]