Improvement initiatives may help an organization improve, but rarely do they provide a competitive advantage, says Michael Bremer, co-author with Brian McKibben of "Escape the Improvement Trap: Five Ingredients Missing in Most Improvement Recipes."
That's because the competition is likely implementing the same methodology. "From a competitive scene nothing much has changed because everybody goes about getting better in pretty much the same way," he says. The end result is that most companies are merely average, he says. And that's the trap. In their book the authors outline five characteristics they say the most effective companies display, yet which are either missing or significantly underused in most firms' improvement programs. The characteristics are:
See Also:
• Average Isn't Good Enough
• IW's Blueprint for Manufacturing Success
• It Starts at the Top
• Fighting the War for Talent
• Creating High-Value Supply Chains
About the Author
Jill Jusko
Bio: Jill Jusko is executive editor for IndustryWeek. She has been writing about manufacturing operations leadership for more than 20 years. Her coverage spotlights companies that are in pursuit of world-class results in quality, productivity, cost and other benchmarks by implementing the latest continuous improvement and lean/Six-Sigma strategies. Jill also coordinates IndustryWeek’s Best Plants Awards Program, which annually salutes the leading manufacturing facilities in North America.
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