**3.2 Continuous improvement versus occasional improvements**

It is important to clarify the difference between doing improvement and doing continuous improvement. For many, notably Rother [2], continuous improvement is something that happens periodically through technical innovation, projects or improvement events. However, these types of disruptive occasional improvements do not in fact create an effective culture of continuous improvement. As mentioned above, getting an organization to actually have continuous improvement is no easy task and requires very large structural changes. Moreover, continuous improvement can no longer be seen as just a factor of competitive advantage over the competition, but as a survival factor. Companies that do not continuously improve their performance will eventually succumb to their competitors. Continuous improvement is no longer an option and has become the form of survival; the question is: how can each company materialize continuous improvement?

In its fullness CI happens when everyone, every day, implements a small improvement in their area of influence. It is much better for many small improvements to happen continuously than major improvements happening occasionally. When everyone continually contributes to improving their areas aligned with the strategy and the higher purpose of the company, everyone benefits from learning, everyone feels included and everyone grows up with the organization. If the improvements are the result of large projects carried out by external people, there will hardly be a sense of belonging and learning.

The difficulty of implementing and maintaining continuous improvement is enormous, and few companies can do so effectively. It cannot be believed that CI can be achieved and maintained effortlessly and without constant dedication and attention. It is a bit like maintaining equipment or maintaining relationships. It is necessary to maintain constant attention and care. This difficulty is reported in "Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement" [13]. In this work, the authors state that even Toyota has difficulties in maintaining continuous improvement, especially in Toyota factories deployed outside Japan.
