Kaizen…

The Japanese word “kaizen” is literally translated into English as improvement or change for the better. After World War II, many Japanese companies adopted a philosophy of kaizen on a continual basis. The theory was that many small (and compounded) improvements add up to significant gains over time. One of the most well-known companies that have kaizen at the core of their business philosophy is Toyota, which famously shared its kaizen teqniques with the Food Bank For New York to yield rather remarkable results.

As I progress through Project Upholstery, I feel as though I’m implementing a little bit of the kaizen philosophy as well.

My first attempt at upholstering a seat back didn’t go well:

That result was scrapped and a second try was attempted. That attempt resulted in a better outcome, but with room for improvement still:

The seat bottom I did after that turned out even better:

And that lead us to this last week, when I started working on the driver’s seat back.

Right away, things started going better. I improved my technique for replacing the burlap and ended up with a very nice protective barrier for the seat foam:

I then attached the burlap to the seat frame and began the process of stretching the upholstery.

While there’s still room for more improvement, this week’s results were really good:

The upholstery went on tight and symmetrically:

The seat back fit exactly where it was supposed to:

And save for a little bit of waviness on one side, the front looks fantastic…

I even managed to get the old head rest upholstery off this time without breaking it.

Kaizen indeed…

Project Upholstery is the last of the major projects I needed to finish while the Mustang is off getting painted. With the completion of the driver’s seat back, I’m now at the half-way point. I still have the driver’s seat bottom to do this week and then the rear seat back and bottom to do shortly thereafter.

Following that, I’ll be doing small odds-and-ends projects until the Mustang comes home. Once that happens, there’ll only be one big project left – putting her all back together.