Return to Organisations

Continuous improvement

  • So far, productivity improvement has been prompted by cardinal alarm bells ringing
  • However, managers should not wait for this to happen – they should be forever looking for different ways to improve
  • ‘Kaizen’ is the Japanese word for continuous improvement (CI) – kai is change, zen is good – it’s the Japanese way of doing business
  • There’s no special improvement projects involved
  • CI involves everyone in an organisation, all managers and employees, working in small teams to come up with ways to make small improvements “day in, day out”

 

Aims of CI:

  • To make lots of minor improvements to products, services or processes
  • To extend product and service ranges
  • To offer the same product or service at a lower price (or higher margin)
  • To provide a new or better product or service – at a higher price even
  • To incorporate a new convenience (add more value)
  • To create a new (customer) want
  • To find new uses for old products

Peter Drucker
  • Every small contribution to productivity improvement is deemed to be useful
  • As Dr Deming noted, “the big gain is not the £500 per year that the men saved, it’s that the men can take pride in the improvement”
  • But when thousands of small, incremental improvements are made, the big gain can also be enormous financially for the organisation
  • Just as it was for David Brailsford, UK ‘Team Sky’ coach, when winning the 2012 Tour de France – he put it all down to “the aggregation of marginal gains”

Leave a Reply

Your e-mail address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

en English
af Afrikaanssq Albanianam Amharicar Arabichy Armenianaz Azerbaijanieu Basquebe Belarusianbn Bengalibs Bosnianbg Bulgarianca Catalanceb Cebuanony Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)zh-TW Chinese (Traditional)co Corsicanhr Croatiancs Czechda Danishnl Dutchen Englisheo Esperantoet Estoniantl Filipinofi Finnishfr Frenchfy Frisiangl Galicianka Georgiande Germanel Greekgu Gujaratiht Haitian Creoleha Hausahaw Hawaiianiw Hebrewhi Hindihmn Hmonghu Hungarianis Icelandicig Igboid Indonesianga Irishit Italianja Japanesejw Javanesekn Kannadakk Kazakhkm Khmerko Koreanku Kurdish (Kurmanji)ky Kyrgyzlo Laola Latinlv Latvianlt Lithuanianlb Luxembourgishmk Macedonianmg Malagasyms Malayml Malayalammt Maltesemi Maorimr Marathimn Mongolianmy Myanmar (Burmese)ne Nepalino Norwegianps Pashtofa Persianpl Polishpt Portuguesepa Punjabiro Romanianru Russiansm Samoangd Scottish Gaelicsr Serbianst Sesothosn Shonasd Sindhisi Sinhalask Slovaksl Slovenianso Somalies Spanishsu Sudanesesw Swahilisv Swedishtg Tajikta Tamilte Teluguth Thaitr Turkishuk Ukrainianur Urduuz Uzbekvi Vietnamesecy Welshxh Xhosayi Yiddishyo Yorubazu Zulu