Key Approaches to Organizational Improvement. Breakthrough Improvement. Continuous Improvement. Kaizen’s Key Ingredients. 5 Lean Manufacturing Principles.

Approaches to Improvement

There are two main approaches to improvement in organisations:
?�� �breakthrough improvement
?�� �continuous improvement.

Breakthrough Improvement
Breakthrough improvement, as the name implies, is a sudden change in the way an organisation operates. This may involve the introduction of new technology, moving to new premises, a change in culture or structure, or adopting a new system or process, such as implementing performance management, or a new type of reward system. Business process re-engineering (BPR) is a good example of the breakthrough improvement approach.
Joseph M Juran, one of the gurus of TQM, wrote a classic book, Managerial Breakthrough (1964), which was the first to describe a step-by-step sequence for breakthrough improvement, a process that became the basis for quality initiatives worldwide. Motorola pioneered a breakthrough approach in the 1980s based on Juran’s work which became known as the Six Sigma Breakthrough.

Continuous Improvement
A less radical approach than breakthrough improvement is an incremental, or gradual, approach called continuous improvement. This is also known as kaizen in Japan.

Here’s list of kaizen’s key ingredients from Sony’s point of view:
?�� �involvement at all levels
?�� �just-in-time inventory
?�� �zero defects
?�� �quality circles
?�� �suggestion systems
?�� �elimination of waste-the eight deadly muda
?�� �improvements to standardization processes (from the employee’s point of view)
?�� �measuring compliance with the kaizen-driven plan
?�� �reduced employee headcount
?�� �improvement in employee morale by removing drudgery from work and developing pride in seeing individual ideas implemented
?�� �quicker cycle time
?�� �automation.

Kaizen means improvement. Moreover, it means improvement in personal life, home life, social life and work life. When applied in the work place, kaizen means continuing improvement involving everyone-managers and workers alike.
Have a look at the case study below, �APW Mclean is Going Lean�. This shows continuous improvement using a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste called �lean manufacturing�, which contains many of the ingredients of TQM.

Lean manufacturing is based on five principles:
?�� �specify value in terms of the customer’s needs
?�� �identify the value stream for each product or service
?�� �create continuous flow through the value stream
?�� �produce goods or services according to the pull from the customer
?�� �continue always to improve and seek perfection.

Continuous improvement is a typical TQM approach as some of the key words and phrases of TQM frequently occur when the subject is raised-such as involvement, cascading to all levels of the organisation, teamwork, quality tools (concepts), product quality and commitment from the top. However, it can be used in isolation from TQM, for example when managers implement continuous improvement at team level.

Continuous improvement, a never-ending process, is often portrayed as a cycle of repeated activities. TQM guru W E Deming invented a way of demonstrating this, called the PDCA cycle or Deming wheel. PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act. The cycle starts with the plan stage, which involves an investigation and analysis of the problem area, followed by the do or implementation stage, where the plan is tried out in operation. Next is the check or monitoring stage, which involves evaluating the results against expectations, and finally the act or consolidation stage, where the change is standardised or lessons are learned from the experience. Then the cycle starts again.

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