While there are many important quality management principles, this time we will look at continuous improvement. Perhaps the idea most commonly associated with quality, it means never being satisfied with the status quo. By constantly looking for methods of improvement, the company and the employees both benefit. Engaged staff are more satisfied with their work while contributing to make the company better.
ASQ explains it this way: “Continuous improvement, sometimes called continual improvement, is the ongoing improvement of products, services or processes through incremental and breakthrough improvements. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once.”