Continual improvement is the process of an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. Improvement efforts are incremental or have sudden breakthroughs as processes are evaluated on a consistent basis. Consistency in evaluation is the backbone of continual improvement. This is an obvious principle that many companies choose not to exercise. For this reason, management systems are implemented with reviews or evaluations at defined intervals benefiting companies not only in the areas of improving services or products, but increases in profits become evident as less resources are used in areas of customer service, returned products, and raw material use. The power of ISO 9001 systematic process to identify gaps in processes and promote continual improvement within an organization demands the efforts of evaluation which otherwise are non-existent. Systematic methods with quantifiable data are necessary for any improvement to take place.
Training is an important factor in continual improvement. People are habitual in nature and when performing job responsibilities are not likely to change without training and accountability of the training received. Implementing new concepts within job responsibilities is also a continual improvement process in itself because of the habitual nature of performing repetitive jobs.
Top, middle, and lower management are the most important components in a company. However, commitment to continual improvement is not always on the forefront of the agenda. When management commits to defining management systems that implement continual improvement such as ISO 9001/AS9100 or ISO 14001, companies are able to recognize areas that were previously unnoticed in the daily duties. Management systems demand attention and focus which allows continual improvement to propagate streamlined processed and profits giving a company its best performance value. As the old adage states, “if you are not moving forward, you are moving backward.”
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