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This book enables enterprise business leaders - from CEOs to supervisors - to understand what \"Continuous Improvement\" is, why it is probably the best answer to improved business performance in years, and how to put it to work in the unique environment of a specific organization. The book examines what is at the core of \"Continuous Improvement\" and delves deeper into the elements and constituents necessary to take an organization to the next level to ensure its continued, long-term existence. It provides guidance to enterprise management and to professionals engaged in the implementation of a \"Continuous Improvement\" initiative and enables them to structure and manage its implementation successfully. It also provides tools to quickly assess where an enterprise business stands in terms of strategic management and \"Continuous Improvement.\"

PurposeOperational excellence (OPEX) initiatives such as Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Agile have some common characteristics that can be understood through their adoption in organizations. The objective of this research is to present the results of an online survey highlighting the most critical reasons for failure of OPEX initiatives.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents the results of a survey from 106 experts from different countries who have been involved in OPEX implementation. The experts were Six Sigma Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Champions from different manufacturing and service organizations. The developed questionnaire was initially tested with the help of seven experts to ensure their technical validity and soundness.FindingsThe study found 15% of companies surveyed have not adopted any form of OPEX methodology. The top three reasons for non-adoption of OPEX were also found. In terms of the use of various OPEX methodologies, more than 75% of companies were employing Six Sigma and less than 50% were engaged in Lean initiatives. Another surprising result was that less than 5% of the companies were utilizing Kaizen and other continuous improvement methodologies for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational processes. The study further finds top five failure factors for sustaining OPEX initiatives in manufacturing, service, large and small organizations.Research limitations/implicationsThe study reports the outcomes based on an online survey with limited sample size. Moreover, the number of samples from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was less than 25, and therefore it was difficult to make any robust conclusions in the comparison of failure factors between large enterprises and SMEs.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that has attempted to explore the reasons for failure of OPEX initiatives. The authors argue that a greater understanding of the reasons for failure of OPEX initiatives can provide an input to develop a framework that can mitigate the failures and costs associated with such failures.

Purpose Process improvement initiatives, such as Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma, typically have common characteristics that are carried through projects. Whilst a project’s performance is an important determinant of the successful implementation of continuous improvement (CI) initiatives, its failure can undermine the impact of any CI initiative on business performance. As a result, an understanding of the reasons of process improvement project failures is crucial. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a pilot survey highlighting the most common reasons for process improvement project failures. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a pilot survey of 42 Brazilian manufacturing specialists who have been involved in process improvement projects. The participants of this survey were Six Sigma Master Black Belts, Black Belts, Green Belts and Six Sigma champions from manufacturing companies in Brazil. The survey questionnaire was piloted with five experts in the field in order to ensure that the questions were valid and technically sound. Findings The execution of Six Sigma projects in organizations results in a moderate rate of project failures. These failures can cost organizations several millions of dollars especially within the context of larger organizations. The main reasons for project failure, as cited by the specialists include: resistance to change, lack of commitment and support from top management and incompetent teams. Research limitations/implications The authors report the findings from a pilot survey having a limited sample size. Moreover, the data have been collected from one country and primarily from large manufacturing companies. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study looking into the reasons for process improvement project failures. The authors argue that if the top reasons for such failures are understood, a framework can be developed in the future that can mitigate the chance of project failures during project execution. This could potentially lead to significant savings to the bottom-line of many organizations.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate employee trust in the leader as the underlying mechanism between transformational leadership and employees’ organizational identification and their continuous improvement efforts.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 282 employees, working in 8 different private and public sector organizations from the banking, higher education, telecommunications and health sectors in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses.FindingsThe results support the hypothesized relationships showing that trust in the leader partially mediates the relationship of transformational leadership with organizational identification and continuous improvement efforts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study relied upon cross-sectional data, which does not satisfy the conditions to establish causality.Practical implicationsThe results of this study will help organizations and practitioners to understand the importance of trust between transformational leaders and followers, which ultimately results in higher organizational identification and continuous improvement.Originality/valueUsing the broader framework of social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), this study contributes to the extant employee – organization relationship literature by proposing and testing trust in the leader as an underlying psychological mechanism that can explain the impact of transformational leadership on employees’ organizational identification and their continuous improvement efforts.

