A continual improvement process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes.[1] These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once.[2] Delivery (customer valued) processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.
Some see continual improvement processes as a meta-process for most management systems (such as business process management, quality management, project management, and program management).[3] W. Edwards Deming, a pioneer of the field, saw it as part of the 'system' whereby feedback from the process and customer were evaluated against organisational goals. The fact that it can be called a management process does not mean that it needs to be executed by 'management'; but rather merely that it makes decisions about the implementation of the delivery process and the design of the delivery process itself.[4][5] A broader definition is that of the Institute of Quality Assurance who defined "continuous improvement as a gradual never-ending change which is: '... focused on increasing the effectiveness and/or efficiency of an organisation to fulfil its policy and objectives. It is not limited to quality initiatives. Improvement in business strategy, business results, customer, employee and supplier relationships can be subject to continual improvement. Put simply, it means 'getting better all the time'.' "[6]: 498
The key features of continual improvement process in general are:
- Feedback: The core principle of continual process improvement is the (self) reflection of processes
- Efficiency: The purpose of continual improvement process is the identification, reduction, and elimination of suboptimal processes
- Evolution: The emphasis of continual improvement process is on incremental, continual steps rather than giant leaps
- ^ Continuous Service Improvement — http://customerpromise.com/continuous-service-improvement
- ^ ASQ: Learn About Quality — http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/continuous-improvement/overview/overview.html
- ^ "Operational Excellence". Flevy. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
- ^ "Continuous Improvement". American Society for Quality. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
- ^ "Continuous Improvement process". Retrieved 10 Dec 2020.
- ^ Fryer, Karen J.; Antony, Jiju; Douglas, Alex (2007). "Critical success factors of continuous improvement in the public sector: A literature review and some key findings" (PDF). Total Quality Management. 19 (5): 497–517. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-06-30.