The planned improvement is assumed to be attainable, so kaizen standards are a type of currently attainable standard.
Actions are taken to implement the planned improvements(the Do step). Next, actual results (e.g., costs) are compared with the kaizen standard to provide a measure of the level of improvement attained (the Check step).
Setting this new level as a minimum standard for future performance locks in the realized improvements and initiates simultaneously the maintenance cycle and a search for additional improvement opportunities (the Act step).
The maintenancecycle follows a Standard-Do-Check-Act sequence. A standard is set based on prior improvements (locking in these improvements). Next, actions are taken (the Do step) and the results checked to ensure that performance conforms to this new level(the Check step).
If not, then corrective actions are taken to restore performance (the Act step). The kaizen cost-reduction process is summarized in Exhibit 5-11.