continuous improvement
Never stopping progress
Continuous improvement is the ongoing effort to make processes, products, or services better over time through incremental changes rather than dramatic overhauls.
The philosophy, central to manufacturing and business management, holds that small, consistent refinements compound into significant gains: The factory adopted a continuous improvement approach to reduce defects.
Also called by its Japanese name, kaizen.
- KaizenOngoing incremental enhancement philosophy
- Six SigmaData-driven quality management
- best practicesProven effective methods
- streamliningMaking more aerodynamic or efficient
- value stream mappingVisual tool for analyzing workflows
retrospective · optimization · benchmarking · iterative process · operational efficiency · automation · getting better · incremental · Scrum · kaizen · metrics · refinement · growth · progress · momentum · quality · marginal · small wins
- industrial managementassembly line, mass production, factory floor, production line, division of labor
- operationsoperation, operations, military operation, joint operation, workflow
- productivityproductivity, checking off, prioritization, finishing, output
- leadership skillsdecision-making, strategic vision, empathy, listening, direction
- business buzzwordsbrainstorming, breakthrough, design thinking, scaling, pitching
- business philosophiescapitalism, free market, lean, kaizen, agile
continuous improvementquick fix
Hasty temporary solution
band-aid solution · firefighting · crisis management · silver bullet · emergency repair
continuous improvementstagnation
Absence of flow or progress
complacency · status quo · inertia · stasis · standing still