The First Key to Building Quality: Developing a Continuous Improvement Philosophy
Many organizations, large and small, have been quite successful in generating Quality
and Productivity improvements. You may have heard of some of the Continuous
Improvement methods, such as, Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean Manufacturing,
Six Sigma, etc.
What these methods have in common is what I call 5 keys to Building Quality:
1) Continuous Improvement philosophy
2) Consistency in everything you do
3) Teamwork as part of the culture
4) Routine Measure and Analysis
5) Training for all
In this article I will concentrate on exploring the need for a Continuous Improvement
Philosophy or mind-set.
Why is Continuous Improvement necessary?  The answer is simple.  In nature things
never stay the same for long.  Things get better or worse.  Without actively working at
improving the outcome, the odds are that deterioration will occur.  By pursuing
improvement actively, we are actually increasing the probability that the results will
indeed be positive, and further, that our organization will survive.
Strong leadership that understands the Continuous Improvement concept is needed to
successfully implement this philosophy.  The leadership team and all employees must be
convinced that this is, indeed, a new way of doing business for the company with long
term pay-offs for everyone.
Resistance to change is a frequent obstacle that needs to be overcome. Continuous
Improvement should not be perceived as just another short- lived corporate program
that will be replaced by something else when it outlives its usefulness.
You should note that as quality and productivity improve, costs are reduced while, at the
same time, customer satisfaction increases. These combined effects produce a double
benefit to the bottom line. As good companies improve and become better companies,
these financial benefits continue to make the company a serious contender in the global
competitive arena.
1) The external customer which every one in the organization should be
trying to satisfy, and,
2) Its own internal customers; that is, the departments who are recipients of
the outputs from that department.
Only by developing the motivation to excel in both of these areas, can an organization be
truly successful. The same characteristics that satisfy the needs of external customers
need to be addressed within the company so that problems are not passed on from
department to department. Each department needs to deliver the intermediate products
and services in an excellent manner taking into account the needs of the receiving
department in terms of quality and timeliness.
Like their manufacturing counterparts, these organizations have learned that only by
providing for the continuous improvement of their operations can they assure their
prosperity in the future.
Authored by: Enrique Bekerman , Quality Manufacturing Associates.
February 2, 2003.
To read first article in this series "5 Keys to Building Quality " click here
A Continuous Improvement Philosophy implies that the Organization will never sleep on
its laurels. The better its processes for products and services become, the more it
recognizes the value and importance of  a system that provides the impetus for these
improvements to occur on an ongoing basis.
Companies who have undergone this transformation have been rewarded with long-term
profitability.  These companies have understood that to succeed you need to persevere
and not treat Quality Improvement as the annual corporate program that could be
replaced next year by something else.
Continuous Improvement involves every department and functional area. Every aspect of
the organization and how it functions needs to be examined. The design of products and
services, the actual execution and delivery and the determination of the satisfaction of
the customer are all subjects for examination and potential improvement.
As you can see this is by no means an easy task, but requires the involvement and
collaboration of all employees. The process takes effort, but in reality much of what
needs to be done will have an effect on future productivity, so the initial time investment
will have a dramatic pay-back in due course.
It is often said that there are two types of customers that each department needs to
satisfy in order to succeed in Continuous Improvement:
The Continuous Improvement philosophy has not only been applied successfully in the
manufacturing sector, but in non-profit and public sectors as well. Cities, schools,
hospitals, and governmental agencies have adopted various Continuous Improvement
methods to improve the delivery of their services.