Quality & Continuous Improvement in an Age of Transformation

Emerging technologies, globalization, and a half-decade old economic crisis whose reverberations continue to be felt today mean that change seems to be coming at us fast and furious. This means that companies must frequently adapt and evolve their business and operating models. But sometimes gradual evolution is not enough. Today, there has never been a greater need for more radical transformation, more often.

Quality and continuous improvement approaches grew up in the twentieth century. The era of mass manufacturing required rigorous, methodical approaches to ensure predictable outcomes on safety and quality. The pursuit of continuous improvement, meanwhile, became codified as a set of management practices first embodied by the Toyota Production System and then Lean manufacturing. The main principle behind continuous improvement was that small, incremental changes would yield massive results over time.

Those practices are still valid today and have since spread beyond the borders of manufacturing companies to just about every industry on the planet. But at a time when just about everything is in flux, what can quality and continuous improvement do to better support the business transformation agenda?

Download this PEX Network whitepaper - a transcript of a roundtable discussion between Vince Pierce, Senior Vice-President of Global Business Transformation at Office Depot, Estelle Clark, Business Assurance Director at Lloyd’s Register and Gregory North, Vice-President at Xerox Corporate Lean Six Sigma as they discuss where they see quality and continuous improvement heading in today’s era of transformative change.

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