Global KAIZEN™ Award

Top Organizations are awarded for the outstanding implementation of KAIZEN™ principles and practices.

Global KAIZEN™ Award 7th Edition

The Global KAIZEN™ Award program aims to annually recognize organizations leading in applying KAIZEN™ principles and practices, and to inspire the KAIZEN™ community. The seventh edition of the Global KAIZEN™ Award was hosted on November 11th in Madrid at the Palacio de Cibeles.

The nominees were celebrated for their significant, innovative, and effective implementation of KAIZEN™ principles and practices. During the Award ceremony, KION Polska (Poland), was awarded 1st place, Raizen Energia (Brazil) 2nd place, and Bosch Car Multimedia (Portugal), AviusULD (Thailand), and Watt´s (Chile), 3rd place. Bosch (Germany) was awarded 1st place, category MNC.

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Assessment Criteria

Assessment Criteria

Each Kaizen Institute business unit will nominate the winner of one of its local KAIZEN™ Award categories for the Global KAIZEN™ Award. The nominee (organization) is evaluated on its KAIZEN™ maturity. The assessment is observation-based, conducted by experienced assessors at the client premises, evaluating the application of the five KAIZEN™ principles:

#KAIZEN™ PrincipleApplication Example
1Create customer valuea) The organization knows the customer needs by market segment.
b) The organization is dedicated to quality and to fulfil customer expectations.
2Let it flowa) Leaders know how to design, create, manage and improve processes.
b) Staff members understand the concepts of muda (waste), mura (variability) and muri (difficulty).
3Be gemba orienteda) The workplace is organized for efficiency, visual management is used to make waste, standards and behaviors visible.
b) Leaders go to the place of work to understand problems first hand.
4Empower peoplea) Business objectives are deployed (cascaded) throughout the organization.
b) All leaders share KAIZEN™ skills and role-model a KAIZEN™ mindset as they develop their teams.
5Be scientific and transparenta) Management decisions are based on the long-term vision.
b) Decision-making and problem-solving is based on real data from gemba (gemba gembutsu).

Besides scrutinizing the robustness of the five KAIZEN™ principles, the ‘Benefits tracking’ section evaluates what the organization has put in place to ensure employees know where the organization is heading, how they have progressed, and how customers and the organization is benefitting from the KAIZEN™ efforts.

Evaluation

The Global KAIZEN™ Award committee, consisting of participating Kaizen Institute business unit executives and Kaizen Institute Global Operations directors, will evaluate and assess the data of nominees for the Global KAIZEN™ Award and will decide on the raking of the Award recipients. If needed, nominees will be re-visited for an on-site assessment by a representative of Kaizen Institute Global Operations.

Timeline

by 31.08.2026Submission of nominee data by Kaizen Institute business units
by 15.09.2026Preliminary analysis completed
by 30.09.2026Evaluation of client 1)
by 15.10.2026Global KAIZEN™ Award decision
November 2026Global KAIZEN™ Award 8th Edition

1) If necessary an additional on-site appraisal will be conducted by a Kaizen Institute representative.

Global KAIZEN™ Award 7th Edition Recipients

1st Place

KION Polska

2nd Place

Raizen Energia

3rd Place

Bosch Car Multimedia

3rd Place

AviusULD

3rd Place

Watt’s

1st Place – Category MNC

Bosch Car Multimedia

Past 1st Place Award Recipients

Media Center

To access the materials of the Global KAIZEN™ Award click here.

Register now to watch the recorded version of the Global KAIZEN™ Award 7th Edition

Contact

“This award means a lot to ASML. It shows that we are working on the right topics, and it is an extra motivation for our teams and stakeholders to continue this way of working for the future.”

Mark Immers, Lean Deployment Manager, ASML

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