This book reports a literature review on kaizen, its industrial applications, critical success factors, benefits gained, journals that publish about it, main authors (research groups) and universities. Kaizen is treated in this book in three stages: planning, implementation and control. The authors provide a questionnaire designed with activities in every stage, highlighting the benefits gained in each stage. The study has been applied to more than 400 managers and leaders in continuous improvement in Mexican maquiladoras. A univariate analysis is provided to the activities in every stage. Moreover, structural equation models associating those activities with the benefits gained are presented for a statistical validation. Such a relationship between activities and benefits helps managers to identify the most important factor affecting their benefits and financial income.

Jorge Luis Garcia Alcaraz is a full time researcher of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez. His main research areas are related to Multi criteria decision making applied to manufacturing, production process modeling and statistical inference. He is founding member of the Mexican Society of Operation Research and active member in the Mexican Academy of Industrial Engineering.

Midiala Oropesa Ventois a researcher recognized by the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT), member of the Mexican Society of Operations Research. Her main research areas are related to total quality management, continuous improvement, decision making and modeling applied to production processes. 

Aide Aracely Maldonado Macias has a Ph.D. in Sciences in Industrial Engineering from the Technological Institute of Ciudad Juárez and is a full-time Professor-Investigator at the Autonomous University ofCiudad Juárez (UACJ).

Kaizen and lean manufacturing.- Literature review.- Adopting Kaizen.- Methodology.- Descriptive analysis of the simple.- Descriptive analysis of items: Kaizen planning stage.- Descriptive analysis of items: Kaizen execution phase.- Descriptive analysis of items: Kaizen control phase.- Descriptive analysis of Kaizen benefits.- Validation of variables.- Kaizen planning phase models: Activities and Benefits.- Kaizen execution phase models: Activities and Benefits.- Kaizen control phase models: Activities and Benefits.