Summer 1999 edition . . . . The process of continuous improvement comes to life when teams work together to find solutions to their production problems. Ongoing teamwork improves quality and enables the team members to take an active part in making decisions that affect their own area.
T here is no such thing as the perfect workplace.
Each and every work-place can be improved in some way. Kaizen teams, quality circles and other team-based improvement activities are an effective way for teams to analyse their working environment and improve the processes they use to do their work. The team members learn how to use statistical tools and become familiar with the art of problem-solving in the gemba. As soon as a problem has been solved, a new standard is put in place to maintain the improvement. This stops the problem recurring and enables the team to break out of the old habit of continuous fire-fighting.