Continuous Improvement
Continuous Improvement Foundation
Continuous improvement is an outgrowth of the concept known n Japan as “kaizen” – doing things better, little-by-little, all the time. With the starting point, “being good enough, is never good enough”, companies have to engage in never-ending improvements in quality processes. The concept of continuous improvement includes activities designed to control and reduce process variability.
In today’s complex and rapidly changing business environment there is a bewildering number of approaches or models advocated for achieving business excellence and continuous improvement, for example, Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, ISO 9000, Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR), Quality Management Excellence Award (QMEA), and Benchmarking. However, one still cannot find a total solution that will guarantee immediate and long lasting success in improving quality.
Approaches to continuous improvement have evolved significantly since the beginning of this century. Four major quality eras have been determined.
- Inspection.
- Statistical Quality Control.
- Quality Assurance.
- Strategic Quality Management.
Each quality era built on the last era. During the last three eras quality was viewed as a problem to be solved and the focus was on internal operations of the organization. In the 1980s, quality was seen for the first time as a competitive opportunity, a strategic weapon that could be used against competitors. Thus, in the fourth quality era the focus was on the customer and the organization was more proactive in anticipating and responding to both customer and market needs. Continued top management commitment and involvement in quality was seen as paramount to ensure that quality was fully integrated into business strategy and plans and that it was adequatley deployed througout the organization.
The strategic quality management approach, however, is still in adequate to meet today’s rapidly challenging business environments, characterized by uncertainty and unpredictability. To meet these challenges, a fifth quality era – competitive continuous improvement – has been identified. Here, the primary concern is with the organization being flexible, responsive and able to adapt quickly to changes needed in strategy in the light of feedback from customers and from benchmarking against competitors.
Continuous quality improvement is the hallmark of successful organizations worldwide. Many successful Japanese companies have adopted continuous quality improvement as the number one operational principle for all employess and departments. But continuous quality improvement does not allways mean a limited quality improvement. Entire new product categories can be created by exploiting anomalies in quality and customer satisfaction, which is possible if more efforts were made by the organizations to obtain the changing needs either through market research or strong relationship with customers.
For an organization to achieve flexibility, responsiveness and the ability to adapt quickly to changes within its environment, the implementation of a sound strategy for continuous improvement is essential.