Continuous improvement (CI) is what all organizations want to pursue and achieve. Building a continuous improvement philosophy has become part of many organizations’ routines. Change is not simply a buzzword in organizational development but a measure of organizations’ efficiency and strategic success. The intensity of market competition constantly increases; customer expectations rise, and only organizations that pursue CI can satisfy these complex demands. Unfortunately, many take the concept of CI for granted. Many others simplify CI to conventional quality improvement procedures. Bearing in mind the role which CI plays in organizations’ competitiveness, the main differences between CI and quality improvement should be clarified.
CI is a philosophy of organizational development and a culture of sustained improvements, which increase organizations’ success and reduce their failures (Bhuiyan & Baghel, 2005). CI is an important tool of quality management and a vital factor of competitiveness in present-day markets. CI implies and necessitates evolutionary improvement, and the continuity of quality change is the basic prerequisite for achieving the desired level of organizational efficiency (Bhuiyan & Baghel, 2005).
All methods of CI are dedicated to identifying problems, their causes, and searching for the best ways to eliminate them. CI presents and comprises an array of unique and remarkably effective techniques that have proved to produce substantial improvements in organizations (Zangwill & Kantor, 1998). In this sense, quality improvement is merely a tool for achieving continuous improvement within organizations. Unlike CI, quality improvement is just a set of systematic actions to improve performance and product quality. CI demands continuous involvement of all organizational players, whereas quality improvement can be limited to departments and figures directly responsible for quality improvement initiatives.
The goals of continuous improvement and quality improvement differ substantially. The goal of quality improvement is to ensure that products and services meet the basic set of standards, norms, and criteria, leading to greater customer satisfaction and regulatory compliance. These goals and criteria are fixed; more often than not, organizations apply to quality improvement when new standards of quality are introduced. By contrast, CI aims for the continuity of positive change (Bhuiyan & Baghel, 2005).
The goals of CI will change, depending on the context and market/ environmental conditions of business performance. There are no given standards of continuous improvement, and quality improvement is just one of the many tangible aspects of intangible CI philosophies which, eventually, lead to tangible performance results.
Involvement and accountability expose strategic differences between CI and quality improvement. CI builds on the premise that all players must be involved in and bear the responsibility for organizational improvements. The goals of CI are flexible, and so are the lines of accountability. Yet, each and every member of the organization is personally responsible for his (her) actions and their effects on organizational performance at any given moment.
In a culture of CI, members must strive to reach and enrich their best performance potential. As such, there are no limits to performance improvement. Simultaneously, quality improvement requires that members of one organization simply achieve a universal standard of quality, and managers are held accountable for failure to accomplish the goal within the required timeframe.
Is CI more motivating than quality improvement? Undoubtedly, it is. However, CI is also more challenging than quality improvement, as not everyone can work to ensure continuous improvement at the individual and organizational levels. Therefore, the choice of CI methodologies is of huge importance for organizations that wish to pursue excellence on a continuous basis. The best-known methods of CI are lean manufacturing, lean six sigma, six sigma, and the balanced scorecard (Bhuiyan & Baghel, 2005). HR decisions, too, contribute to the success of CI endeavors: they can guarantee that all members of the organization have the skills, knowledge, and capabilities to provide relevant and regular inputs in CI.
References
Bhuiyan, N. & Baghel, A. (2005). An overview of continuous improvement: From the past to the present. Management Decision, 43(5), 761-771.
Zangwill, W.I. & Kantor, P.B. (1998). Toward a theory of continuous improvement and the learning curve. Management Science, 44(7), 910-920.