CI002

Broader Kaizen Participation vs. Faster Improvement Decisions

Business Context. Involving a wide range of frontline employees in Kaizen events surfaces more improvement ideas and builds ownership, but coordinating input from a large group can slow down the decision of which ideas to actually implement.

Process TRIZ Resolution. Rather than requiring group consensus before acting, organizations should gather broad input during the Kaizen event itself, then delegate the final selection decision to a small facilitation team empowered to choose quickly from the ideas generated.

Applicable TRIZ Principles

Principle 24 (Intermediary) delegates final selection to a small facilitation team drawing on broad input.

Principle 19 (Periodic Action) sets a fixed decision point at the end of the Kaizen event rather than extending deliberation.

Principle 3 (Local Quality) separates the broad idea-generation role from the narrower decision-making role.

Expected Outcome

Broad participation and ownership

Fast implementation decisions

Reduced event follow-up delay

Sustained employee engagement

Decision Indicators

Kaizen events generate ideas that are never acted upon quickly.

Decision-making after the event takes longer than the event itself.

No clear decision authority exists at the end of a Kaizen event.

Employees lose enthusiasm waiting for follow-through on their ideas.

Consensus-seeking has replaced timely decision-making in improvement events.

If several of these indicators are present, the contradiction is likely active and the Process TRIZ resolution above should be evaluated.