Introduction to Kaizen: a Valuable Itsm Tool

Although not part of the ITIL® framework, Kaizen can enable continuous improvement in IT service delivery. Started in the early 20^th century by Sakichi Toyoda, Kaizen attempts to create a culture of continuous improvement in an organization. Let’s look at Kaizen and how it can be used in an ITIL and ITSM environment.

Continuous improvement in ITSM, ITIL, and Kaizen

IT service management (ITSM) refers to all activities surrounding the planning, deployment, management, improvement, and retirement of IT service delivery. ITIL provides a set of best practices and a framework for implementing an ITSM environment.

The two recent ITIL versions, ITIL v3 and ITIL v4, define improvement as a core area for ITSM. The Continual Process Improvement (CPI) core area of the ITIL v3 service lifecycle and the Improve step of the ITIL v4 Service Value Chain both define continual improvement of products, services, and practices as a key component of ITIL and ITSM.

The goals of continual improvement are to:

• Perform service review on existing processes
• Evaluate all processes and procedures that deliver a service
• Define new initiatives to improve services
• Monitor prior improvements
• Introduce corrective actions, as needed

It’s here—in the improvement function—that Kaizen can contribute most to ITSM and ITIL.

What is Kaizen?

Borrowing from a Japanese word for “improvement”, Kaizen is a philosophy that gave rise to a methodology for continuous improvement. Kaizen is designed to create a culture of continuous improvement in an organization and that culture can be extended to the IT function. Implementing Kaizen successfully offers a variety of benefits:

• Improving existing processes
• Gaining efficiencies
• Reducing setup times
• Removing waste
• Enabling a quicker time to market

Kaizen is perhaps most recognized for its success in manufacturing environments, for instance, The Toyota Way. Kaizen is often associated with Lean and Six Sigma environment. But the Kaizen principles can just as easily be applied to IT management: your company can harness Kaizen to better enable and improve IT service delivery.

Kaizen and Kaizen events fit perfectly into the ITIL v3 framework and the ITIL v4 Improve area by giving you a sub-framework, philosophy, and methodology for performing continuous service improvement, particularly in the areas of problem management, event management, and incident management.

At its core, improvement is about change. Kaizen deals with continuous improvement as opposed to breakthrough change.