How do YOU define "Continuous Improvement?"
Continuous Improvement Systems, eh? How do you define “continuous improvement?” Well, continuous improvement is a climb, not a destination. Great, you’re thinking, another one of these “we’ll never get there” type of things. Kind of like “Total Quality”, or “Zero Defects”. Yeah, we want that, but every time we do something, there’s more to do... Just don’t have the patience for these things…. I get it. While “Continuous” infers “never”, it also infers “iterative” and “incremental,” which is what I’m prescribing. Make small improvements that make an impact in smaller areas and can be built upon. “Yeah, we want to be the best Widget maker in the world, but right now we’d settle for a 10% time savings per widget.” Or “I know QuickBooks can print checks and envelopes, but I don’t have the time to figure out how to do that.” (Because I’m writing checks!!) But how do we do that and still get the everyday things done? You do have to stop and define an achievable g...