Is Continuous Improvement Continuous?

In the LinkedIn, Association for Manufacturing Excellence Group there has been a discussion started about this presentation where they suggest that a standard is more like a target condition, and that the only way to maintain gains is to keep improvement moving forward. Their thoughts, hence the slideshow is that PDCA is better served by retiring the Wedge practice of standardizing to hold the gains in place.

My question though is continuous improvement really continuous? I found as a trainer that it was important to stop and take a breath. I never used the incline and the wedge but a staircase approach sometimes even with landings. Having that dwell time for everyone to catch up and before moving on was always important not only for the team (group) but for me as a trainer to evaluate things. It was also a good time to celebrate along the way.

An example is the  Toyota Supplier hierarchy depicted by Liker and Meier in the (The Toyota Way Fieldbook.  Viewing the stages such as described in the blog post, The 7 step Lean Process of Marketing to Toyota we would see a natural progression through the stages of the supplier. A supplier starts working with Toyota at the stage of developing Mutual Understanding. They base this on the key elements of Trust, Mutual prosperity, Respect for People and Genchi gembutsu (actual part, actual place). It ultimately ends in Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) and Learning through PDCA. I am leaving out a significant portion of development in the five other steps but it suffices to say that there is a continued progression through the stages based on an increase of knowledge and sharing between the two parties.

I adhere to the Toyota principle of setting audacious goals and striving for them. Becoming a top supplier as depicted in the Supplier hierarchy is one. I try to do this with showing a large PDCA as my overall vision and incorporating the staircase. The individual steps of the staircase are just an individual mini-pdca. We could go into a greater discussion of Hoshin, Lean Culture and transformation but I like to keep things pretty simple. So, I simply view PDCA or continuous improvement as the culture of Lean. Is my reasoning in line with the “new thoughts” or am I stuck in the mud with a wedge holding me in place?

I encourage you to join the conversation at this LinkedIn group: Association for Manufacturing Excellence Group! The authors of the presentation will be making presentations about the improvement kata at the upcoming AME Conference in Dallas.  Conference information: http://bit.ly/pgeszj

Related Information:
Marketing with PDCA.
Why the Lean SALES PDCA Cycle was Created!
Lean needs Marketing, more than Marketing needs Lean!
Scaling the Customer Decision Making Process