Kaizen:
A Factory Story

Kaizen: A Factory Story (2025) is a brain game where you design automated production lines for Japanese consumer products. Play involves positioning and programming sequences of conveyor belts and robots to manipulate and assemble components to create Ts, camcorders and the like. It stands out for not defining right or wrong ways to reach the desired product, welcoming creative experimentation and divergent thinking as you design your machine.

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You play David Sugimoto and are thrust into your new job engineering the automated production of toys, gadgets and even food at Matsuzawa Manufacturing. The goal is simple: to correctly arrange and assemble components by placing tools like drills, welders, saws and arms on conveyor belts. The catch is that you must program the order and timing of every action to automate this process as efficiently as possible.

As you progress to making larger objects like TVs, managing available space for tools and components becomes as much of a challenge as programming the production line. With more complex puzzles, you likely won't get it right first try and experimenting through trial and error is all part of the fun as you get iteratively closer to the goal. Even after successfully automating a product's manufacture, you can enjoy optimising your design to improve efficiency and rate.

The result is a thinky-puzzle where you must visualise and plan your machine before then programming it to run successfully. Watching the finished production line run smoothly rewards you with the knowledge that you've designed every step.

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Our examiner, Jake Kendall, first checked Kaizen: A Factory Story 12 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 days ago.