Kaizen Assembly of Bellingham has announced plans to open a new Canadian division in Surrey, British Columbia, next month.

Kaizen is a global lean implementation and manufacturing engineering firm offering a variety of business improvement services, according to its website.

Company directors said the expansion was driven by an increase in Canadian customers seeking lean manufacturing support.

“We are excited about this divisional office and will grow our now-international team to support both the U.S. and Canada.” said company president Chris Ortiz, in a press release.

Lean manufacturing principles emphasize creating value for customers. Companies who follow lean principles generally focus their efforts on eliminating aspects of their operations that do not efficiently produce products or services customers would be willing to pay for.

Kaizen plans to focus its initial Canadian efforts in British Columbia and Alberta, but hopes to quickly broaden its scope into other regions of the country.

The bulk of the Bellingham firm’s customers are located in Washington, but Kaizen also provides services to clients across the world.

Some if its local clients include McNett and Wood Stone Corp., both of Bellingham.

This article was revised on Nov. 18, 2012. An earlier version suggested Absorption Corp. of Ferndale and Bellingham Cold Storage were current clients of Kaizen. Both firms are past clients of the company.