Rapid-fire improvement with short-cycle kaizen.

Continuous improvement is an attractive idea, but it is typically more myth than reality. SCK is no myth. It delivers dramatic improvements in traditional measures quickly. SCK accomplishes this via kaizens: rapid, repeated, time-compressed changes for the better in bite-sized chunks of the business.     

Affecting the value chain through supplier kaizen.

In the aerospace industry, typically 60 percent of a product's cost and 70 percent of the lead time are due to purchased material. To affect price and customer responsiveness, improvement initiatives must be extended into the supply chain. Many companies have developed supply base management systems that include long-term agreements with suppliers, partnering with suppliers in risk taking and product design, information sharing, and quality and delivery rating systems. The premise is that suppliers are an extension of the factory. But to take full advantage of customer-supplier relationships, the suppliers must be "developed" in the same manner as a manufacturing unit. Supplier kaizen is a method of bringing suppliers to the same level of operations as the parent company, through training and improvement projects, to ensure superior performance and nurture the trust that is required for strong partnerships. This article describes Sikorsky Aircraft's use of kaizen to improve its supply base management.     

Dynamic capabilities through continuous improvement infrastructure

We examine the content of continuous improvement strategies and identify infrastructure decision areas that are important for continuous improvement initiatives. We present a framework of infrastructure based on the idea that continuous improvement can serve as a dynamic capability when it includes a comprehensive organizational context. Further, we study continuous improvement initiatives in five companies to investigate the practices used by them in each of the decision areas of our framework. This research adds to the conceptual understanding of continuous improvement and results in grounded propositions about critical areas of infrastructure for continuous improvement.     

Baseline budgeting for continuous improvement.

This article is designed to introduce the techniques used to convert traditionally maintained department budgets to baseline budgets. This entails identifying key activities, evaluating for value-added, and implementing continuous improvement opportunities. Baseline Budgeting for Continuous Improvement was created as a result of a newly named company president's request to implement zero-based budgeting. The president was frustrated with the mind-set of the organization, namely, "Next year's budget should be 10 to 15 percent more than this year's spending." Zero-based budgeting was not the answer, but combining the principles of activity-based costing and the Just-in-Time philosophy of eliminating waste and continuous improvement did provide a solution to the problem.     

Performance measurements for a continuous improvement strategy

In many organizations, performance measurement systems have not appreciably changed to reflect organizational and environmental changes. The objective of this article is to analyze the results of an inappropriate performance measurement system, define the characteristics required of a performance measurement system in a continuous improvement (CI) organization, and give some examples of more appropriate performance measures in a CI company.     

Strategic planning to drive integrated continuous improvement

This case study describes how one company involved multiple levels of all functions to develop a comprehensive strategic plan that drives the continuous improvement initiative. The process involves clearly defining a mission, assessing the current situation, developing goals designed to achieve a preferred future status, and establishing the specific tactics to move toward that preferred future. The plan then drives integrated efforts throughout the organization to help manage the business of providing the highest quality products and services to meet current and anticipated customer requirements.     

连续式沥青混凝土拌和机组的缺陷及改进

ASTEC双滚筒沥青混凝土搅拌设备在沥青拌和工艺上是一项重大技术进步,但在使用中发现设备存在一系列问题,文章论述了通过对设备进一步调试、修正误差及改造硬件等一系列措施,使得产品质量大大提高,拌合料的配合比精度能够达到高等级公路的施工要求。     

Developing performance measurement systems that support continuous improvement

Many organizations are in a perpetual state of change. Changing markets, changing competition, changing organization structures, total quality initiatives, and reengineering are often the rule rather than the exception. Often these initiatives fail to yield the desired results or, in the extreme, fail entirely. The reasons for this failure, of course, can be many and multiple. However, one that often stands out is the lack of change in the performance measurement system as the needs for measurement change.     

Quality improvement through root cause analysis

By preventing the recurrence of errors in service delivery or manufacturing processes, significant improvements in both productivity and quality are assured. By eliminating nonconformance in the system through zero defects and anticipating and preventing errors prior to process implementation, significant cost savings may be realized to positively impact the organization's profit margin. With an understanding of the environment necessary to create quality, organizations will identify solutions to costly, recurring problems.     

An integrated structural model toward successful continuous improvement activity

This paper provides a different view from Bassent et al.'s (2001) toward a successful continuous improvement (CI) activity. Their concept encourages a business that is resting on its present accomplishments to seek greater gain. However, their behavioral model is not easy to operate for managers. In order to operate CI activity effectively and obtain company-wide involvement for management, we need a system which can meet the current CI status and lead the firm toward the correct road as described by Bessant et al. This system has to be open in the way that it can fit into any organization so that it can easily embed the necessary regenerative input into its physical structure. This system has also to be super in the way that it can successfully lead the organization structure toward the evolutionary route.Thus, we propose an open super system which places a pyramid composed by problem, models and tools, and promotion, at its core. Using Bessant et al.'s five evolutionary levels as a time map, this system can analyze a firm's improvement ability from the presentation of cases and find the proper regenerative input from the failure status. A firm can inject this input into its structure to upgrade its level of capability.Applying this open super system on our previous studies, we derived five improvement levels and the different ability types in each level. From there, we discovered some failure status in each level. We also drew some important perspectives on the injection of regenerative input from failure status, including the promotion of the technique-excellence ability, the value problem, and efficiently solving problem. To help the readers to understand this system better, we give ‘AB two stage’ system as an example to show how to inject regenerative input into the physical structure to fulfill the expectations from different perspectives.     

