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Why is Continuous Process Improvement Important?

Why is Continuous Process Improvement Important?

Many process improvement initiatives lack long term results. Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) focuses an ongoing “never-ending” effort to improve people, processes, and systems. Unlike methods like Re-engineering, CPI focuses on incremental improvements over time, where processes are constantly evaluated and improved versus a single large improvement event.

CPI teaches organizations how to work together from senior management to workers to identify how to improve the process instead of placing blame. 

W. Edwards Deming, a pioneer of the field, saw CPI as part of the 'system' whereby feedback from the process and customer are constantly evaluated against organizational goal, and improvement is ongoing.

Some CPI projects use a Kaizen event (improvement), which is a method made famous by the book of Masaaki Imai “Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success.” Kaizen teaches people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific method, identifies how to learn to spot and eliminate waste (unnecessary work) in business processes, encourages continuous improvement to eliminate all waste and is used when appropriate (need for a solution is urgent, big impact projects).

Another CPI tool is Plan-Do-Check-Act: Plan - Identify an opportunity and plan for change.  Do - Implement the change on a small scale. Check - Use data to analyze the results of the change and determine whether it made a difference. Act - If the change was successful, implement it on a wider scale and continuously assess your results. If the change did not work, begin the cycle again

Since 1995, we at CRE8 Independent Consultants have assisted clients with CPI planning and training.. For information how we can help your organization, feel free to contact us.


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