Continuous Improvement / Kaizen

From apppm
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 1: Line 1:
  
 
== Abstract ==
 
== Abstract ==
Continuous Improvement or Kaizen is a concept that is related to principles, methods and activities that have the target of continuously improving the performance of an organization. Continuous Improvement focuses on incremental steps that eventually lead to big improvements over time, rather than breakthrough changes. This incremental change is achieved by constantly reflecting and reexamining done work. Continuous Improvement thereby seeks to include and engage employees from all hierarchy levels in issue identification and solution finding. The concept can therefore also be seen as a continuous effort or general way of thinking in an organization. Continuous Improvement is similar to Kaizen, hence the two terms are generally used synonymously.  
+
Continuous Improvement, also referred to as Kaizen, is a concept that is related to principles, methods and activities that have the target of continuously improving the performance of an organization or individual. Continuous Improvement focuses on incremental steps that eventually lead to big improvements over time, rather than breakthrough changes. The concept is best depicted by the phrase “a long journey begins with a small step”. In a wider and more cultural sense, the concept is based on the assumption that the world is steadily changing and can always be improved. The concept of Kaizen is Japanese and means kai = change, zen = to improve. Although there are slight definitional differences, continuous improvement and kaizen are fundamentally similar. Hence the two terms are generally used synonymously [1].  
 
+
In an organizational context, Continuous improvement is a strategic and long-term effort to enhance competitiveness by improving quality, cost and time. The effort usually is directed at achieving certain objectives and is therefore different to the concept of idea management, that revolves around collecting, implementing and rewarding ideas of employees [2]. Improvement is achieved by applying an iterative process of constantly observing the current situation and implementing improvements. Improvements should then be standardized and disseminated to other areas. Furthermore, Continuous Improvement tries to involve employees from all hierarchy levels of an organization in the improvement process. Therefore, it is a popular concept in industry as it is easy and cheap to implement and not limited to any industry and organizational size [1]. The concept of Continuous Improvement is illustrated in figure 1.
A key concept of continuous Improvement can be found in the PDCA Cycle, that was designed by William Edwards Deming in the 1930s. The Cycle describes an iterative process of continuous learning. It consists of the four Phases Plan, Do, Check, Act.  
+
 
+
'''Plan:''' The planning phase consists of the two major steps observation of the situation and proposing a hypothesis why the targeted situation can not be reached. Here, causes that prevent the desired situation from being reached need to be identified, e. g. with a Ishikawa Diagram or 5-Why Analysis. The first step also focuses on clarifying the desired future situation besides observing the current state.
+
 
+
'''Do:''' The Do phase revolves around the development and testing of countermeasures for the identified root causes.  
+
 
+
'''Check:''' In this phase the data obtained by performing the countermeasure is analyzed. The result of this analysis should be the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis. Gained insights should be documented.
+
 
+
'''Act:''' This step contains the actual implementation of the countermeasure. Countermeasures should now be standardized and monitored. A reflection about leasons learned is recommended. If the hypothesis test failed, a new one needs to be proposed.  
+
  
  

Revision as of 22:21, 19 March 2022

Contents

Abstract

Continuous Improvement, also referred to as Kaizen, is a concept that is related to principles, methods and activities that have the target of continuously improving the performance of an organization or individual. Continuous Improvement focuses on incremental steps that eventually lead to big improvements over time, rather than breakthrough changes. The concept is best depicted by the phrase “a long journey begins with a small step”. In a wider and more cultural sense, the concept is based on the assumption that the world is steadily changing and can always be improved. The concept of Kaizen is Japanese and means kai = change, zen = to improve. Although there are slight definitional differences, continuous improvement and kaizen are fundamentally similar. Hence the two terms are generally used synonymously [1]. In an organizational context, Continuous improvement is a strategic and long-term effort to enhance competitiveness by improving quality, cost and time. The effort usually is directed at achieving certain objectives and is therefore different to the concept of idea management, that revolves around collecting, implementing and rewarding ideas of employees [2]. Improvement is achieved by applying an iterative process of constantly observing the current situation and implementing improvements. Improvements should then be standardized and disseminated to other areas. Furthermore, Continuous Improvement tries to involve employees from all hierarchy levels of an organization in the improvement process. Therefore, it is a popular concept in industry as it is easy and cheap to implement and not limited to any industry and organizational size [1]. The concept of Continuous Improvement is illustrated in figure 1.



Historical View

Short Introduction of the History to give a little bit more context, also to clarify the different terms Kaizen and CI

Big Idea / Title will be changed

Information about the broader scope of continuous improvement

Benefits and Key ideas

Tools

Tools that are connected to the concept of continuous improvement Root Cause Analysis 5 Why maybe 8D Problem Solving ...

Continous Improvement in Relation to APPPM

Continuous Improvement as an integrated management approach, lessons lernead from projects, capturing of knowledge in the organizational knowledge base, focusing on APPPM in this chapter as the concept itself is explained in a more general view

Application

Workshops

Tasks Forces for Continous Improvement / Teams

Where is it mainly used / Limitation in terms of industry or company size

Limitations

What is necessary in an organization to achieve continuous improvement

Where are the obstacles

Commitment of management

Failure culture

Bibliography

Trabasso, L. G., & Pessoa, M. V. (2016). Continuous Improvement. In Lean Product Design and Development Journey (S. 89-104). Springer International Publishing.

Muralidharan, K. (2015). Continuous Improvement. In Six Sigma for Organizational Excellence (pp. 517-532). Springer India.

Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Toolbox