Where and What
improve.
Lean and Kaizen aren't just theoretical concepts—they're approaches that deliver results. Waste is hidden in every process. Take a look at the areas of a company where opportunities most often arise—and what specific improvements look like.
Areas for Improvement
Improvement isn't limited to the production line. Waste lurks in every process—in quality, logistics, maintenance, and administration. Kaizen is a universal approach that can be applied wherever non-value-added activities occur.
Below are seven areas where our customers most often find opportunities—along with specific examples of improvements.
Three Questions Before the Start
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Where does it hurt?
Which process causes the most complaints or downtime?
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What can be measured?
Without a measurable indicator, we don't know if we've improved.
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Who sees this every day?
The best ideas come from those who are actively involved in the process.
— /LEAN PRINCIPLES
Eight industries. The same waste, different settings.
Lean isn't just for automakers. In every industry, you'll find six Kaizen projects that come up most often—along with the problems they address and their typical outcomes. You'll recognize yourself in at least one of them.
01
Manufacturing Industry
“The plan was for 800 units; we produced 610, and no one knows where the other 190 went.” Waste isn’t visible on the production floor because everyone sees it every day. Most often, projects address downtime, rework, and quality—things that cost money every shift and can be measured.
SMED: Changeover of the press in 12 minutes
Changing the mold took 40 minutes, so it was better to produce large batches. Video of one mold change: preparation off the machine, quick-release clamps → 12 minutes; smaller batches, work-in-progress down 30%.
Hourly Schedule: Plan / Actual / Reason
The loss was discovered at the end of the shift, and no one knew the reason anymore. A board by the production line showing the reason for the variance every hour → the problem is addressed during that same hour, not at the monthly meeting.
Poka-yoke in Assembly
The same mistake every month, a different operator each time. The part gets stuck in the fixture—it simply won't fit → zero pieces assembled. Not −90%, but zero.
Supermarket and Kanban at the Production Line
The production line was shut down because “I don’t have the materials,” and the warehouse claimed it had sent everything. Min/max inventory levels at the production line and a kanban card instead of a phone call → material-related stoppages reduced by 70%.
Autonomous Maintenance (TPM, Steps 1–3)
The machine would break down every Friday at 2:00 p.m., and the maintenance technician would simply fix the problem instead of addressing its root causes. The operator cleans, lubricates, and inspects the machine daily according to a single A4 page → breakdowns down by 30%.
Collecting Ideas from Operators
The best ideas stayed in the locker room because no one responded. Kaizen cards, responses within 5 days, a small reward for implementation → 2 ideas per employee per year, 80% of them implemented.
02
5S in the Nurses' Station
The pump, bandages, and medications were always in a different place than the last time. One location, one quantity, a reference chart → 0 minutes spent searching, giving the nurse 45 minutes per shift to spend with patients.
Visual Triage Board in the Emergency Department
No one could tell who was waiting, how long they had been waiting, or for whom. A real-time display showing each patient’s status → time to first contact with a doctor reduced by 40%.
Preoperative Preparation Checklist: 48 Hours in Advance
Surgeries were canceled on the day of the procedure because results or consent were missing. Checklist with the patient two days in advance → 60% fewer surgeries canceled on the day of the procedure; the operating room is not idle.
Two-bin kanban system for medications in the ward
Orders were placed “when stocks ran low”—that is, too late, or in excess just to be safe. Two baskets, empty = order → zero stockouts, department inventory −25%, expiring items disappearing.
Appointment Times at the Clinic
Everyone arrived at 7:00, and the waiting room was full until 11:00. Appointments scheduled in time slots and text message reminders sent the day before → waiting time reduced by 50%, no-shows reduced by 30%.
The department's ten-minute morning huddle
Problems were addressed at the monthly meeting only after they had already become long-standing issues. Whiteboard: safety, bed capacity, current risks, who is handling what → each problem is assigned an owner on the same day.
Health Care
A patient waits three hours for a ten-minute appointment with a doctor—while a nurse searches for an infusion pump. In a hospital, waste is measured in patient time and staff steps. Lean doesn’t speed up treatment here; it eliminates everything around it.
03
IT and Software/Hardware Development
The feature is “done,” but it won’t go into production for six weeks. In software, waste is called waiting—for a review, for a test, for a release. Kaizen here isn’t about writing code faster, but about shortening the path from commit to customer.
