Taiichi Ohno

“Kaizen should be done when times are good or when the company is profitable, since your efforts to streamline and make improvements when the company is poor are limited to reduction in staff. Even if you try to go lean and cut out the fat to improve business performance, when your business is in a very difficult position financially there is no fat to be cut. If you are cutting out muscle, which you need, then you cannot say that your efforts to become lean are succeeding.The most important thing about doing kaizen is to do kaizen when times are good, the economy is strong, and the company is profitable”
― Taiichi Ohno

“Machine cycle time and manual cycle time are still mixed up all over the world.”
― Taiichi Ohno, Taiichi Ohnos Workplace Management: Special 100th Birthday Edition