Considering today’s increasing speed of change,

radical and innovative improvement - Kaikaku, is a necessity parallel

to continuous incremental improvement - Kaizen, especially for

SME’s in order to attain the competitive edge needed to be profitable.

During 2011, a qualitative single case study with the objective of

realizing a kaikaku in production has been conducted. The case study

was run as a one year project using a collaborative approach

including both researchers and company representatives. The case

study was conducted with the purpose of gaining further knowledge

about kaikaku realization as well as its implications. The empirical

results provide insights about the great productivity results achieved

by applying a specific kaikaku realization approach. However, it also

sheds light on the difficulty and contradiction of combining

innovation management and production system development.