Continual Improvement Process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once. Delivery (customer valued) processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.
In Japanese continuous improvement is known as Kaizen. Kaizen (改善) comes from two Japanese words: Kai (improvement) and Zen (good), which translates to “continuous improvement”. In business, Kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen’s strength comes from having all workers participate and make suggestions to improve the business. The purpose of Kaizen goes beyond simple productivity improvement. When done correctly, the process humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work, and teaches people how to spot and eliminate waste in business processes.


Steps in continuous improvement process:

The following picture shows the steps involved in continuous improvement process



  • ü   Identify


In this process the opportunity for improvement are listed can be done using SWOT analysis technique ,group discussion technique, meeting board (Panaboard meeting)technique in which all ideas includes value added ideas and non value added ideas are listed down

  • ü Plan


In this process  all value added activities which need improvement and it matches a current state of a process plan are listed down. plan should include the date and time with  list of action need to be done and the members of a team

  • ü Execute


In this activities need to be performed with the support of respective team members and it should be performed on the scheduled date. This phrase of process improvements need a strong team support and coordination if something is missed out the output of process will fail


  • ü Review


Once the change is implemented it need to be reviewed by the team head, whether this improvement as gain any value to the organization or not, whether we proceed this change by implementing them in long term


Kaizen sheet template

The below picture show the format or template for continuous improvements activities



 Kaizen sheet example:

            The below picture show the example for continuous  improvements  activities


Continuous improvement vs Continual improvement


Continual improvement means that the approach is repeated and has pauses in between repetitions. A continual approach will have a phased system, whereby improvements will be made then there will be a brake to measure and analyses the success, after this further improvements can be made. Whereas a continuous improvement approach does not stop, it is an uninterrupted flow. A continuous approach is one that will constantly look to make improvements, it is a sustained process of development. One of the most common approaches of continuous improvement is Lean. This approach aims to embed a culture of continuous improvement (Kaizen culture) which uses a set of tools and techniques to reduce waste and maximize customer value.


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