Quotes and sayings about Continuous Improvement

"For much of Toyota’s history, we have ensured the quality and reliability of our vehicles by placing a device called an andon cord on every production line – and empowering any team member to halt production if there’s an assembly problem. Only when the problem is resolved does the line begin to move again."

"A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation."

"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."

"Practice the philosophy of continuous improvement. Get a little bit better every single day."

"Continuous improvement is not about the things you do well — that’s work. Continuous improvement is about removing the things that get in the way of your work. The headaches, the things that slow you down, that’s what continuous improvement is all about."

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

"Nature does constant value stream mapping — it’s called evolution."

"If you can make time to fix problems you can make time to plan so problems don’t occur."

"If a company isn’t continuously improving then it is slowly dying."

"Some people try to make everything complicated, be the person who tries to make everything simple."

"Success is a process that continues, not a status that you reach. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned."

"Complacency is the forerunner of mediocrity. You can never work too hard on attitudes, effort and technique."

"I say an hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour out of the entire system. I say an hour saved at a non-bottleneck is worthless. Bottlenecks govern both throughput and inventory."

"I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better."

"Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster."

"You shouldn’t do things differently just because they’re different. They need to be… better."

"Many people think that Lean is about cutting heads, reducing the work force or cutting inventory. Lean is really a growth strategy. It is about gaining market share and being prepared to enter in or create new markets."

"Many good American companies have respect for individuals, and practice Kaizen and other TPS (Toyota Production System) tools. But what is important is having all of the elements together as a system. It must be practiced every day in a very consistent manner–not in spurts–in a concrete way on the shop floor."

"If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improved tomorrow; you get somewhere."

"If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got."

"Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes and the hardest to correct is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material."

"Good is the enemy of great. That’s why so few things become great."

"Don't settle for mediocrity; never let good enough be good enough."

"Without a Standard, there is no logical basis for decision making or taking action."

"Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection."

"Sometimes no problem is a sign of a different problem"

"Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection."

"The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete."

"The message of the Kaizen strategy is that not a day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company."

"It is impossible to improve any process until it is standardized. If the process is shifting from here to there, then any improvement will just be one more variation that is occasionally used and mostly ignored. One must standardize, and thus stabilize the process, before continuous improvement can be made."

"Every breakthrough business idea begins with solving a common problem. The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity."

"I'm never satisfied with what I do. I always think I can do it a lot better."

"The thing is, continuity of strategic direction and continuous improvement in how you do things are absolutely consistent with each other. In fact, they’re mutually reinforcing."

"What get measured, gets managed."

"Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes."

"Quality is free. It’s not a gift, but it’s free. The ‘unquality’ things are what cost money."

"In a true zero-defects approach, there are no unimportant items."

"Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results."

"An extraordinary life is all about daily, continuous improvements in the areas that matter most."

"Many of our best opportunities were created out of necessity."

"Improvement usually means doing something that we have never done before."

"The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize."

"If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution."

"All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes."

"Standards should not be forced down from above but rather set by the production workers themselves."

"The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity. People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’ they go there to ‘think’."

"Where there is no Standard there can be no Kaizen"

"Something is wrong if workers do not look around each day, find things that are tedious or boring, and then rewrite the procedures. Even last month’s manual should be out of date."

"When you are out observing on the gemba, do something to help them. If you do, people will come to expect that you can help them and will look forward to seeing you again on the gemba."

"Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless."

"No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that's the exciting part."

"Excellent firms don't believe in excellence - only in constant improvement and constant change."

"Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures."

"Cultivate Curiosity. If you really want to grow in your lifetime, learn to be as inquisitive as a child. Curious people are never bored, and for them life becomes an unending study of joy."

"Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."

"A person and an organization must have goals, take actions to achieve those goals, gather evidence of achievement, study and reflect on the data and from that take actions again. Thus, they are in a continuous feedback spiral toward continuous improvement. This is what 'Kaizan' means."

"The worker is not the problem. The problem is at the top! Management!"

"If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing."

"Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion."

"Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better."

"Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest."

"Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable."