I believe that every organization and every person should be on a road to continuous improvement if they wish to attain and maintain long term success.
Without evaluation and change no organization or individual will continue to grow and develop. It is therefore imperative that everyone recognizes the importance of this type of activity whether or not it is called Kaizen, TQM, Six Sigma, or any other of the more popular names often used throughout the industrialized world.
The processes may vary slightly, but the end goal to deliver small improvements on a continual basis remains identical.
As an outline, there are a number of standards steps for implementing a continuous improvement program:
-
Define and document the current situation and problems.
-
Discuss and create a vision of how things would be in an ideal situation.
-
Set up clearly defined and measurable targets.
-
Assemble a team of people with experience in the area you wish to improve and brainstorm solutions to the problem.
-
Develop a detailed “Kaizen” plan that will clearly define the steps to be taken.
-
After implementation measure your results to your defined targets.
-
Prepare summary documents and standard operating procedures based upon the improvements you have implemented.
-
Create a program of on-going evaluation that will help your continuous improvement program.
Optimizer
Quotes
“Excellent firms don't believe in excellence - only in constant improvement and constant change.”
Tom Peters
“Improvement begins with I.”
Arnold H. Glasgow
“A bad system will defeat a good person every time.”
W. Edwards Deming
