Abstract

SUAREZ-BARRAZA, Manuel F  and  MIGUEL-DAVILA, José Ángel. Implementation of Kaizen in Mexico: An exploratory study for a japanese managerial approach in the Latinamerican context. Innovar [online]. 2011, vol.21, n.41, pp.19-38. ISSN 0121-5051.

In recent years, the terms Lean thinking and Kaizen have gained importance in operational and strategic management of organizations of this new century. That relevance has focused on the constant effort to reduce operational costs while improving the productivity and competitiveness of multinational organizations. Therefore, part of the research question governing this article is: What happens to Kaizen implementation in an organizational context such as a multinational company in mexico? the purpose of this study is therefore to empirically explore Kaizen implementation in certain multinational organizations in mexico in order to analyze and compare them with the theoretical systems in that field. The research is of a qualitative nature, in accordance with the strategy of multiple case studies; two multinational companies located in the industrial zone of toluca in the state of mexico were chosen. The results show that, based on the empirical evidence, there is a gap between the theoretical systems of Kaizen and the practical reality studied in the two selected case studies. Based on the results from the exploratory study, it was possible to propose four theoretical propositions that condense our research work. This article, despite being of an exploratory nature, aims to generate a theoretical contribution regarding what happens in multinational companies located in mexico in terms of the implementation of a Japanese managerial technique such as Kaizen in a latin american context.

Keywords : Kaizen; continuous improvement; multinationals; Mexico.

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