China 
Africa 
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Questions for Layout Sketch Review
Published in Timothy D. Martin, Jeffrey T. Bell, Scott A. Martin, The Standardized Work Field Guide, 2017
Timothy D. Martin, Jeffrey T. Bell, Scott A. Martin
Putting the lost opportunities into the right context is very important as we have discussed in the “Introduction” section. In this exercise, the added capacity can mean more revenue, less overtime, and so on. Understand that continuous improvement is not simply a way of saving the company money but also a way to preserve jobs, and growing the business can be a very high motivator—especially in these tough economic times. Continuous improvement also gives the workers a chance to try and get involved with helping preserve their own jobs as well as the jobs of their coworkers. Most importantly, it gives everyone the chance to be part of the team.
Lean Thinking
Published in Frances Alston, Lean Implementation, 2017
Continuous improvement in this context refers to ongoing efforts to identify and eliminate problems and to seek and implement practices or procedures to improve quality and efficiency of operation. Continuous improvement is a philosophy that seeks to improve all factors related to transforming a process on an ongoing basis. In order to achieve a culture of continuous improvement, it requires long-term support and investment by top management. Long-term support can include providing training to workers, allocating adequate resources, or continuing to foster a culture of change and employee engagement.
Fundamentals of Continuous Improvement
Published in John Nicholas, Lean Production for Competitive Advantage, 2018
As much of or greater a challenge to continuous improvement is sustaining improvements. Mechanical operations degrade, and people fall back into old habits and forget or tire of what they are supposed to do. Lean production meets that challenge by incorporating improvements into standard work routines (standard work) and then promoting conformance to those standards through daily management. These topics will be addressed in later chapters.
A critical evaluation and measurement of organisational readiness and adoption for continuous improvement within a medical device manufacturer
Published in International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Management, 2023
Olivia McDermott, Jiju Antony, Michael Sony, Ellen Looby
The importance of Leadership commitment across different CI models is noted by many authors (Antony, 2014; Douglas, 2017; Kumar et. al., 2020). Leaders that can practice continuous improvement themselves will demonstrate that from the top down the benefits of the process are supported and will help create a culture of continuous improvement among employees (Kumar & Sharma, 2015). Employee motivation is fostered by investing in time to train, encouraging participation and having reward improvements. All of these increase employee and team engagement in the CI process and will encourage a positive relationship between all streams in an organization (Antony, 2014). The business strategic needs with respect to CI activities need to be aligned with customer focus which will help to train employees in strategic learning, planning and goal setting and will help employees to understand the differences between operational and strategic goals (Alnadi & McLaughlin, 2021).
Developing a quality function deployment model for the Ethiopian leather industry: Requirements and solutions under linguistic variables
Published in Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 2023
Sisay Addis Filketu, Yeneneh Tamirat Negash
Continuous improvement is a mind-set toward understanding the appropriate QIR that drive improvement solutions or interventions necessary to achieve customer satisfaction. Continuous improvement should be part of the management through all systems and processes. Continuous quality improvement must succeed and be strategically planned in each phase so that an organization can achieve substantial, ongoing improvement and be structured accordingly [32]. Continuous improvement denotes that businesses should periodically evaluate their current systems, processes, and products against predetermined standards of excellence to pinpoint areas for improvement [30]. Thus, the documentation of various process procedures and measurements is essential for solving quality problems and ensuring company survival. Afrin and Islam 12 noted that these measures describe a never-ending iterative process to act upon both regular and irregular issues and refine processes. Baye and Raju 3 indicated that even though the LPMI has established quality instructions, procedures, and manuals to ensure the consistency of various activities, there is still a long way to go toward continuous improvement.
Training, employee involvement and continuous improvement – the moderating effect of a common improvement method
Published in Production Planning & Control, 2021
Training is needed for developing employee involvement and participation in various quality and process improvement concepts (Kim, Kumar, and Kumar 2012). Researchers have confirmed that training is a basic factor in the success of quality management implementation (Flynn, Sakakibara, and Schroeder 1995; Anderson, Rungtusanatham, and Schroeder 1994; Kitapçi and Sezen 2007). Based on a multisite, longitudinal case study Netland (2016) stated that ‘training and education’, ‘commitment and involvement’ and ‘participation and empowerment’ are the most important critical success factors of lean management, but did not indicate how these factors are related, let alone how they reinforce each other. Nevertheless, training is considered an enabling HR-practice to empower employees to enhance their self-efficacy and commitment for continuous improvement (Jurburg et al. 2017). A well-trained and committed employee tends to work more efficiently and effectively to improve performance (Kim, Kumar, and Kumar 2012). In contrast, lack of training and lack of commitment are cited as major causes of unsuccessful continuous improvement initiatives (Cua, McKone, and Schroeder 2001; McLean, Antony, and Dahlgaard 2017).