WIP limit on the Kanban board
Fourteen tasks in progress, nothing finished, everything “almost” done. A maximum of three tasks per person; you can’t start a new one until you’ve finished the current one → task duration reduced from 12 to 4 days.
Code review within 24 hours
The pull request sat for a week, and the author had already forgotten the context. The 24-hour rule, reviewer rotation, and PRs under 300 lines → 80% reduction in review wait times, fewer conflicts during the merge.
CI pipeline under 10 minutes
The build ran for 45 minutes; in the meantime, the developer switched to another task and didn't find the bug until the evening. Parallelized testing, dependency caching → feedback within 10 minutes, deployment several times a day.
A Blameless Postmortem for Every Incident
The same outage three times a year, “fixed” each time by a restart. 5× “why” without assigning blame, one action with the owner and a deadline → repeated incidents down 70%.
Definition of Done, including deployment
“Done” meant five things for five people—and not a single one for the customer. One checklist: tested, documented, deployed, verified in production → no surprises at the end of the sprint.
Retro with one change
A retrospective full of complaints—the same thing two weeks later. One change selected for the sprint, with the owner and review at the next retrospective → the team sees that the retrospective is making a difference and starts talking about the real issues.
04
The mise en place standard before the change
Each chef prepared the food differently, and the rush caught them off guard. A preparation checklist based on the menu and expected number of guests → meal preparation time during peak hours reduced by 25%, fewer write-offs.
Kanban for Inventory in the Warehouse and at the Bar
Three items were running low, while others had expired on the back shelf. Min/max labels and an order triggered when the minimum level is reached → zero stockouts, food write-offs −40%.
Real-Time Room Status Board
The housekeeper didn't know which room was available for cleaning, the front desk didn't know which one was ready—and the guest was waiting in the lobby. A single display or app showing room status → check-in without waiting, phone calls between the front desk and housekeeping reduced by 80%.
One inquiry, one owner, a response within 2 hours
The reservation got lost amid emails, phone calls, and Booking, and in the meantime, the guest went elsewhere. A single list of inquiries, with a name next to each one, and a response within two hours → 0 lost reservations.
Service Technician: First Visit = Repair
The technician arrived without the correct part, and the customer had to wait for a second visit. Over-the-phone diagnosis with a photo, standard set of parts in the car → repaired on the first visit in 85% of cases; second visits down 60%.
The deadline for changes is in 15 minutes
The closing process took an hour, and the cash register discrepancy was investigated the next day. Standard procedure with a checklist and double-counting → 15 minutes, cash register discrepancies reduced by 90%.
Services & HORECA
A guest waits twenty minutes for the check, and the kitchen is looking for order number 14. In the service industry, waste happens right before the customer’s eyes—which is why the customer notices it immediately. Lean, in this context, means that the staff focuses on the guest, not on the chaos.
05
Transportation and Logistics
A truck waits three hours on the ramp—and the driver’s working hours are ticking away. In logistics, waste is measured in waiting time and empty kilometers. The best projects don’t add vehicles; they eliminate the reasons why they’re idling.
Time slots on the ramp
All the drivers arrived in the morning; by the afternoon, the loading dock was empty. The reservation system for scheduling loading and unloading → reduced waiting time at the loading dock from 3 hours to 30 minutes; the same number of warehouse workers can now handle a third more work.
ABC Warehouse Layout
20% of the items accounted for 80% of the movements—and they were in the back aisle. Rearranged by pick frequency, with high-turnover items moved to the ramp → forklift trips down by 35%, order picking completed a quarter faster.
Address on every item, standard packaging
Searching, recounting, and inventory over the weekend. Each part has one location with an address and one quantity per package → search time: 0 minutes; inventory completed in one day instead of over the weekend.
Milk runs instead of urgent deliveries
Three deliveries a day, each “urgent,” each half-empty. A fixed route with a set schedule and stops at every pickup location → one driver instead of three, zero urgent deliveries.
Utilization of Return Trips
The truck was returning empty, and no one saw that as a problem—after all, that’s how it had always been. Planning return loads and the available capacity exchange → empty kilometers down 30%, cost per kilometer decreases.
Pre-shipment scan inspection
Complaints such as “item missing,” “wrong address,” “wrong product.” A scan of each item and a photo of the shipment taken during packing → shipping errors down 80%, disputes with the carrier resolved with a photo.
