Six Sigma and Kaizen can often be used together for the process improvement as they each work in the direction of continuous improvement by growing efficiency and eliminating waste. It’s necessary to remember these are two very completely different management philosophies.
The history of Kaizen has its roots in ancient Japanese philosophy. When first developed, the concept was to repeatedly work in the direction of perfection in all areas of one’s life. It was first applied in an enterprise, intellect shortly after World War II. Six Sigma is a much newer course of improvement program that originated across the 1980’s.