At present, how to develop industries is a burning issue in Africa, where population growth remains high and economic development has thus far failed to provide sufficient jobs for many, especially young people and women. The creation of productive jobs through industrial development ought to be a central issue in steering economic activity across the continent. The authors of this book, consisting of two development economists and five practitioners, argue that the adoption of Kaizen management practices, which originated in Japan and have become widely used by manufacturers in advanced and emerging economies, is decisively the most effective first step for industrial development in Africa. This open access book discusses what Kaizen management is, why it is applicable to Africa, and why it can provide Africa with a springboard for sustainable economic growth and employment generation.

At present, how to develop industries is a burning issue in Africa, where population growth remains high and economic development has thus far failed to provide sufficient jobs for many, especially young people and women. The creation of productive jobs through industrial development ought to be a central issue in steering economic activity across the continent. The authors of this book, consisting of two development economists and five practitioners, argue that the adoption of Kaizen management practices, which originated in Japan and have become widely used by manufacturers in advanced and emerging economies, is decisively the most effective first step for industrial development in Africa. This open access book discusses what Kaizen management is, why it is applicable to Africa, and why it can provide Africa with a springboard for sustainable economic growth and employment generation. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

This open access book provides a glimpse into the Japanese management technique known as “Kaizen,” and the ways it has been disseminated around the developing world. The novelty of this book is three-fold: it provides a contextualized view of the mechanisms of initiatives implementing Kaizen in developing countries; compared with productivity studies, it places the relationship between workers and managers at the center of inquiry, reflecting the intent of SDG8 concerning decent work and economic growth; and it provides an overview of the heterogeneity of Kaizen in terms of geography and firm size. This book explores how improving management techniques can support firms’ productivity and quality. Given its wide range of case studies from across Africa, Asia and Latin America, this book will be of value to scholars, policymakers and advocates of sustainable development alike.

Healthcare Kaizen focuses on the principles and methods of daily continuous improvement, or Kaizen, for healthcare professionals and organizations. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means "change for the better," as popularized by Masaaki Imai in his 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan‘s Competitive Success and through the books of Norman Bodek, both o

This open access book studies how foreign models of economic development can be effectively learned by and applied to today’s latecomer countries. Policy capacity and societal learning are increasingly stressed as pre-conditions for successful catch-up. However, how such learning should be initiated by individual societies with different features needs to be explained. The book answers this pragmatic question from the perspective of Japan’s past experience and its extensive development cooperation in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Since the late nineteenth century, Japan has developed a unique philosophy and method for adopting advanced technologies and systems from the West; the same philosophy and method govern its current cooperation with the developing world. The key concepts are local learning and translative adaptation. Local learning says that development requires the learner to adopt a proactive mindset and the goal of graduating from receiving aid. Meanwhile, translative adaptation requires foreign models be modified to fit local realities given the different structures of the home and foreign society. The development process must be wholly owned by the domestic society in rejection of copy-and-paste acceptance. These ideas not only informed Japan but are key to successful development for all. The book also asks how this learning method should—or should not—be revised in the age of SDGs and digitalization. Following the overview section that lays out the general principles, the book offers many real cases from Japan and other countries. The concrete actions outlined in these cases, with close attention to individual growth “ingredients” as opposed to general theories, are crucial to successful policy making. The book contains materials that are highly useful for national leaders and practitioners within developing countries as well as students of development studies.