06
Shared Library of Practice Tests and Exams
Each teacher used to create their own worksheets from scratch—ten times the same thing. One template, a shared folder organized by subject and grade level → preparation time reduced by 30%, and the quality of the materials improves through sharing.
Digital Excuse Notes and Consents
Paperwork, signatures, searching through files, and phone calls to parents. A form with automatic confirmation and a summary for the homeroom teacher → zero paperwork; every consent can be tracked in seconds.
Standard Onboarding Process for New Employees
The new teacher spent a month figuring out where everything was and who to ask. A checklist for the first week, assigned buddies, and lesson plans ready on the first day → all done in a week instead of a month.
A schedule with a single source of truth
Three versions of the schedule, changes via email, two classes in one classroom. One shared calendar, changes made in just one place, notifications sent to those affected → zero classroom conflicts, substitute teacher issues resolved by morning.
Two questions after each lesson
Feedback was collected once a year—a long questionnaire that no one read. “What was the best part? What should be changed?” right after class → the course will be adjusted by the following week, not by the following year.
Training According to the Standard (TWI)
It took three weeks to train a new employee, and each foreman taught in a different way. A work plan with key points: demonstrate – explain – let them try → working independently within a week; error rate among new hires: −50%.
Education
Teachers spend more time on administrative tasks than on lesson preparation. Both in schools and in corporate training, the time of those who are supposed to be teaching is wasted. Lean does not interfere with pedagogy—it frees up space for it.
07
Finance and Insurance
A loan application passes through eight pairs of hands—and at each stage, there’s a delay. In banks and insurance companies, waste is hidden in the handoffs: every day spent waiting for a signature, a review, or a document is a day the customer might leave for a competitor.
A Map of the Loan Process Without Unnecessary Handoffs
Eight steps, six people, fourteen days—of which two hours were spent on work. Value stream map, consolidation of checks, one case owner → four steps, three days, the client doesn’t have to sign the same thing twice.
A Complete Application on the First Try
40% of applications were returned due to missing documents—and each return meant a week’s delay. A checklist of required documents at the time of submission, mandatory fields, and verification at the branch → a 70% reduction in returned applications.
Approval Limits Based on Risk
Every change required approval from the manager, including a change of address. Limits based on amount and risk; manager approval required only for exceptions → 80% of cases processed at the first level on the same day.
Fast Track for Minor Insurance Claims
A broken window followed the same process as a burned-down house. Claims up to €2,000 with a photo and no on-site inspection → processed within 48 hours, leaving adjusters time for truly complex cases.
Daily huddle on the number of cases
Cases were left to sit in the system, and no one noticed until a client called. A chart showing the age of each case: 10 minutes in the morning → nothing older than 5 days without an owner or a next step.
No More Duplicate Data Entry
Data from the form was entered into two systems and verified in a third. A single data source, with the other systems reading from it → data errors reduced by 90%, processing time reduced by 50%.
08
Pick Path and Warehouse Zoning
A warehouse worker walked 12 km per shift because the best-selling items were at the far end of the hall. With the best-selling items located at the packing station and the picking route following the order of the shelves, the number of steps was reduced by 40%, and orders per hour increased by one-third.
Standard Packaging Station
Everyone packed differently, and the right-sized box was always in a different place. 5S workstations, three box sizes within easy reach, standard packaging with a photo → a package ready in 60 seconds, damaged shipments down 50%.
A scan of each piece before sealing
“A different product arrived”—the most expensive complaint, because it costs twice as much in shipping and once in trust. Each item is scanned against the order; the package isn’t sealed unless everything matches → incorrect shipments down by 90%.
Returns processed within 24 hours
The returned merchandise sat in a corner for a week while the customer wrote a review. The standard process: receipt, inspection, and refund in a single step → money back within 24 hours, merchandise back on the shelves within 48.
Seasonal Preparation — SMED for the Warehouse
Every year, the rush caught the warehouse just as unprepared. Checklist four weeks in advance: stock of bestsellers, packaging, temporary workers trained to standard → Black Friday without delays and without night shifts.
Daily Warehouse KPIs on the Whiteboard
The number of delayed orders was shown in the end-of-month report. Dashboard: received, shipped, delayed, errors — updated every shift → delays are addressed that same day, not in the report.
E-commerce
Black Friday: three times as many orders, the same warehouse, a three-day delay. In e-commerce, the time from click to delivery is what matters—and every complaint is public. Here, Kaizen means that the warehouse can handle the peak demand without needing night shifts.
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