Critical success factors for human resource outcomes in Kaizen events: An empirical study Jennifer A. Farris a,Ã , Eileen M. Van Aken b , Toni L. Doolen c , June Worley c a Department of Industrial Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA b Grado Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA c School of Mechanical, Industrial, & Manufacturing Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA article info Article history: Received 9 January 2008 Accepted 29 August 2008 Available online 17 September 2008 Keywords: Lean production Teams Productivity improvement Quality management Manufacturing companies abstract Kaizen events are an increasingly common organizational improvement mechanism aimed at work area transformation and employee development. While many anecdotal design prescriptions exist, there is little empirical evidence of which input and process factors are most strongly related to Kaizen event outcomes in practice. This paper uses results from a field study of 51 events in six manufacturing organizations to identify the set of input and process factors that most strongly relate to the development of employee attitudinal outcomes and problem-solving capabilities in Kaizen events. These results are used to develop guidelines for organizations and identify directions for future work. & 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The study of improvement programs has long been a focus of the operations management (OM) and industrial engineering community (e.g., Chan et al., 2005; Dar-El, 1997; Guimaraes, 1997; Gunasekaran et al., 1994; Hales and Chakravorty, 2006; Herron and Braiden, 2006; Launonen and Kess, 2002; McIntosh et al., 2001; Van Landeghem, 2000; Vits and Gelders, 2002). Recently, lean manufacturing (Womack et al., 1990) has become a—if not the—dominant improvement paradigm, leading to a variety of studies examining this topic (e.g., Matusi, 2007; Panizzolo, 1998; Simons and Taylor, 2007; Warnecke and Huser, 1995). Within lean manufacturing, one increasingly utilized mechanism is the Kaizen event, a focused and structured continuous improvement project, using a dedicated cross- functional team to address a targeted work area, to achieve specific goals in an accelerated timeframe (usually 1 week or shorter) (Farris et al., 2008b). In addition to potential, direct improvements in the target work area, Kaizen events are purported to serve as a ‘‘just-in- time’’ training mechanism for participating employees (Drickhamer, 2004a), helping these employees develop new problem-solving capabilities and increased motiva- tion to participate in future improvement activities. However, despite their popularity and potential benefits, Kaizen events have not been widely studied to date (Bateman, 2005; Melnyk et al., 1998). Many guidelines for Kaizen event design exist, primarily in the practitioner literature; however, these guidelines do not appear to have been tested through empirical research. Until the determinants of Kaizen event outcomes are well under- stood, organizations will not be able to systematically manage Kaizen events to consistently achieve positive results. This paper presents findings from a field study of 51 Kaizen events in six manufacturing organizations, where multiple regression was used to test the relation- ships between Kaizen event input and process factors and employee attitudinal and problem-solving capability out- comes. Findings are used to develop design guidelines for organizations using Kaizen events and to lay a foundation Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe Int. J. Production Economics ARTICLE IN PRESS 0925-5273/$ - see front matter & 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2008.08.051 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +1806 742 3543; fax: +1806742 3411. E-mail address: jennifer.farris@ttu.edu (J.A. Farris). Int. J. Production Economics 117 (2009) 42–65