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The specific problem this research addresses is whether cultural differences, national or organizational, impact how effectively the continuous improvement process is received within the supply chain in order to improve supplier performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research design used a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative research.

The research found that Canada was most receptive to continuous improvement, with China being the least receptive. The study found that organizational culture was more influential than national culture. Isomorphism and benchmarking is driving continuous-improvement language and methods to be more universally known within business. Business and management practices appear to take precedence in driving change within organizations.

The sample size and countries involved was very small and limited to key medium sized distributed power company (MSDPC) suppliers. This limited diversity and may have introduced supplier selection bias, as well as survey response bias.

This research concludes that organizational culture is more dominant over national culture and the influence of leadership within the organization drives the impact of continuous improvement.

With isomorphism and the fact that businesses want to be successful, continuous improvement language and methods are becoming more universally known. Business and management practices are now taking precedence in driving change within organizations. Organizational culture is now more influential than national culture.

In today's globally competitive environment, customers only want to pay for value‐added activity. They are not willing to pay for inefficiencies, such as those incurred through extra motion, or time spent searching for data, information, or tools. Although these wastes may be transparent to customers, they usually manifest themselves in the company's market share and bottom line. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the visual workplace helps increase efficiency by eliminating non‐value added activities. The visual workplace improves performance by providing information, enabling workers through self‐direction and empowerment to quickly make decisions without requiring oversight. While its practice in the office environment is increasing, it is still not as consistently practiced as it is in the manufacturing environment.

Utilizing benchmarking, a case study approach and analysis was conducted.

Visual workplace practices are very common in manufacturing environments. While the practices and usefulness are just as useful in business process environments, there is found to be a reluctance to fully embrace the practices.

The application of visual work practices requires business leaders to create, utilize, and support visual communication tools to manage their business. Its usage can be effectively applied to business processes to eliminate inefficiencies and decrease lost time.

The usefulness of visual workplace practices, once embraced by business leaders, will increase business performance by increasing efficiency and reducing waste.