Continuous Improvement is a way of thinking that constantly strives to improve business performance.
Continuous improvement is an approach to work that continuously and systematically seeks to identify opportunities for streamlining workflows to increase efficiency and productivity and reduce waste.
These efforts seek incremental improvement over time as processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility. Making the effort to constantly improve processes, products, services is the most effective way in which any business can reduce operating overhead and increase productivity.
PDCA Cycle
The PDCA Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is the most widely used model and methodology to implement a Continuous Improvement system in a business or organisation. It is an improvement cycle based on the method of proposing a change in a process, implementing the change, measuring the results, and taking appropriate action.
- Plan - Design or revise business process components to formulate a plan to improve efficiency and results
- Do - Prototype the plan in a pilot project and measure its performance
- Check - Analyse the success of the plan in meeting its objectives
- Act - Implement the changes needed to improve the process and then plan further improvements
The PDCA cycle for each business process may be repeated iteratively until problems are resolved and/or the best business process is developed.
Standardise - Once the business process improvement has been implemented it needs to be standardised to consolidate the new improved process and prevent a return to previous processes, or deviation from the process. This requires the process to be documented in a process workflow and checklists.
Lean Thinking
Continuous Improvement is a philosophy of life that can be applied to any kind of work, but it is perhaps best known for being used formally in methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma.
We are not Lean consultants but we follow Lean thinking and principles in our Continuous Improvement services. Six of our consultants have extensive experience in Lean and have held leadership roles in the implementation of Lean in the companies they were managers for.
We partner with Lean consultants who have proper experience and expertise and a proven track record of success. We implement our systems to support the Lean implementation.
Experienced Team
Our team of consultants are highly experienced in operational and financials processes to help you implement Continuous Improvement projects in your business processes.
Their industry knowledge comes from practical experience over many years obtained from their work in manufacturing, distribution, contracting and construction businesses or accounting practices.
Our Systems Support Continuous Improvement
Our systems support Continuous Improvement by providing the means to manage business processes and analyse key metrics for measuring process improvement, or the need for improvement.
Business performance is ultimately improved by measuring and analysing key performance indicators in order to manage the internal business processes that drive those indicators for the purpose of improving efficiency and achieving business objectives.
To be able to improve business processes, measure progress and make well-informed decisions, businesses need the ability to easily access and analyse the right information quickly. Our systems capture the data you need to measure and transform it into useful information and insights which empowers you to act on it.
