It’s not a question of which one you should use! You can use either of them separately or work them into your facility side by side. Think of Kaizen as a mindset of continuous improvement, and 5S as a tool that compliments that mindset. While Kaizen is more focused on processes and 5S is focused on organization, 5S does make for a strong foundation for any future Kaizen activities.

Let us know in the discussion if you’ve practiced both Kaizen and 5S together and what the results were! Do you think these two strategies can be used side by side, or practiced one at a time?