**Abstract**

Lean and Kaizen improvement methodologies have been in the entrepreneurship spotlight for a long time. They can be adopted by any kind of enterprise, and they succeed in producing better long-term results, improving their performance, but most important, influencing the philosophy of the organizations implemented. In this research, many case studies and success stories of companies implementing Kaizen or/and Lean methodologies, or even the new Lean Kaizen methodology, will be introduced. We attempt to evaluate the performance of Lean and Kaizen implemented companies and distinguish the elements that made the difference. Maybe, it is some specific tool, or an aspect in the culture that was enhanced, since the implementation of these business process improvement methodologies. Finally, thoughts and estimations will be presented, regarding the future of these methodologies, in the unstable and rapidly changing economic environment.

**Keywords:** Lean, Kaizen, Lean Kaizen, performance, process improvement

#### **1. Introduction**

This chapter presents the methodologies of Lean and Kaizen, their contribution in the enterprises' field and their future potential contribution to the field of management.

#### **1.1 Lean (production, manufacturing or management)**

First of all, lean manufacturing, will be referred, as it seems to be a methodology, that was keenly embraced and wields a great acceptance in the management (theoretical and practical) world. It started with the efforts of Toyota automobile company, while some believe that Ford motor company, was also a great influence in creating its concept.

Its main scope and its achievement is the elimination of waste and this can lead in an increase in productivity.

There are many proven cases of continuous improvement with the implementation of lean thinking methods and tools. However, it is not a concept that impose specific rules or tools to be implemented, but rather it is a philosophy that encourages efforts in order to achieve its main goal, which is to eliminate waste.

#### **1.2 Kaizen**

Kaizen is more of a philosophy than specific technique or methodology, yet it has also affected and changed seriously the minds of the managers. It utilizes many analytical techniques to succeed in its mission, as value-stream mapping and the5 why's.

It has been introduced that these two methodologies have provided valuable assets in the field of management. It is notable that in the last years, Lean is also referred as Lean Management, representing the value that the methodology has produced in the management field. Moreover, and even though these two above methodologies, were introduced in the manufacturing field, they have managed to expand in all business industries and it seems that have achieved much in improving organizational performance. They are highly appreciated in the theoretical and practical field of management. They are considered (many times along with Six Sigma), as business process improvement methodologies, since they aim at improving all the processes in an organization. They perform activities in order to gather data, to track and evaluate all the functioning processes, and of course, they apply a continuous improvement effort.

However, in the last years, many other aspects have emerged in the economic status, like the constant economic uncertainty, which seems to be critical and threatens even the existence of many companies. Hence, the answer to be answered is if and with which manner could these methodologies keep up their efforts and produce sustainable solutions for the enterprises.

To answer these questions many writings from experts in the field were looked into the literature and their views were registered. In the conclusion, the future aspects of these methodologies will also be presented.

#### **2. Introduction to Kaizen and Lean**

#### **2.1 Lean**

Lean is called by many names as lean manufacturing, lean production, or lean thinking. New terms are the lean management and lean industry.

The main focus of the Lean methodology, is to eliminate waste in order to obtain more resources dedicated in finding ways to satisfy the customers. It intends to intervene to the value stream of the organization, in order to improve or eliminate every unneeded process that waste resources. It is also said that lean production was founded on the idea of Kaizen.

It has a great history and it is always linked to automotive industry. Many ideas that form the lean philosophy, were created by car companies like Ford and Toyota. Sometimes lean thinking is referred as a synonymous to Toyota or Toyota production system.

Author [1] has presented the Toyota Production System, which has been defined as a method which focuses on defining and eliminating non-value added activities or waste in all systems and processes [2]. One of its approaches was the Just-in-time (JIT) methodology, which acquired the necessary resources when they were exactly needed and helped in solving many material flow problems.

Authors [3], in their book 'Lean thinking: Banish waste and create wealth in your corporation', that introduced lean to a broader audience, have managed to extend the concept in a general perspective. The same authors, define lean as: "a way to specify value, line up value creating actions in the best sequence, conduct these activities without interruption whenever someone requests them, and perform them more and more effectively".

Lean is a multi-faceted concept which was identified and coined to explain the success of the "Japanese Way of Working" that enhanced their increased competitiveness at the time [4].

*Lean and Kaizen: The Past and the Future of the Methodologies DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96169*

Components of the "Lean Idea" include:

This view of Lean was endorsed [9], categorizing the components of Lean into four "bundles":

To be successful in implementing all these Lean facets in a coordinated, coherent manner, strong leadership and a clear alignment with organizational strategy over many years is required.

The 4P's model of lean are:

In the book of [10], the 14 principles for continuous improvement are categorized in four pillars (P's):

The above framework is created and implemented in Toyota company.

### *2.1.1 Customer value*

Lean emphasizes in the provision of value to the customer and there are three types of value:

#### *Lean Manufacturing*