I am surprised how often W. Edward Deming is left out of articles like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

"n Japan, from 1950 onward, he taught top business managers how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing, and sales (the last through global markets)[1] by various means, including the application of statistical methods. Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later reputation for innovative, high-quality products, and for its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage."

That was a short article about kaizen in Ethiopia, not history of kaizen. But thanks for the reference!

Reminds me of the story where Toyota decides to help charities by donating help with management/process:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139960

Kaizen is a small part of the Lean philosophy that originated in Toyota. I dont understandbwhy the article focuses on kaizen technique only.

The Toyota Way is a philosophy that includes Kaizen, Lean, and like 12 other principles. http://icos.groups.si.umich.edu/Liker04.pdf. Most people latch on to one or two because the whole thing is too big to grasp at one sitting. It takes a long time (a century, for Toyota) to develop a company into it.

I'd say that kaizen is a lean technique for improving a process or flow as described in "Lean thinking".

Not very often we get stories about Ethiopia on front page of hacker news...

Interestingly enough, the historical amity between Japan and Ethiopia has existed since the early 20th century, as two lone countries that managed to remain independent during the time of European colonialism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia–Japan_relations

Thailand was never colonised.

Ethiopian here....Very true!