(1) Sometimes called continual improvement is the ongoing improvement of products, services or processes through incremental and breakthrough improvements.
(2) Adopting new activities and eliminating those, which are found to add little or no value. The goal is to increase effectiveness by reducing inefficiencies, frustrations, and waste (time, effort, material, etc). The Japanese term is Kaizen, which is taken from the words "Kai" means change and "zen" means good.