Continuous Improvement Plan - Explained
What is a Continuious Improvement Plan?
Written by J. Mance Gordon
Updated at April 21st, 2024
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What is a Continuous Improvement Plan?
A continuous (continual) improvement plan is a string of processes and procedures that a company puts in place to improve its services and products. This plan entails an on-going review of a company's products and services with a bid to take actions that will improve them. This plan also uses all quality methodologies such as the ISO, Baldrige, Six Sigma and others. There are two main frameworks used for continuous improvement plan, these are
- Kaizen approach. and
- The Shewhart Cycle (otherwise known as PDCA).
4 Different Industry Applications of Continuous Improvement
There are four categories of industries that implement and apply the continuous improvement plan. They are;
- Process-Focused Industries
- Service Industries
- Software Companies
- Hardware-Product Applications:
These industries are constantly in search of ways to improve their products after inefficiencies related to the products are identified. Through the continuous improvement frameworks, manufacturers enhance the quality of their products, improve the efficiencies of business operations, and continuously drive customers satisfaction. These industries take into cognizance the reviews or feedback they get from their customers, they examine the reviews and find out ways to get better in product delivery.