Management-led Participative Continuous Process Improvement

Abstract

Continuous process improvement is one of the foundations for any Lean or Six-Sigma implementation. This typically requires to find and maintain solutions to problems and to achieve this, a precise understanding of the system state is required. Implementing solutions without assessing the system state, can risk the whole Lean or Six Sigma program. Continuous process improvement is exercised at every level of organization with the assist of a variety of tools. Jishuken one of such continuous process improvement tools, which uses cross-organizational and cross-functional teams to tackle a broad range of process improvements (from operational level to strategic level). Jishuken is adept at handling, according to the Cynefin framework, system states where the cause and effect relationship is evident (ordered) and within a unanimous team environment (unitary). However, Jishuken does not offer any guidance to handle system states wherein the cause and effect relationship may not be evident (unordered) and/or the team environment may not be unanimous (pluralistic). This research uses a complementary approach to enhance Jishuken’s capabilities with Cynefin framework. As a result, six system states are proposed, and their accompanying operational definitions are provided. This results in a conceptual model that offers flexibility to Jishuken process practitioners to operate in different system states.