Top organisations are awarded for the outstanding implementation of KAIZEN™ principles and practices.
Kaizen Institute South Africa is pleased to announce the KAIZEN™ Award South Africa 1st Edition to recognize superior KAIZEN™ and Lean organisations. Top organisations will be awarded for their outstanding, innovative and effective implementation of KAIZEN™ principles and practices.
Participation in the KAIZEN™ Award South Africa is open to any organisation, public or private, large, medium and small companies with a presence in South Africa, from any sector. The evaluation is based on observations made by senior consultants and/or external specialists, at the customer’s premises, evaluating the application of the five KAIZEN™ principles:
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KAIZEN™ Principle
Application Example
1
Create customer value
a) The organisation knows the customer needs by market segment. b) The organisation is dedicated to quality and to fulfil customer expectations.
2
Let it flow
a) Leaders know how to design, create, manage and improve processes. b) Staff members understand the concepts of muda (waste), mura (variability) and muri (difficulty).
3
Be gemba oriented
a) The workplace is organized for efficiency, visual management is used to make waste, standards and behaviors visible. b) Leaders go to the place of work to understand problems first hand.
4
Empower people
a) Business objectives are deployed (cascaded) throughout the organisation. b) All leaders share KAIZEN™ skills and role-model a KAIZEN™ mindset as they develop their teams.
5
Be scientific and transparent
a) Management decisions are based on the long-term vision. b) Decision-making and problem-solving is based on real data from gemba (gemba gembutsu).
Besides scrutinizing the robustness of the five KAIZEN™ principles, the ‘Benefits tracking’ section evaluates what the organisation has put in place to ensure employees know where the organisation is heading, how they have progressed, and how customers and the organisation is benefitting from the KAIZEN™ efforts.
Please complete and send the application to awards-za@kaizen.com not later than 07 July 2025. Nomination Guideline:
Submitted projects shall not be older than two years.
Candidates’ projects may already have been recognized by other awards (not awarded by Kaizen Institute).
Additional information about the project may be submitted (e.g. indicators, photos, movies, etc.
Evaluations of Nominations
The evaluation committee is composed of Kaizen Institute and partners.
The initial analysis of the application will be based on the submitted application form. For applications that pass the second phase, a visit to the company will be made. The criteria for the evaluation process integrate various items such as the implemented actions, continuous improvement methodology and results.
The evaluation committee will choose the winners. The committee reserves the right to abstain from awarding any prizes if none of the applications meet the minimum quality requirements. The decisions of the evaluation committee are final and cannot be appealed.
Timeline KAIZEN™ Award South Africa 2025
Submission of application form, by 07 July 2025 First evaluation of the applications, by 14 July 2025 Site visits, by 25 August 2025 Presentation of the award winner, September 2025
Award Ceremony
The KAIZEN™ Award South Africa 1st Edition will take place in September 2023. More information about the event will be published well in advance. For more information please contact us at: awards-za@kaizen.com.
Award Recipients 2023
The recipients of the KAIZEN™ Award South Africa 1st Edition will be announced in September 2023.
Contact
If you have any questions regarding the award procedure or the event please contact:
Kaizen Institute South Africa Tel: +27 14 533 1457
