Answer from David Meier:
Samip -- It is a mostly Western variation of a process used by Toyota. Loosely translated kaizen means "continuous improvement" and a kaizen event is a structured (usually 1 week or less) activity to make improvement.
By the way -- Toyota does not use this style event as Western companies do. During my 10 years at Toyota we did 3 events of this nature, and they were mainly aimed at management training.
