One of the criticisms against process improvement is that it requires stifling innovation. That is not accurate. Process improvement is meant to be continual. Building structure around how change is tested and adopted aids innovation, it doesn’t stifle it. The justified criticism, I have seen, is against bad processes that make change difficult with rigid …
Masaaki Imai is a consultant, author and founder of the Kaizen Institute. The second edition of his book, Gemba Kaizen, was published this year. He agreed to an interview with The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog. Question: Did you work with Dr. Deming? Answer: I never had the privileges of meeting Dr. Deming. I can …
From Out of the Crisis The prevailing action during the crisis Dr. Deming alluded to in the title of his books was to cut costs to improve profits. Massive layoffs of employees would get executives big bonuses and send stock prices up. Sadly, focusing on cost cutting and layoffs is too often still the way …