External and Internal Kaizen Customers

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Kaizen concept which grew into a true business philosophy in Japan is widely used all over the world. The concept studies processes and possible improvements that can be made to deliver customers high quality products/services.Learn more about Kaizen customers and principles in this article. Check additional information about Kaizen customers.

Kaizen concept originates from Japan. It translates as change for the better. What can be a better slogan for any company and business? Japanese have assumed that perfect things do not exist at all, and their perfectionism seems really astonishing to Europeans and Americans. However, very soon ay became understood that there is barely a better business philosophy compared to Kaizen. Just imagine such a situation: employees at all company levels and in all business units are thinking of the ways to improve own performance and come up with ideas on how to make existing business processes better.

Kaizen concept is often associated with Lean Production which was first adopted by Japanese companies like Toyota or Canon. Very soon, the above companies showed fantastic increase in overall sales growth. Kaizen is about introduction of changes in the company, and many Japanese businesses have changed forever.

It should be noted that Kaizen is more characteristic of Japanese companies because of differences in mentality. The need for constant improvement is a credo of every Japanese citizen. Kaizen often fails in Western companies as employees require prior education and training in order to successfully adopt this system. It often happens that quality of products and services is sacrificed in order to meet deadline and implement goals set by Kaizen.

It is interesting that Kaizen considers products quality as a supreme value. According to Kaizen concept, organization is doomed to fail without quality products or services. Thus, sometimes product quality matters more than cost and timelines for Kaizen.

There is a concept of external and internal customers. In Kaizen every process is considered as a customer for the preceding one. Thus, every production stage becomes a customer for the next stage in order to achieve positive outcome. Thus, if internal customer gets a quality product, external customers (buyers) will also enjoy high quality products, which improves sales growth and revenue increase. In fact, this is a very simple and easy to understand concept. The final production line as an end customer must get quality product to offer it to external customers who are courses of revenue for the company.

Kaizen concept is mainly directed at satisfaction of customer needs. It is clear that customers are sources of income for any company, and it is not a secret that every company sets financial goals. Kaizen looks for answers to the question: "How can we perform better to deliver our customers high quality products at a reasonable price?"

It is important that Kaizen concept is first adopted by top management since top managers have the power to make decisions. Even if lower level managers and employees come up with useful suggestions they will never transform into decisions unless top managers are personally interested in it.

Kaizen concept establishes ties between outcomes and processes used to achieve them. If outcomes are not good, then obviously the processes involved were not OK as well. Unlike radical changes characteristic of western companies, Kaizen implies small changes which yield fantastic results over time.

If you are interested in Kaizen customers, check this link to find out more about Kaizen customers. Also, you can check other articles in Customer Service and Call centers category.

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