Innersense Organic Beauty: Transforming order fulfillment through Kaizen

Innersense Organic Beauty embarked on a transformation journey to reimagine how fulfillment and customer experience could work in harmony. What began as an urgent need to overcome shipping delays evolved into a company-wide effort to strengthen collaboration, visibility, and daily management across teams.

Guided by Kaizen principles and in partnership with the Kaizen Institute, Innersense sets out to build a faster, more reliable, and customer-centric operation — one that reflects its core values of integrity, care, and continuous improvement.

Empowering a cleaner, more mindful beauty industry

Founded in 2005 by Greg and Joanne Starkman, Innersense Organic Beauty is a clean haircare brand born from a personal journey toward wellness and conscious living. The company creates salon-quality products made with certified organic ingredients, free from harsh chemicals, synthetic fragrances, and toxins, and crafted to nourish the hair and scalp while respecting people and the planet.

As a Certified B Corporation and member of 1% for the Planet, Innersense champions ethical sourcing, sustainable packaging, and giving back to environmental and social causes. All products are cruelty-free and Leaping Bunny Certified. With a growing presence in salons and retail outlets worldwide, the brand is redefining beauty through mindful, transparent, and sustainable care.

Setting the stages for transformation

In early 2024, fulfillment delays were creating major pain points for both customers and internal teams. Small parcel orders were taking 5-8 days to ship, and visibility gaps meant that warehouse and customer success teams often lost track of orders that “stalled out” in the system.

These delays translated into more than 20 customer complaints per day related to missing or late deliveries, often resulting in cancellations, replacements, and discounts. The underlying issues ranged from lost or misplaced picking tickets and unprocessed orders to out-of-stock items and shipments made outside the warehouse management system, resulting in zero traceability.

This resulted in declining customer retention rates, wasted time on troubleshooting, and avoidable financial losses associated with replacements and service recovery efforts.

Strategic goals for transformation

The project was designed with clear and measurable objectives to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. The main focus was on reducing lead times, improving visibility, and automating processes.

Reduce average warehouse lead times

The goal of the project was to significantly reduce lead times across various business channels to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. The targeted reductions were as follows:

• New business: from 3.34 days to 1.5 days.
• Color purity: from 2.83 days to 1.5 days.
• Distributor: from 17.50 days to 3 days.
• Direct-to-Consumer (DTC): from 8.40 days to 1.5 days.
• International: from 28.59 days to 3 days.
• Retail: from 5.88 days to 3 days.
• Salon: from 2.86 days to 1.5 days.

Reduce maximum warehouse lead times

The goal was to drastically reduce the maximum lead times across key business channels to improve overall efficiency and customer satisfaction. The targeted reductions were as follows:

• New business: from 42 days to 7days.
• Color purity: from 160 days to 7 days.
• Distributor: from 32 days to 10days.
• DTC: from 99 days to 7 days.
• International: from 51 days to 7 days.
• Retail: from 61 days to 7 days.
• Salon: from 216 days to 7 days.

Additional goals

In addition to reducing lead times, the project set out to address other key objectives aimed at enhancing overall operational efficiency:

• Reduce manual order entry (phone/email) by 50%.
• Create full end-to-end visibility from order entry to shipment.
• Enhance collaboration between the warehouse and customer success teams.

Driving change: Key actions for impactful transformation

To address the key operational challenges, Innersense implemented targeted actions that prioritized efficiency, visibility, and customer satisfaction. By applying Kaizen methodologies and fostering cross-department collaboration, the team reduced lead times, streamlined processes, and strengthened communication between the warehouse and customer success teams.

1. Listening to the Voice of the Customer (VOC)

Interviews and feedback from salon owners and DTC customers revealed consistent frustration about delayed deliveries. Salons typically placed orders on Monday or Tuesday and needed products in hand by Friday to prepare for weekend appointments.

These insights led to a new 2-day shipping target for salon customers. For DTC, expectations shaped by same- and next-day delivery models made speed even more critical. Distributors, international partners, and retailers agreed on a 7-day shipping target from purchase order submission.

2. Value stream alignment and Kaizen training

Drawing on Lean and Six Sigma experience, the team led a cross-functional Value Stream Assessment (VSA) covering every step from order entry to fulfillment, involving stakeholders from the warehouse, customer success, and finance.

