Book excerpt: Modular kaizen is a development of necessity in our rapidly changing world where improvement has to happen “on the fly”. Modular kaizen is the counter point to kaizen blitz, where team members are locked in a room to hammer out a solution to some problem or opportunity. In the hectic, interrupt driven environment of many organizations, it is simply not possible to remove critical players from normal operations for any length of time. Modular kaizen is an improvement approach that integrates quality techniques into the busy schedule of everyday activities. All of the components of an effective kaizen event are planned; however, the activities are scheduled in small segments, or “modules” that fit the rapidly changing time demands of team members and subject matter experts. This approach is complementary to the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) models of quality improvement. The author of this book calls upon a 40 year career to incorporate techniques, innovations and lessons learned in the pursuit of effective continuous and breakthrough improvement and use the resources, people, and schedules already in place to get things done. If you are looking for proven approaches to integrating quality improvement into daily work, this is your book.