Continuous improvement freeware

Continuous improvement, sometimes called continual improvement, is the ongoing improvement of products, services or processes through incremental and breakthrough improvements. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once. Among the most widely used tools for the continuous improvement model is a four-step quality assurance method—the plan-do-check-act PDCA cycle :.

Other widely used methods of continuous improvement, such as Six Sigma , lean , and total quality management , emphasize employee involvement and teamwork, work to measure and systematize processes, and reduce variation, defects, and cycle times.

Common Dictionary Definitions of Continual and Continuous. You can also search articles , case studies , and publications for continuous improvement resources. Match the Change Vehicle and Method to the Job Quality Progress Process improvement teams must understand the definitions of the methodology, tools and change vehicles available to them, because mismatches can be fatal to a quality improvement program.

From Continuous Improvement to Continuous Innovation Quality Management Journal A close-up look at the concepts of continuous improvement, continuous innovation, discontinuous innovation, incrementalism, exploitation and exploration. Continuous Improvement: Methods and Madness World Conference on Quality and Improvement Employee involvement, daily and evolutionary improvement, and focusing on product features are all characteristics of continuous improvement.

Switching From Improvement to Innovation on the Fly Quality Progress This article proposes a methodology to break logjams in process improvement drives by switching, on the fly, from an improvement to an innovation mode. Authors Sunil Kumar V. Continuous process improvement CPI is another term for continuous improvement.

Both terms describe regular efforts to change software, tools, methods, and processes. These changes can improve products, delight customers, and result in larger profits. The basic continuous process improvement model includes the four steps of the PDCA cycle: plan, do, check, act. Although other improvement models have steps with different names, the PDCA activities still form the core of these improvement frameworks. PDCA is a simple, repeatable system for addressing problems and testing solutions.

Although continuous improvement and continual improvement are sometimes used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings:. As a continuous improvement approach, Kaizen helps organizations to enhance output quality, lower costs, raise morale, and empower employees. More of a philosophy than a methodology, Kaizen is less structured than Six Sigma.

However, Kaizen does use visual tools such as value stream mapping and Kanban boards to track process flows. Continuous improvement is a key part of Lean and Agile management.

Lean methods help teams to eliminate waste and simplify workflows. Lean was first used in manufacturing, but is now used by many other industries as well. Built on Kaizen, Lean continuous improvement shares the principles of creating big shifts from small changes and encouraging employees to offer new ideas. Lean continuous improvement creates process refinements by helping teams explore new ways of working. Six Sigma is a formal method of continuous improvement that removes variability and raises the likelihood of creating the results teams want.

In Six Sigma initiatives, trained Six Sigma practitioners support organizations in their data-driven improvement projects. The results-based, competitive-improvement framework for operational excellence is an offshoot of Six Sigma. Giles Johnston is a chartered engineer who consults with businesses to improve their operational processes, and the author of Effective SOPs. Concepts similar to continuous improvement include business process improvement , which focuses on process improvement to create better deliverables, and business process management , which focuses on managing and automating processes.

The following list includes other CI-based approaches that businesses and nonprofits use today:. The principles of continuous improvement include making small step-by-step changes, empowering employees, reflecting and repeating, and creating measurable and repeatable changes.

These values apply regardless of the methods or tools you use to implement continuous improvement. What does the continuous improvement process really look like? Suppose you wake up on a Saturday morning and decide to make an omelette. You rummage around in the refrigerator for onions and cheese. You look through the cabinets for a can of chilis but have to run to the basement to get a can.

And on it goes, right to your rummaging around for the spatula to turn the omelette, and running to get a plate before the eggs burn. Before they start to cook, the vegetables are all cut up. All the utensils they need are in grabbing space. Looking for items and forgetting steps wastes time. To start the conversation, we help people see wasted activity.

Then, we help them put together a new process that takes out the guesswork and gets things systematized. Continuous quality improvement is a tool that helps all members of a team work together to improve processes and products. In CQI, leaders encourage employees to share ideas, and everyone tries to make improvements daily. Start continuous improvement by identifying where problems usually occur. Trouble spots show up in tasks, workflows, or even workspaces.

But not every problem needs an improvement program. The pursuit of continuous improvement may be formal or adaptive: formal continuous improvement endeavors follow frameworks such as Six Sigma and recognized analysis tools to achieve measurable results. By contrast, adaptive continuous improvement uses a mix of analytical tools.

Ariza describes continuous improvement efforts as two parts. Second, you let the people who do those tasks make the changes. When pursuing formal programs, consider teaching your team analysis techniques. Despite the benefits of continuous improvement, teams sometimes shy away from the process. The thought of a full-on Agile or Six Sigma exercise, complete with statistical analysis, can intimidate managers. Employees may assume that management expects more work on top of an already full schedule.

And while every organization is unique, the steps required to build a continuous improvement culture are the same. Here are 11 steps to building and nurturing a continuous improvement culture in your organization. The start of every initiative needs to begin with the end in mind. Once you have established the current state, imagine what the future of the company can look like in the best-case and most optimistic scenario. From this futuristic and optimistic state, determine what the company can realistically achieve in the next 5, 10, and 50 years.

Your target for the future should lie somewhere between the realistic and optimistic vision of the company. Once you have set the goal, work with your team to determine how to get the company from its current state point A to the future you have envisioned point B. To do this effectively start asking the following questions:. Figuring out exactly where you want to head and the behaviours necessary to go there is the first step in developing a continuous improvement culture.

The end goal should be difficult enough to provoke a sense of urgency. It should also be attainable since goals that are too out of reach can lead to hopelessness and inaction. Once the targets for continuous improvement has been developed, you need to get buy-in from key stakeholders and communicate the message across your organization. The feedback from your stakeholders is very important and will allow you to refine your targets.

It is essential that you put your goals in writing and allow everyone in the organization to have access to it. Only by having a shared vision and shared understanding of the mission can the whole organization move towards achieving the goals. Every continuous improvement program needs a process. A process or a framework for improvement is an operating model and set of procedures that when executed correctly will lead to the development, analysis, and adoption of improvement ideas.

Several successful frameworks for continuous improvement programs already exist such as the Toyota Production System TPS. Within TPS, there are a number of management principles, philosophies, and tools that can be used in any continuous improvement program.

It is not necessary to know all these concepts at once. However, the more knowledge you have about TPS the more inspiration and opportunities for improvement that you can identify on a daily basis. People are only as effective as the tools that they have available. Continuous improvement is not a natural phenomenon in organizations. The only way to enable and empower employees to embark on this journey is to educate them on the process and the benefits of continuous improvement.

As a result, training and education needs to be on-going. For some people the training can be an introduction to continuous improvement concepts and tools. For others, it can be a reminder of the practices and behaviors that they should exhibit on a daily basis.