Continuous improvement in The Netherlands: a survey-based study into current practices

Abstract

Continuous Improvement (CI) is a well-known and consolidated concept in management literature and practice, and is considered vital in today's business environment. In 2003, a survey, which is part of the international CINet survey, was conducted in The Netherlands in order to gain insight into current practices and the evolution of continuous improvement over the past five years. This article describes the results of the Dutch survey, from a sample of 51 companies. The main motives found for continuous improvement were customer satisfaction, productivity, quality, and delivery reliability. CI contributed to several performance areas, but the implementation of CI was fraught with many difficulties. It appears that it is difficult for companies to design and implement an approach towards continuous improvement that is in line with their own perceptions.

Three decades of continuous improvement

“…(Brunet & New, 2003) Pervasive and continual activities, outside the contributor's explicit contractual roles, to identify and achieve outcomes he believes contribute to the organisational goals. (Boer & Gertsen, 2003) in (Middel, op de Weegh, & Gieskes, 2007) The planned, organised and systematic process of ongoing, incremental and company-wide change of existing practices aimed at improving company performance. (Chang, 2005) The continuous improvement cycle consists of establishing customer requirements, meeting the requirements, measuring success, and continuing to check customers' requirements to find areas in which improvements can be made.…”

A longitudinal study of the effects of charismatic leadership and organizational culture on objective and perceived corporate performance

“…Charismatic leaders, through their visions, often foster a culture of proactive, creative change and growth (Bass & Avolio, 1993). A positive relationship between different continuous improvement interventions and performance has been reported in several studies (Corso & Giacobbe, 2007;Hyland, Mellor, & Sloan, 2007;Middel, Op De Weegh, & Gieskes, 2007). For example, Total Quality Management has been known to lower production costs and improve performance (Kenichiro, 2002).…”

Convergence or National Specificity? Testing the CI Maturity Model across Multiple Countries

“…The 2nd International CI survey was more directly based on the constructs of Bessant and Caffyn's (1997) CI maturity model. Several studies have used the dataset to analyse CI activities in the participating countries (e.g., Albors & Hervás, 2007; Corso et al., 2007; Dabhilkar & Bengtsson, 2007; Hyland, Mellor & Sloan, 2007; Middel, op de Weegh & Gieskes, 2007; Readman & Bessant, 2007). An overview of selected results is given in the work by Sloan and Boer (2007).…”