Continual Improvement - What is CI and what is CI not?

The Taz! said:

Gee Steve. . . looks like a new thread germinating. . . possibly the American way of Break-through technology vs. Incremental Improvement. Plateauing vs. step or slope.

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Absolutely. For example, there is Tom Peters who pushes for massive step change - destroy out the old, and bring in an entirely new process. At the other extreme is Kaizen, and continual improvement (which is still discontinuous, but generally small steps at a time rather than one huge one).

Part of being a succesfull entity is being able to tell when to use each. The American way (unfortunately) includes a desire for "instant pudding" (Dr. Deming's phrase). So American companies tend to go for the big huge changes. Where we have failures is where people throw out everything (the baby with the bathwater so to speak) and don't include old knowledge and old lessons learned when designing the new system. These huge changes die a huge painful death when not well thought out. We don't hear much of "reengineering" anymore.

- The following is not an original thought - Perhaps when faced with a really broken system it is worth doing a massive redesign to it, and then follow that redesign with continual improvement.

Steve Prevette said:

...tend to go for the big huge changes. Where we have failures is where people throw out everything (the baby with the bathwater so to speak) and don't include old knowledge and old lessons learned when designing the new system. These huge changes die a huge painful death when not well thought out. We don't hear much of "reengineering" anymore.

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That is obviously correct. Mind you, a previous boss of mine once said that "the only way to change the way people do something is to make it impossible to use the old way". I think he was correct, but as you say, it is essential to include old knowledge and old lessons learned when you carry the change out.

Steve Prevette said:

- The following is not an original thought - Perhaps when faced with a really broken system it is worth doing a massive redesign to it, and then follow that redesign with continual improvement.

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Right. You certainly have much less to lose, and a lot more to gain in that situation.

/Claes

Right you are Steve, the graph I recall seeing did indeed resemble a staircase but the risers were NOT the same height and the treads had different depths. This certainly fits your description! I also like continual but I must be honest I didn't really appreciate the difference between the two until I read these remarks.
Thanks
Jim