Analysis of the limitations of Kaizen culture on the example of a furniture manufacturing company

Abstract

The culture of continuous improvement, as an efficient and effective example of the Toyota factory organization, has found its application in organizations of different types and different process designs. The top and middle managers of the most successful companies in the most developed economies, such as Japan or Germany, know very well how difficult it is to change the organizational culture and implement changes in the existing corporate culture, regardless of the type and size of the change. The paper identifies the key limitations that the management of a furniture company in Serbia encounters in implementing the KAIZEN culture of continuous improvement, the problems they have solved on the threshold of KAIZEN implementation, and the problems that slow down the process of continuous improvement. An in-depth interview was used for the purpose of data collection, and the interviewee was the general manager of a furniture manufacturing company. In the discussion and concluding considerations of the paper, several suggestions for overcoming the problems and several guidelines for solving them were given.