The Implementation Continuous Improvement Program: a Case Study for a Canadian Job Shop Manufacturer

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to study and to understand the impact of implementing a Continuous Improvement (CI) program with employees. The study has covered ideas generated by employees, and their impact on the ideas’ implementation progress, and also employees’ evaluation of the CI program and its effectiveness after one year of its launch. Two studies were conducted: study one was done on the company’s collected data stored in the CI log, and study two was based on employees’ perception of the CI program as a separate survey for this thesis. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. The result from study one indicated that, regardless of employees’ intentions of the submitted ideas for improvement, management interpretation of the ideas influenced these ideas’ implementation. It was found in study two that there were many shortcomings in the launching of the CI program that impacted how employees perceived and engaged in this program. Conceptually, Ashby’s law of requisite variety was used to discuss these results and their impacts on the organization. Finally, a discussion is presented on the implications and the limitations of the study.