Explaining The Philosophical Approaches For Continuous Improvement

Explaining the Philosophical
Approaches for Continuous

Improvement.
Prepared by: Renzitelo Alf P. Carpio, MBA
Faculty College of Business and Management
Learning Outcome:
 Explain the philosophical approaches for
continuous improvement.
Evans, James (2017) Quality and Performance Excellence Cengage Learning, 8th Edition
Topic Outline:
 Philosophy and Approaches to Continuous
Improvement
 Improvement Process
 Tools for Continuous Improvement
Introduction:
 Continuous Improvement is essential to
Total Quality as companies cannot create a
splash improvement of a system to be
implemented in a one shot domain.
PHILOSOPHY
AND
APPROACHES
TO
CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
KAIZEN PHILOSOPHY
 JIT established a philosophy of continuous

improvement, which the Japanese call” Kaizen”.
 Kaizen strategy has been called “ the single most
important concept in Japanese management – the key
to Japanese competitive success.”
 In the kaizen approach as practiced in Japan,
 financial
investment is minimal;
 everyone participates in the process; and
 improvements result from the know-how and
experience of workers
KAIZEN DEFINITION
 Kaizen comes from two Japanese words:

“kai” means change and “zen” means better,
which translates to “continuous improvement”.
 Kaizen is a tool that improves quality, productivity,
safety, and workplace culture.
 Kaizen is an approach to create continuous
improvement based on the idea that small, ongoing
positive changes can reap major improvements.
SEVEN STEPS FOR ACCELERATED
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
I. Focus and Pinpoint. “Focus” is about getting everyone on the
same page with regard to goals; “pinpoint” is about specifying in
measurable terms what is expected.
II. Communicate. Communication is done company-wide by
publicizing key result areas, the vision, and the mission statement.
III. Translate and Link. Teams translate the company-wide
objectives into their own language and environment. Management
creates a plan with specific actions to reach a goal, including
metrics to measure success.
SEVEN STEPS FOR ACCELERATED
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
IV. Create a management action plan. Management creates a plan
with specific actions to reach a goal, including metrics to measure
success.
V. Improve Processes. Teams use a six-step problem- solving process.
VI. Measure progress and provide feedback. Eastman adamant about
the importance of an ambiguous, visual feedback to employees and
appropriate measures of performance.
VII. Reinforce behaviors and celebrate results. Eastman reinforces that
learning's leads to a positive results by encouraging teams at
celebrations.
FOUR KEY STEPS OF A STRUCTURED
IMPROVEMENT APPROACH
1. Redefining and analyzing the perceived problem,

2. Generating ideas,
3. Evaluating ideas and selecting a workable solution,
and
4. Implementing the solution.
Systematic
Improvement
Processes Used By
Many Organizations
THE DEMING CYCLE
 One of the earliest approaches focused on

quality improvement that can be learned and
applied by everyone in an organization. The
Deming Cycle is a simple adaptation of the
scientific method for process improvement.
WALTER SHEWHART
 First introduced this as a three-step process of
specification, production, and inspection for mass
production that “constitute a dynamic scientific
process of acquiring knowledge” in 1939. These
steps correspond to the scientific method of
hypothesizing, carrying out an experiment, and
testing the hypothesis.
THE “DEMING WHEEL”
• Design the product with appropriate tests.
• Make the product and test in the production line
and in the laboratory.
• Sell the product.
• Test the product in service and through market
research to find out what users think about it
and why nonusers have not bought it.
FOUR STAGES OF THE DEMING CYCLE
THREE (3) FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
FOR IMPROVEMENT PROCESSES OF
DEMING CYCLE
1. What are we trying to accomplish?
2. What changes can we make that will result in
improvement?
3. How will we know that a change is an
improvement?
SIX SIGMA DMAIC METHODOLOGY
 DEFINE.
 MEASURE
 ANALYZE
 IMPROVE
 CONTROL
CUSTOM IMPROVEMENT METHODOLOGIES
• Focus.
• Analyze
• Define
• Execute
Variety of
Tools for
Process
Improvement
TOOLS FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
 The Seven QC Tools
1. Flowcharts
2. Check Sheets
3. Histogram
4. Pareto Diagrams
5. Cause and Effect Diagrams
6. Scatter Diagrams
7. Control Charts
Flowchart or Process Map
A picture of process that shows the sequence of

steps performed
 Guide questions:
 What happens next?
 Who makes the decision at this point?
 What operation is performed here?
Hire
Candidate
Training with operator checklist
Safety, quality, and procedure testing
Test Passed?
Four-week evaluation
Solo with lead operator support
Re-evaluate
90-day evaluation
employee
Press-certified
Check Sheets
 These tools aid in data collection. When designing the

process to collect data, one must first ask basic
questions such as:
 What questions are we trying to answer?

