[1] Business professor Yasuhiro Monden[2] defines kaizen costing as The maintenance of present cost levels for products currently being manufactured via systematic efforts to achieve the desired cost level.
[citation needed]The Shogakukan Dictionary's original definition of Kaizen is translated as “The act of making bad points better”.
The employee's goal is to reach their full potential, challenge the status quo and achieve continual improvement.
After targets have been set, they are continuously updated to display past improvements and the projected (expected) improvements.
[4] Monden has described two types of kaizen costing:[citation needed] Adopting kaizen costing requires a change in the method of setting standards.