**3.3 Start with CI**

A common first step toward continuous improvement is based on hiring consultants with experience in implement lean tolls to improve processes performance and flows. This path is feasible in the first improvement interventions, but it is not sustainable in the medium and long term. The reason is that, although in the first interventions the consultants can, with little effort, obtain significant performance gains, the following actions will achieve fewer and fewer gains. At some point, the cost inherent in consulting becomes higher than the small gains obtained, and this approach becomes unfeasible. Hiring consultants specialized in implementing improvements according to Lean principles and concepts is very often the approach that companies choose to start adopting continuous improvement practices.

The next step is, for many companies, the development of Lean skills within the organization itself, giving training in this area to a small group of people from top and/ or middle management and assigning them the role of drivers for improvement actions, with improvement events or other practices. As the company becomes more mature in terms of continuous improvement, the number of employees who devote part of their time to this type of activities increases more and more, until, in an ideal state, all workforce end up becoming engines of this same continuous improvement. The trend is that more and more companies, and other organizations, start to include continuous improvement activities in the daily routines of all its employees. Companies that do not, will gradually become more and more vulnerable to small crises and market changes.

A very high percentage of companies with continuous improvement systems have suggestion systems. Some of them even integrate rewarding systems, which can contemplate all suggestions or only the best ones. There are cases where the author of the suggestion receives an economic reward proportional to the gain that the company had from the suggestion. This is known as gainsharing. In other cases, all suggestions are rewarded with a fixed premium (cash, gifts, company products, clearances, etc.). In addition, many companies formalize in visual frameworks and internal publications, the recognition, before the whole organization, to this or that employee for their suggestions.

Those who have already gone through the experience of creating suggestion systems quickly learned that the first difficulty is to get employees to start giving suggestions and the second – much more complex – is to follow up on the ideas that begin to enter in the suggestion system. This is another of the topics on which it is necessary to reflect deeply, conscious of unintended consequences, before moving on to implementation. It is notable that Frank Devine's Cathedral/Higher Purpose Model [14], which is highly correlated to success in achieving Shingo awards (25% of all awarded in Europe 2010–2017) explicitly excludes reward as it, as opposed to recognition, did not feature highly enough on the Pareto analysis on which his model relies and is prone to unintended consequences. A frequent temptation is to give incentives for suggestions when you want suggestions to appear. Another is to force a minimum number of suggestions per week for each section of the company. Regarding the first temptation, much could be said but let us mention a very interesting book entitled "Drive" by Daniel Pink [15]. Pink, based on results from many published scientific experiments, suggests, in short, that incentives can be counterproductive when creativity is to be used. As much of what is intended with suggestions is based on people's creativity, it gets a little strange to add something that seems to limit creativity. According to the author, wage incentives are more effective when it comes to increasing productivity in uncreative work, namely repetitive operations without the need for intellectual tearing.

#### **3.4 Resistance to change**

It is undeniable that an organization wishing to implement continuous improvement must be prepared for resistance to change. It must be accepted naturally, otherwise it can lead to frustrating situations, and in this sense, it may be important to try to understand.

**41**

Abraham Lincoln:

*Continuous Improvement*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93638*

**3.5 Human resources required for CI**

If it is true that resistance to change is greatly evoked as being present in human nature, it is no less true that the will to change is also present in human nature. These are in fact two seemingly contradictory truths. In a way, all people are willing to change. For example, they are willing to change when they get married or decide to have children, and these changes completely change their lives. Any father knows that having children results in drastic changes in routines, poor quality sleep, constant worries, permanent attention, fear of the unknown, visits to the doctor, and more. Even knowing all the problems that come with having children many people all over the world is deciding to change into it. Many, on the other hand, want to change cars, others from employment, and others from the city, etc. In fact, we are willing to make changes as long as they are the result of our own will. On the other hand, we are not always willing to change when someone wants us to change something in our routines. According to Chip Heath & Dan Heath [16] – for people to change three conditions must be met: (i) clarity of what to change to; (ii) motivation for change and (iii) clarity of the steps needed for that change. With regard to the first condition, it is sometimes not very clear to people what needs to be changed, and this, of course, is undesirable. When you want a team to make a change, you need to make very clear to where or to what they are going to change. With regard to the second condition, it is necessary that the people who will be involved in the change have the necessary motivation to do it. If they do not identify something that is attractive or worthwhile, then these people will not want to change. This is not necessarily a selfish position. People may be motivated for a change that brings benefits to others (and not to themselves) or that is aligned with a belief, a principle, or simply because it is a cause for which they are willing to make the change. Lastly, it is still necessary for people to understand very clearly the steps necessary for a change to occur. Even knowing the reason for the change and having all the motivation to do it, people may

not be able to make that change if they do not know what needs to be done.

