Continuous Improvement (CI) Process

A Continuous Improvement (CI) Process is an organizational change process that seeks organizational efficiencies to increase successes and reduce failures.

• Context:
  • It can be associated ...
  • …
• Example(s):
  • a Continuous Software Improvement Process.
  • a Business Process Improvement (within Business Process Management (BPM).
  • a Technical Debt reduction program.
  • a Root Cause Analysis Programm (or RCAs).
  • a Kaizen Process.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Waterfall Development Process.
• See: Agile Development Process, Adaptable Process, Center of Excellence, Quality Management, Program Management.

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References

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continual_improvement_process Retrieved:2015-9-24.
  • A continual improvement process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once. Delivery (customer valued) processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility. Some see CIPs as a meta-process for most management systems (such as business process management, quality management, project management, and program management). W. Edwards Deming, a pioneer of the field, saw it as part of the 'system' whereby feedback from the process and customer were evaluated against organisational goals. The fact that it can be called a management process does not mean that it needs to be executed by 'management'; but rather merely that it makes decisions about the implementation of the delivery process and the design of the delivery process itself. A broader definition is that of the Institute of Quality Assurance who defined "continuous improvement as a gradual never-ending change which is: '... focussed on increasing the effectiveness and/or efficiency of an organisation to fulfil its policy and objectives. It is not limited to quality initiatives. Improvement in business strategy, business results, customer, employee and supplier relationships can be subject to continual improvement. Put simply, it means ‘getting better all the time’.' "

2005

• (Bhuiyan & Baghel, 2005) ⇒ Nadia Bhuiyan, and Amit Baghel. (2005). “An Overview of Continuous Improvement: From the Past to the Present.” Management decision
  • ABSTRACT: This paper traces how organizations have used various tools and techniques to address the need for improvement on various levels. The paper also presents research conducted in this field. It should be of value to practitioners of continuous improvement programs and to academics who are interested in how continuous improvement has evolved, and where it is today. To the authors’ knowledge, no recent papers have provided an historical perspective of continuous improvement. Furthermore, our paper also discusses the existing research in this field.
  • QUOTE: Continuous improvement (CI) is a philosophy that Deming described simply as consisting of “Improvement initiatives that increase successes and reduce failures” (Juergensen, 2000). Another definition of CI is “a company-wide process of focused and continuous incremental innovation” (Bessant et al., 1994). Yet others view CI as either as an offshoot of existing quality initiatives like total quality management (TQM) or as a completely new approach of enhancing creativity and achieving competitive excellence in today’s market (Oakland, 1999; Caffyn, 1999; Gallagher et al., 1997).
  • According to Kossoff (1993), total quality can be achieved by constantly pursuing CI through the involvement of people from all organizational levels. We define CI more generally as a culture of sustained improvement targeting the elimination of waste in all systems and processes of an organization. It involves everyone working together to make improvements without necessarily making huge capital investments. CI can occur through evolutionary improvement, in which case improvements are incremental, or though radical changes that take place as a result of an innovative idea or new technology. Often, major improvements take place over time as a result of numerous incremental improvements.

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