\"The all-you-need-to-know primer on continuous improvement--offering best practices presented in a comprehensive, detailed case study illustrating what works and what doesn'tHow to Succeed with Continuous Improvement takes the reader through a real-life case study of one organization's journey towards a world-class continuous improvement process. It provides practical advice on methods, tools, and leadership to help operations professionals set up, execute, and continuously build upon their organization's improvement work.The book offers specific advice and practical application on how to get all employees to give maximum contributions by using their ideas to improve the organization. Each chapter details part of the transformation story and then reflects on and analyzes each concept of continuous improvement illustrated. Joakim Ahlstrom is Head of Consulting for C2, a firm that helps companies establish continuous improvements that provide measurable results. \"-- Provided by publisher.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated philosophical foundation for Kaizen. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on triangulation (and integration) of six philosophies: the Traditional Values, the Process-Oriented Philosophy, Edification, Completeness, Improving Perfection and True-Mindfulness. In addition, the Power of One integrates these philosophies into one solid foundation for Kaizen. Findings A framework, called The Kaizen Wheel, is created to represent the integrated philosophical foundation for Kaizen. It shows the big picture and the close knit of the six philosophies for facilitating Kaizen. It also suggests that Kaizen can serve as a new philosophical paradigm for the unification of action and knowledge. Research limitations/implications Although empirical contents are implicitly embedded in each of the six philosophies, the paper’s main contribution is to provide a conceptual framework for the integration of Kaizen philosophies. Since this is a conceptual paper, further research and more empirical studies will help facilitate the understanding and practices of Kaizen. Practical implications The Kaizen Wheel provides a big picture of the Kaizen philosophies. It is a useful mechanism for practitioners to review their own values so as to provide guidelines for not only their thoughts and behaviors regarding Kaizen activities, but also the design and implementation of Kaizen programs. Originality/value This is an original paper. It provides a valuable conceptual framework for providing an integrated foundation for Kaizen research and practice.

\"This book will depict rare insights into actual failed-to-perform software systems, followed by comprehensive root-cause analyses identifying the reasons for their unsuccessful execution in production. Remedies will be provided that offer strategies to tackle the chief issues. Last, architecture and design best practices will conclude the discussion. The book will assist users to: Mitigate risks of software development projects Increase return on investments (ROI) Provide effective tools to assess technological achievability and viability Introduce software design best practices for enterprise architecture efforts Identify actual software construction value proposition Foster software assets reuse and consolidation Accelerate time-to-market \"-- Provided by publisher.

PurposeContinuous improvement in an integrated approach is a philosophy developed over decades based on a set of management practices. It comprises enhancement methodologies that escalate success as well as diminishes letdowns. The state-of-the-art literature finds a variety of practices for the execution of continuous improvement (CI) system. However, it is rare to find an empirical study with an inclusive system that considers various practices in one frame for improving competitiveness. With this outlook, therefore, this study aims originally to identify drivers, motivations and barriers for the application of integrated CI system, and then conduct an empirical investigation within the context of Ethiopian manufacturing industries.Design/methodology/approachJustification of the problem, extensive review of literature, identification of practices, developing research framework, investigational analysis of the empirical study using reliability and descriptive statistical analysis and identifying leading drivers (unique practices and common factors), motivations and barriers are the research approaches used in this study. Furthermore, the primary data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire and were analyzed using a statistical package for social science (SPSS) 23 and the findings were triangulated to relate to the existing state-of-the-art literature.FindingsThe findings indicate 17 common factors associated with human, strategic, operational, technology, structure, resource and information factors; 21 unique practices of just-in-time (JIT), lean-six sigma (LSS), supply chain management (SCM), total productive maintenance (TPM), and total quality management (TQM) methodologies; 20 barriers connected with internal and external issues and 17 motivations linked to operational, innovation and business results are identified. In general, the empirical analysis discovers the practices are noteworthy and commonly supported by a least of 52% of the respondents. As a result, the first five prominent common factors, barriers, unique practices and motivations are also supported by a minimum of 72%, 73.9%, 65.8% and 75% of the respondents, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsEven though this is the first-ever study in the Ethiopian manufacturing sector with the focus on integrated CI practices of JIT, TQM, TPM, SCM and LSS initiatives, some limitations have existed and the major limitations of the study are, targeted merely small number manufacturing companies despite the fact that there are hundreds of companies implementing CI system in Ethiopia, and the data collected were only based on the perception of the respondents, and other information’s like annual reports was not employed to support the findings.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study underlined that the implementation of drivers in relation to common factors and unique practices supported by exterminating barriers in manufacturing industries of Ethiopia enables to enhance competitiveness through attaining operational, innovation and business results though it requires a practical case application to prove this perception-based analysis.Originality/valueThough there are a number of studies published on integrated continuous improvement, currently it is found that there is no literature focused on the identification and empirical investigation of drivers (common factors and unique practices), motivations and barriers for application of integrated CI system with the focus of JIT, TQM, TPM, SCM and LSS initiatives. Therefore, this is the first-ever study, and the empirical analysis of the study discovered that identified practices are providing valuable insights for manufacturing industries which will be on board on this voyage including institutions, practitioners and other sectors.