1.

Kaizen
Kaizen (Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the better") refers to philosophy or practices that focus
upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes,
and management. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching, government, banking, and
many other industries. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to
activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly
line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross-organizational
boundaries into the supply chain. By improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to
eliminate waste (see lean manufacturing). Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses after
the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers who
visited the country. It has since spread throughout the world and is now being implemented in many other
venues besides just business and productivity.

2. Quality Circle
A quality circle is a volunteer group composed of workers (or even students), usually under the leadership
of their supervisor (but they can elect a team leader), who are trained to identify, analyse and solve work-
related problems and present their solutions to management in order to improve the performance of the
organization, and motivate and enrich the work of employees. When matured, true quality circles become
self-managing, having gained the confidence of management.

Quality circles are an alternative to the dehumanising concept of the division of labour, where workers or
individuals are treated like robots. They bring back the concept of craftsmanship, which when operated on
an individual basis is uneconomic, but when used in group form (as is the case with quality circles), it can
be devastatingly powerful and enables the enrichment of the lives of the workers or students and creates
harmony and high performance in the workplace. Typical topics are improvingoccupational safety and
health, improving product design, and improvement in the workplace andmanufacturing processes.

The term quality circles derives from the concept of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) circles developed by
Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

Quality circles are not normally paid a share of the cost benefit of any improvements but usually a
proportion of the savings made is spent on improvements to the work environment.[citation needed]

They are formal groups. They meet at least once a week on company time and are trained by competent
persons (usually designated as facilitators) who may be personnel and industrial relations specialists trained
in human factors and the basic skills of problem identification, information gathering and analysis, basic
statistics, and solution generation.[1] Quality circles are generally free to select any topic they wish (other
than those related to salary and terms and conditions of work, as there are other channels through which
these issues are usually considered).[2][3]

Quality circles have the advantage of continuity; the circle remains intact from project to project. (For a
comparison to Quality Improvement Teams, see Juran's Quality by Design
 3. Business process reengineering
The analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization. A business process is a set of
logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Re-engineering is the basis for
many recent developments in management. The cross-functional team, for example, has become popular
because of the desire to re-engineer separate functional tasks into complete cross-functional processes.[citation
needed]
 Also, many recent management information systems developments aim to integrate a wide number of
business functions. Enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, knowledge management
systems, groupware and collaborative systems, Human Resource Management Systems and customer
relationship management.

Business Process Reengineering is also known as Business Process Redesign, Business Transformation, or
Business Process Change Management.

4. Industrial relations
Industrial relations is a multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship.[1] Industrial
relations is increasingly being called employment relations because of the importance of non-
industrial employment relationships. Many outsiders also equate industrial relations to labour relations
and believe that industrial relations only studies unionized employment situations, but this is an
oversimplification.