​Kaizen is Japanese for “improvement” or “change for the better." Public Health Foundation (PHF) experts have developed the following tools that can support Kaizen Process Improvement Events:

• Clean Sheet Process Redesign - Empowers a team to act when a process requires a radical change
• Mistake Proofing - Helps to prevent errors in a process
• PICK Chart - Enables a team to organize ideas and prioritize decisions to achieve consensus
• Process Value Analysis - Assigns each step in a process a value as a ratio of function compared to cost
• SCAMPER Technique - Helps a team generate many ideas for improvement

These tools are supplements to the 2012 Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia, a practical guide to using 75 tools for quality improvement practitioners in public health organizations. The book was distributed to all state and local health departments, and may be purchased through PHF's Online Store.

A Kaizen Process Improvement Event enables an organization to analyze and improve a troubled process over a brief, concentrated period, during which participants learn the Kaizen approach and related tools. It is a large, cross-functional process improvement event. In this intensive, two-day offering, the learning begins with a pre-workshop webinar to introduce concepts and prepare for onsite work. Then a two-day facilitated onsite change process incorporates process improvement tools, data utilization, process redesign, and communicating about the change.

Ready to get started with a Kaizen Process Improvement Event?

PHF is ready to assist. Contact Margie Beaudry at (202)218-4415 or mbeaudry@phf.org. You can also submit your information online.

Related Resource

​PHF's 2011 online book, Modular kaizen: Dealing with Disruption