Definition
A jagged marker drawn on the Value Stream Map indicating the Kaizen that must be done at this point to achieve the Future State; when the map is long, number the Kaizen Bursts, and the numbers can be directly converted into activity sequence numbers in the Value Stream Plan.
In detail
The kaizen burst is the stroke that connects the map to action: on the current state map it says there is an opportunity here, on the future state map it says work must happen here. The rule is to agree as a group before marking, then group the bursts by loop and number them; the numbers are not decoration, they let every line of the plan point back to a place on the map. The common failure is a row of bursts that become wishes — any burst without a place in the value stream plan, an owner and a date will still be sitting in the same spot the next time the map is drawn.
Example in practice
The team marked Kaizen Bursts on three batch-wait points in the Current State Map and numbered them 1 to 3. In the report-out, they directly proposed three Kaizen Events by number; looking back a month later, the point numbered 2 still showed the same Kaizen Burst on the map because it had not been scheduled into the plan.