Kaizen blitz the muda out of the firm’s globalization strategy

Abstract

The global production and global supply chain environment of the 2020 decade and beyond requires strategic retooling by industries and firms, both for efficiency/viability and to minimize some of the negative impacts of globalization. This paper conceptualizes firms utilizing some LEAN manufacturing principles and extending these beyond the internal organizations to their global production and global supply chain environments. These considerations include value stream maps and spaghetti diagrams executed through Kaizen blitz events to remove muda (waste) with some expanded definitions and understanding. There are also arguments presented for increased discrimination in globalization strategies considering the value/volume dynamic.