Kaizen (aka CANI) – The Reason Japan is Ahead of America in Quality

It is sad these days that we are sometimes torn between supporting our own economy and buying a superior product, but it is a choice many of us face every day. For example, If we were looking for a home stereo, we could have a choice between and American built RCA stereo or a Sony stereo.

Which name instinctively attaches “higher quality” to itself? Which one would you assume is more reliable, without knowing anything about the particular products?

For the most part, I think we will agree that when choosing between an RCA and a Sony stereo, the Sony will automatically evoke greater emotion of being higher quality.

Before I start assuming and concluding, lets take a look at a real world example, using the simultaneous launch of a popular car under three popular brands.

This car is today widely known as the Mitsubishi Eclipse. What you might know is the car was re-labeled as the Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser, and also sold under those car manufacturers names.

The Eagle Talon would average 20 sales per dealership in the US, while the Mitsubishi Eclipse would average 100 sales per dealership in the US.

Same exact car, vastly different demand.

Even though people could have supported our economy and bought the Plymouth Lasers or Eagle Talons, they still opted for the identical Japanese Mitsubishi Eclipse.

The reason we assume Japanese products are of higher quality? Because they are.

And the reason they are dates back to the 1950’s and the introduction into the business culture of Japan of “Kaizen” – Japanese for “improvement” or “change for the better”. It refers to a philosophy that focus’ upon continuous improvement of processes in product development and improvement.

Implementation in Ford…

etc…

(unfinished)