This exercise visualized the end-to-end process, broke down silos, and highlighted interdependencies. To build capability, a Kaizen Institute consultant was brought in to train teams on Muda, Mura, and Muri, helping employees adopt a mindset of continuous improvement and problem-solving.

Figure 1 – Muda, Mura, and Muri

3. Gemba-oriented leadership

Leaders immersed themselves in daily operations, entering customer orders, observing fulfillment steps, and documenting new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for order entry and picking/packing.

By applying the Gemba principle (“go see”), warehouse and customer success teams experienced each other’s challenges first-hand and jointly conducted 5 Whys analyses to identify root causes of stalled or delayed orders.

4. Daily direction setting and real-time visibility

To sustain improvements, both warehouse and customer success adopted Daily Direction Setting (DDS) meetings—brief, structured stand-ups to review previous day results, current targets, and stalled orders requiring action.

In parallel, real-time dashboards were integrated into customer success systems, giving teams shared visibility into order status by channel, fulfillment gaps, and revenue pending shipment. These tools transformed issue resolution from reactive to proactive.

Figure 2 – Customer Success team DDS board

Transformative impact: Delivering measurable results

Within six months, the transformation yielded measurable impact:

Average warehouse lead time (February 2025)

The average lead time for various channels in February 2025 was significantly improved, with the following results:

• New business achieved an average lead time of 1.16 days.
• Color purity improved to 1.31 days.
• Distributors saw an average lead time of 2.83 days.
• DTC lead time reduced to 1.37 days.
• International shipments now average 3.00 days.
• Retailers experienced a lead time of 2.10 days.
• Salons saw an average lead time of 1.24 days.

Maximum warehouse lead time (February 2025)

The maximum lead times across these channels were also significantly reduced, as detailed below:

• New business had a maximum lead time of 24 days.
• Color purity reduced to a maximum of 8 days.
• Distributors saw a maximum lead time of 17 days.
• DTC improved to a maximum lead time of 11 days.
• International shipments saw a maximum lead time of 13 days.
• Retailers experienced a maximum lead time of 29 days.
• Salons saw their maximum lead time reduced to 8 days.

Maximum lead times fell by more than 80% across all channels, and customer complaints dropped significantly. The warehouse flow became consistent, transparent, and measurable.

Beyond fulfillment, the company organized additional Kaizen Events to enhance Voice of Customer management, lead generation, return processing, and the planning of educational events, further embedding continuous improvement across the organization.

Success factors

The transformation at Innersense was driven by several key factors that allowed the company to achieve its objectives. These factors include:

• Customer-first focus: Delivery targets were defined based on the real needs of salons and DTC customers.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Teams from warehouse, customer success, and finance worked together to align processes and improve efficiency.
• Gemba-oriented leadership: Leadership engaged in the operational process, creating new SOPs, and understanding the challenges faced by the teams.
• Continuous improvement capability: Kaizen principles were applied, with training in Muda, Mura, and Muri to eliminate waste and foster continuous improvement.
• Structured daily management: Daily meetings were implemented to monitor performance and quickly address identified issues.

Next steps

The next phase of the project will focus on maintaining progress, optimizing processes, and ensuring the sustainability of the improvements made. The priority steps include:

• Close remaining performance gaps to achieve full maximum lead time targets by channel.
• Reduce manual order entry (phone/email) by 50%.
• Track KPIs for customer complaints, order visibility, and On Time In Full (OTIF) delivery.

Acknowledging achievements and milestones

The impact of this transformation was formally recognized when Innersense Organic Beauty received the Process Breakthrough Award at the second edition of the Kaizen Awards North America. This distinction celebrates organizations that demonstrate measurable improvement and sustained commitment to the Kaizen philosophy, a testament to Innersense’s dedication to operational excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement across its entire value stream.

“This recognition is a reflection of the commitment, collaboration, and heart our team pours into continuous improvement every day.” – Erica King, Vice President of Operations

The Innersense transformation demonstrates how meaningful change occurs when people, purpose, and process converge. Guided by Kaizen principles and supported by the expertise of the Kaizen Institute, the team turned complexity into clarity and daily challenges into opportunities for growth.

What began as a response to fulfillment delays evolved into a shared mindset of continuous improvement — where every team member sees, measures, and owns performance in real time. By embedding these practices into its culture, Innersense has not only accelerated its operations but strengthened the trust and connection between its people and its customers.