Leading Continuous Improvement Projects

Lessons from Successful, Less Successful, and Unsuccessful Continuous Improvement Case Studies

Fernando Gonzalez Aleu, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367271671
• eBook ISBN: 9781000030327
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book is a reference for continuous improvement project (CIP) leaders/facilitators in manufacturing and service organizations, students (undergraduate and graduate), academics responsible for managing senior projects (Capstone Projects) and teaching quality courses, and researchers interested in how organizations could produce more effective and efficient continuous improvement initiatives and projects.

The authors collected and analyzed information and results from CIPs they facilitated or co-advised, such as the improvement of the service level in a bottle manufacturing organization, reduction of changeover in a brewery manufacturing organization, reduction of ambulance response time, and reduction of scrap in a steel transformation manufacturing organization. Many of the CIPs were previously part of award-winning white papers documenting critical improvements.

Throughout this book, readers will learn:

• different types of CIPs
• metrics to identify successful CIPs
• the 53 factors related to CIPs success
• how to manage CIPs
• behaviors to achieve outstanding results from CIPs.

Three of the chapters are supplemented with three or more case studies. In addition, the final chapter includes a list of behaviors expected from directors, continuous improvement managers, CIP leaders/facilitators, and CIP team members to obtain the major benefits from CIPs.

Part I

Continuous Improvement Projects and Success Factors

Improvement is part of our daily activities in different aspects of our lives, finding a better route to work, reducing time waiting in the traffic, increasing the productivity of a production line, and buying more with less. Since the beginning of the quality movement, continuous improvement projects have been crucial for organizations in order to improve their process and performance metrics. Part I is composed of three chapters which offer an overall view of continuous improvement projects (Chapter 1); the efforts of a university to disseminate and manage continuous improvement projects amongst their Industrial and Systems Engineering senior students (Chapter 2); and the results from an empirical study of success factors related to continuous improvement projects (Chapter 3).

1

Continuous Improvement Projects (CIPs) Overview

1.1 Introduction

Continuous improvement and innovation are essential elements to the competitiveness of modern organizations around the world, and a ­keystone in different performance excellence models, such as the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNAQ), the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Award, and the Shingo Prize. In order to address continuous improvement and/or innovation requirements, organizations could implement the following initiatives: quality circles, continuous improvement projects (CIPs), teamwork, a suggestions mailbox, and many others.

This book focuses on CIPs and, in this Chapter, we define and explain relevant concepts related to CIPs, types of CIPs most frequently used, characteristics of successful CIPs, and factors related to their success. This information is crucial to have a clearer understanding of the information presented in the case studies included in the subsequent chapters.

1.2 What Is a CIP?

There are several tools or mechanisms under the umbrella of Kaizen, or continuous improvement; initiatives to help organizations improve their operational excellence, e.g. suggestion mailbox, total productivity ­maintenance, CIPs, and quality circles (Imai, 1986). CIPs are defined as dedicated team-based processes, typically with different backgrounds or from different departments, working to improve process performance metrics and systems with or without minimal capital investment in a ­relatively short time, such as a day or several months (González Aleu and Van Aken, 2017; González-Aleu et al., 2018); for example, quality improvement projects (plan-do-check-act or plan-do-study-act), Lean Six Sigma ­projects, Kaizen events, and Six Sigma projects. From this definition, a CIP has the following key characteristics: team-based, cross-functional, minimal capital investment, relatively short timeframe.

1.3 Types of CIPs

As it was mentioned in the previous section, there are several types of CIPs that have been used by different organizations. According to the literature (González Aleu and Van Aken, 2016), the application of CIPs has been increasing over the last two decades. The most common types of CIPs and their definitions are shown in Table 1.1. For the purpose of this book, a CIP (González Aleu, 2016):

• May use different improvement methodologies/tools and be known by different names. For example, a CIP may use Lean tools such as 5S or value stream mapping (and be called a Kaizen event, Lean project, rapid improvement event, or Lean event). It may use DMAIC (and be called a Six Sigma project). It may use a combined approach between Six Sigma and Lean (and be called a Lean Six Sigma project), or it may use a general improvement approach such as plan-do-check/study-act – PDCA or PDSA – (and be called a process improvement project or quality improvement project). In this book, these are all referred to as CIPs.
• May occur in a different timeframe. For instance, a CIP may take a day or few days from start to finish (such as with a Kaizen event or Lean event) or it may take several months (such as with a Lean Six Sigma project or Six Sigma project). CIP has a defined beginning vs. being a “standing” permanent team.
• May have one or more defined improvement goals focused on ­quality (such as errors or rework), costs, efficiency, timeliness, customer ­satisfaction, etc.
• May have minimal budget or investment to implement changes ­recommended or identified.

TABLE 1.1
Types of CIP and definitions

Type of CIP	Definition
General quality improvement project	Also known as process improvement project or just quality improvement project, is defined “as an organized effort on the part of three or more individuals with a designated team leader or facilitators to resolve a specific problem or undertaken activities to improve upon current practices that goes beyond the routine daily operation of the department or functional activity, or the normal responsibilities of a quality assurance committee” (Weiner, et al., 1997, p. 497)
Kaizen event	“A focused and structured improvement project, using a dedicated cross-functional team to improve a targeted area, with specific goals, in an accelerated timeframe” (Farris et al., 2008, p. 10)
Six Sigma project	The application of a rigorous problem solving methodology (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control – DMAIC) and advanced statistical tools (e.g. inference statistics, statistical process control and design of experiments) to reduce process variability (Breyfogle, 2003; Tang et al., 2007)
Lean Six Sigma project	Project focused on reducing process variability or eliminating waste through the integration of the rigorous Six Sigma project solving methodology (DMAIC) and advanced statistical tools, with Lean Production principals and tools.(Delgado et al., 2010; Furterer, 2016)

Although quality circles could be interpreted as CIPs, they have two important differences. First, in quality circles team members are the same over time (e.g. every time that production line “A” conducts a quality ­circle, their team members will be the same), but in CIP teams are integrated for a specific project and dissolve when the project is finished. Second, quality circles use team members from the same target area and CIP used cross-functional team members, according to the CIP goal to achieve.

1.4 What Is a Successful CIP?

CIPs, like any other type of project, have hard and soft metrics to assess the level of success. Hard metrics are quantitative performance metrics, such as the percentage of goal achievement, the percentage of target area impact, the percentage of CIP advanced/delayed, etc. For the purpose of this book, a successful CIP has two performance metrics: achieved or exceeded CIP main goal and finished in the timeframe proposed (most of the CIP documented in this book had a timespan of 16 weeks). Less ­successful CIPs are those CIPs that failed to achieve one of these two ­performance metrics. If the CIP fails to achieve both performance metrics, then this CIP is considered unsuccessful.

There some CIPs where the initial main goal was defined very ­ambitiously (hard to achieve), affecting both metrics used to assess CIP success. On the other hand, there are also some situations where the CIP goal defined was very relaxed (easy to achieve), producing a ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• PART I: Continuous Improvement Projects and Success Factors
• PART II: Successful CIPs
• PART III: Less Successful and Unsuccessful CIPs
• Summary
• Index