In terms of the materialization of CI, ideally the efforts for improvement are part of the normal day-to-day work at all levels of the organization. All people in the organization routinely devote a portion of their daily time to CI tasks. Not spending any time on improvement tasks is bad but spending all the time on improvement tasks is also bad because it is necessary that the work is done for the products to be delivered and the services are provided. Many are the ones who say they do not have time for continuous improvement. On this argument, there is an interesting metaphor:

*"A lumberjack was cutting down trees uninterrupted with his axe and you could see he was very focused on it. His goal was to cut down as many trees as he could in the time he had. There is however evidence that needs to be met, is that the more cut the less effective the axe to cut. Another man watching approached him and suggested that he should sharpen the axe. The lumberjack replied that he could not* 

This well-known story is referred to by Stephen Covey in his famous book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" [17] In this book, the seventh habit, proposed by the author and which is called "fine tuning the instrument", is directly related to the lumberjack metaphor and also aligned with the principle of continuous improvement. Returning to the question of what should be the ideal time spent on CI operations, or time spent sharpening the ax, there is a famous metaphor attributed to

*"If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I'd spend the first four sharpening the axe"*

*sharpen the axe because he did not have time for it."*

#### *Continuous Improvement DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93638*

*Concepts, Applications and Emerging Opportunities in Industrial Engineering*

and flows. This path is feasible in the first improvement interventions, but it is not sustainable in the medium and long term. The reason is that, although in the first interventions the consultants can, with little effort, obtain significant performance gains, the following actions will achieve fewer and fewer gains. At some point, the cost inherent in consulting becomes higher than the small gains obtained, and this approach becomes unfeasible. Hiring consultants specialized in implementing improvements according to Lean principles and concepts is very often the approach

that companies choose to start adopting continuous improvement practices.

The next step is, for many companies, the development of Lean skills within the organization itself, giving training in this area to a small group of people from top and/ or middle management and assigning them the role of drivers for improvement actions, with improvement events or other practices. As the company becomes more mature in terms of continuous improvement, the number of employees who devote part of their time to this type of activities increases more and more, until, in an ideal state, all workforce end up becoming engines of this same continuous improvement. The trend is that more and more companies, and other organizations, start to include continuous improvement activities in the daily routines of all its employees. Companies that do not, will gradually become more and more vulnerable to small crises and market changes. A very high percentage of companies with continuous improvement systems have suggestion systems. Some of them even integrate rewarding systems, which can contemplate all suggestions or only the best ones. There are cases where the author of the suggestion receives an economic reward proportional to the gain that the company had from the suggestion. This is known as gainsharing. In other cases, all suggestions are rewarded with a fixed premium (cash, gifts, company products, clearances, etc.). In addition, many companies formalize in visual frameworks and internal publications, the recognition, before the whole organization, to this or that

Those who have already gone through the experience of creating suggestion systems quickly learned that the first difficulty is to get employees to start giving suggestions and the second – much more complex – is to follow up on the ideas that begin to enter in the suggestion system. This is another of the topics on which it is necessary to reflect deeply, conscious of unintended consequences, before moving on to implementation. It is notable that Frank Devine's Cathedral/Higher Purpose Model [14], which is highly correlated to success in achieving Shingo awards (25% of all awarded in Europe 2010–2017) explicitly excludes reward as it, as opposed to recognition, did not feature highly enough on the Pareto analysis on which his model relies and is prone to unintended consequences. A frequent temptation is to give incentives for suggestions when you want suggestions to appear. Another is to force a minimum number of suggestions per week for each section of the company. Regarding the first temptation, much could be said but let us mention a very interesting book entitled "Drive" by Daniel Pink [15]. Pink, based on results from many published scientific experiments, suggests, in short, that incentives can be counterproductive when creativity is to be used. As much of what is intended with suggestions is based on people's creativity, it gets a little strange to add something that seems to limit creativity. According to the author, wage incentives are more effective when it comes to increasing productivity in uncreative work, namely

It is undeniable that an organization wishing to implement continuous improve-

ment must be prepared for resistance to change. It must be accepted naturally, otherwise it can lead to frustrating situations, and in this sense, it may be important

repetitive operations without the need for intellectual tearing.

**40**

employee for their suggestions.

**3.4 Resistance to change**

to try to understand.

If it is true that resistance to change is greatly evoked as being present in human nature, it is no less true that the will to change is also present in human nature. These are in fact two seemingly contradictory truths. In a way, all people are willing to change. For example, they are willing to change when they get married or decide to have children, and these changes completely change their lives. Any father knows that having children results in drastic changes in routines, poor quality sleep, constant worries, permanent attention, fear of the unknown, visits to the doctor, and more. Even knowing all the problems that come with having children many people all over the world is deciding to change into it. Many, on the other hand, want to change cars, others from employment, and others from the city, etc. In fact, we are willing to make changes as long as they are the result of our own will. On the other hand, we are not always willing to change when someone wants us to change something in our routines. According to Chip Heath & Dan Heath [16] – for people to change three conditions must be met: (i) clarity of what to change to; (ii) motivation for change and (iii) clarity of the steps needed for that change. With regard to the first condition, it is sometimes not very clear to people what needs to be changed, and this, of course, is undesirable. When you want a team to make a change, you need to make very clear to where or to what they are going to change. With regard to the second condition, it is necessary that the people who will be involved in the change have the necessary motivation to do it. If they do not identify something that is attractive or worthwhile, then these people will not want to change. This is not necessarily a selfish position. People may be motivated for a change that brings benefits to others (and not to themselves) or that is aligned with a belief, a principle, or simply because it is a cause for which they are willing to make the change. Lastly, it is still necessary for people to understand very clearly the steps necessary for a change to occur. Even knowing the reason for the change and having all the motivation to do it, people may not be able to make that change if they do not know what needs to be done.
