Kaizen burst
A spot on the map that needs improving. The kaizen burst is a jagged starburst drawn over the process or flow concerned.
How to read it
NOAA Fisheries’ glossary defines kaizen bursts as specific areas or steps on the current state map that an organisation has identified as open to improvement. The UW-Stout study says they mark improvement needs and plan kaizen workshops at the processes that matter for reaching the future state map. The EPA toolkit’s key calls the icon a kaizen starburst, identifying improvement needs.
Also searched as: improvement burst, kaizen burst symbol, kaizen burst vsm, kaizen starburst, value stream map kaizen burst.
What kaizen means
The Lean Enterprise Institute translates kaizen as continuous improvement. The EPA’s toolkit gives continual improvement and explains it from the Japanese kai, to take apart, and zen, to make good.
Look-alikes
The burst is not a warning sign or a fault: it marks a planned improvement. The EPA’s toolkit marks processes with environmental, health and safety issues with a separate EHS icon or a red dot.
Read next
- Next in Value stream mapping symbolsCustomer or supplier (factory icon)A customer or a supplier outside the plant. On a value stream map the factory icon, a building with a saw-tooth roof, stands for the supplier at the top left and the customer at the top right.
- The same shape in Hazard symbolsExploding bomb (GHS01)The GHS pictogram for explosives, and for self-reactive substances and organic peroxides that can explode when heated.
More value stream mapping symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with stars.
Sources
- Lean and Environment Toolkit, Version 1.0, Chapter 3 and Appendix A (Common Icons Used in Value Stream Maps), US Environmental Protection Agency, Appendix A, icon key; Overview of Kaizen Events
- Value Stream Mapping at XYZ Company, Madhubala Rauniyar, MS research paper, May 2007, Appendix A: Value Stream Process symbols, University of Wisconsin-Stout (MINDS@UW), Appendix A, Kaizen Burst
- Quality Management and Continuous Improvement Glossary, Glossary, NOAA Fisheries, Glossary
- Kaizen, Lexicon term, Lean Enterprise Institute, Definition
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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