From Japanese whiskey to price competition, the notion of Continual Improvement drives gradual development.
A continual improvement process, also often called a “continuous improvement” process, is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement (change over time) or “breakthrough” improvement (change all at once).
Processes are events which occur over an extended period of time. Another way to think of it: Processes are series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular end.
Oftentimes, processes are evaluated and improved in light of their:
- effectiveness,
- efficiency, and
- flexibility.
In other words, a good process will be able to:
- Make it happen,
- Make it happen well, and
- Make it happen, regardless of the circumstances.
How do we know if we have a good process?
Look at the results, aka: feedback.