犯罪预防性环境设计与居住区安全性的提升——以瑞典罗森歌德居住区改造项目为例

随着城市的发展和社会的转型,欧美国家的部分居住区中出现了较严重的安全问题和社区衰败现象,通过规划设计改善社区的安全状况的犯罪预防性环境设计(CPTED)理论应运而生。以瑞典罗森歌德居住区改造项目为例,从社区形象、邻里监控、领域感和归属感等方面分析了环境改造对社区安全性提升所起的作用。     

How project management office leaders facilitate cross‐project learning and continuous improvement

The purpose of this study is to shed light on how project management office (PMO) leaders facilitate cross‐project learning and continuous improvement. Twenty leaders of PMOs were interviewed; findings were validated by two focus groups. The research reveals that PMO leaders facilitate cross‐project improvement by embedding accumulated knowledge from past project experiences into project management routines that are utilized across multiple projects. The research also points to the phenomenon of “red light learning,” where lessons learned sessions can be enculturated as punitive, undermining individual and organizational learning. Recommendations focus on enhancing the social capital of the PMO leader and improving the quality and quantity of reflective practice over the course of the project life cycle.     

Evolving densities in continuous strategy games through particle simulations

Many cases of strategic interaction between agents involve a continuous set of choices. It is natural to model these problems as continuous space games. Consequently, the population of agents playing the game will be represented with a density function defined over the continuous set of strategy choices. Simulating evolutionary dynamics on continuous strategy spaces is a challenging problem. The classic approach of discretizing the strategy space is ineffective for multidimensional strategy spaces. We present a principled approach to simulation of adaptive dynamics in continuous space games using sequential Monte Carlo methods. Sequential Monte Carlo methods use a set of weighted random samples, also named particles to represent density functions over multidimensional spaces. Sequential Monte Carlo methods provide computationally efficient ways of computing the evolution of probability density functions. We employ resampling and smoothing steps to prevent particle degeneration problem associated with particle estimates. The resulting algorithm can be interpreted as an agent based simulation with elements of natural selection, regression to mean and mutation. We illustrate the performance of the proposed simulation technique using two examples: continuous version of the repeated prisoner dilemma game and evolution of bidding functions in first-price closed-bid auctions.     

Success factors for continuous supply chain process improvement: evidence from Japanese manufacturers

This study explores how firms can realise ‘continuous’ supply chain process improvement. Specifically, this study proposes the success factors of routinised activities (also called ‘repeated activities’) in the supply chain process improvement. Eight Japanese manufacturers are selected for the case studies. These firms are selected based on their supply chain process operation capabilities. From the case studies, we find that the planning of supply chain process improvement depends on the existing stage of the firm’s Supply Chain Management reform. In addition, even firms with high scores for supply chain process operation capabilities do not have supply chain performance systems. Furthermore, quite surprisingly, many Japanese manufacturers tend to improve their supply chain processes in the absence of such systems.     

Job autonomy, trust in leadership, and continuous improvement: An empirical study in health care

This research examines the influence of autonomy in day-to-day work on commitment of frontline employees to continuous improvement. Our hypothesized model links the job characteristics theory of work design that associates job autonomy with responsibility for outcomes, and the total quality management perspective that advocates empowering employees in order to generate commitment to continuous improvement. Further, as leadership is known to have a role in shaping job behaviors, and is considered important for the success of total quality management, the influence of trust in leadership on the relationship between job autonomy and commitment to continuous improvement is also examined. We test our hypotheses on data collected from individual employees working for an outpatient health care organization that is applying lean principles for managing and improving work processes. Based on our results, we present implications for organizations implementing continuous improvement initiatives such as lean, particularly in service environments such as health care.     

Relationship between total quality management (TQM) and continuous improvement of international project management (CIIPM)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the total quality management (TQM) practice and the continuous improvement of international project management (CIIPM) practice. Based on a literature review and qualitative interviews with TQM and project management experts, four hypotheses are posed on how TQM elements affect CIIPM. A cross-sectional survey collected from over 100 mid to senior level international managers is used to validate these hypotheses. The study suggests that the relationship between ‘soft’ TQM elements and CIIPM is more significant than the relationship between ‘hard’ TQM elements and CIIPM.     

加分优势六西格玛,持续改进助霍尼韦尔公司荣获波多里奇奖

在霍尼韦尔联邦制造和技术公司(Honeywell Federal Manufacturing &Technologies,FM&T),质量无疑是被整合到公司内,而非附着于表面.基于FM&T所从事业务的敏感性和严肃性,除此之外别无他法. “很多组织都在尝试看把质量移植进来,迫使其发挥作用,”FM&T卓越运营经理芭巴·瑞兹(Barb Rich)说,“我们是在运用质量进行改进,所以,它已被切实地整合到了公司中.而这与将质量附着于组织之上的做法在思维上是有区别的.如果质量是被融入到企业中,那么它就能持续下去.”     

物流网络快速响应模型及算法

社会分工的不断细化和竞争的日益加剧,物流网络终端越来越希望物流网络能够给予快速响应。以物流网络发展所面临的物流网络终端快速响应需求为研究对象,以信息化为依托,在设置了物流网络快响应模式的基础上,研制了物流网络快速响应模型,并给出求解模型的启发式算法。