 What type of data will we need to answer?
 Where can we find the data?
 Who can provide the data?
 How can we collect the data with minimum effort and
minimum chance of error?
Check sheet example
Histograms
 A graphical representation of the variation in a
set of data.
Pareto Diagrams
 A technique for prioritizing types or sources of
problems.
Cause-and-Effect Diagrams
 A graphical representation of an outline that
presents a chain of causes and effects.
Scatter Diagrams
 Illustrate relationships between hypothesized causes and
effects, such as the percentage of an ingredients in an alloy
and the hardness of alloy, or the number of employee
errors and overtime worked.
Control Charts
 Backbone of statistical process control (SPC) and were first
proposed by Walter Shewart in 1942.
 Useful for identifying improvement opportunities and
verifying that improvements really do have the desired
effect.
Root Cause Analysis
 Is an approach using statistical, quantitative, or

qualitative tools to identify and understand the
root cause, or the true source of a problem.
LEAN THINKING
 TOTAL QUALITY (TQ)
• describes a management approach to long-term
success through customer satisfaction.
 JUST IN TIME (JIT)

• Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, also known as just-in-
time production or the Toyota Production System
(TPS), is a methodology aimed primarily at reducing
times within production system as well as response
times from suppliers and to customers.
Lean is often use to
“GETTING MORE DONE WITH LESS”
THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LEAN
1. Reducing handoffs
2. Eliminating steps
3. Performing steps in parallel rather that in
sequence
4. Involving key people early
1. Reducing handoffs
• Every time a process in handed from one person or
group to another, errors can occur.
2. Eliminating steps
• the best way to save time on a step is not to do it at
all.
3. Performing steps
• unless one operation cannot be done until another is
finished why not do them both at once?
4. Involving key people early
• to avoid having to do things over as a result of key
people not having given their input until the process is
under way.
VARIETY OF TOOLS
• The 5 S’s
• Visual controls
• Efficient layout and standardize work
• Pull production
• Single minute exchange of dies (SMED)
• Total productive maintenance
• Source inspection
 The 5 S’s
 Derived from Japanese terms:
seiri ( sort )
Seiso ( shine )
Seiton ( set in order )
Seiketsu ( standardize )
Shitsuke ( sustain )
 Visual controls
 are indicators for
• Tools
• Parts
• Production activities that are placed in plain sight
of all workers.
 Efficient layout and standardized work
• The layout of equipment and processes is designed
according to the best operational sequence, by
physically linking and arranging machines and process
steps most efficiently, often in cellular arrangement.
 Pull production
• also described kanban or jit
• Upstream suppliers do not produce until the
downstream customer signals a need for parts
 Single minute exchange of dies (SMED)
• Refers to rapid changeover of tooling and fixtures in
machine shops so that multiple products in smaller
batches can be run on the same equipment.
 Total productive maintenance
• Is designed to ensure that equipment is operational
and available when needed
 Source inspection
• Inspection and control by process operators
guarantees that product passed on to the next
production stage conforms to specifications.
LEAN SIX SIGMA
 An integrated improvement approach to

improve goods and services and operations
efficiency by reducing defects, variations, and
waste.
 As tools of Six Sigma and Lean merged, the
concept of Lean Six Sigma (LSS)
Breakthrough
Improvement and the
Importance of
Creativity and
Innovation
Creativity and Innovation
 Fundamental to improving both products and

processes and need to be understood,
developed, and supported within any
organization.
Mechanisms used to encourage innovation
and creativity within the criteria include;
1.The non prescriptive nature of the criteria
-breakthrough thinking toward meeting the purpose of
the specific items in the criteria.
2. Customer driven-quality
–places major emphasis on the positive side of quality,
and stresses enhancement, new services, and customer
relationship management.
3. Continuous improvement and cycles of learning
–stressed as integral parts of the activities of all word
units
Mechanisms used to encourage innovation
and creativity within the criteria include;
4. Strong emphasis on cycle time reduction
in all company operation
-encourages companies to analyze work
processes, work organization, and the value-
added contributions of all process steps
5. Focus on future requirements of customers
-encourages companies to seek innovation
and creative ways to serve needs
Breakthrough Improvement
A result of innovation and creative thinking;
often these are motivated by stretch goals or
breakthrough objectives.
Stretch Goals
- force an organization to think in a radically
different way, and to encourage major
improvement as well as incremental ones.
Two approaches for breakthrough
improvement
 Benchmarking
-is the search for the best practices that will lead
to superior performance.
 Reengineering
-involves the examination and redesign of
business processes and workflows in your
organization. A business process is a set of related
work activities that are performed by employees to
achieve business goals.
Conclusion
 For the organizational process to improve, it

is very essential that firms will consistently
adopt typical approaches that will be
applicable in their stations. Perhaps, they
should be very keen about the details and laid
out clear problems to come up with better
solutions.
Reference:
 Evans, James (2017) Quality and Performance

Excellence Cengage Learning, 8th Edition

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Explaining the Philosophical

Approaches for Continuous

 JIT established a philosophy of continuous

 Kaizen comes from two Japanese words:

1. Redefining and analyzing the perceived problem,

 One of the earliest approaches focused on

 The Seven QC Tools

A picture of process that shows the sequence of

Training with operator checklist

Safety, quality, and procedure testing

Solo with lead operator support

 These tools aid in data collection. When designing the

 What questions are we trying to answer?

 Is an approach using statistical, quantitative, or

 JUST IN TIME (JIT)

“GETTING MORE DONE WITH LESS”

 An integrated improvement approach to

 Fundamental to improving both products and

 For the organizational process to improve, it

 Evans, James (2017) Quality and Performance

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