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In this study, a frame of reference was developed to adapt and execute a continuous improvement process (CIP) for reinforcing a continuous improvement (CI) culture in an organisation. The study was undertaken in a mature capital goods company that did not succeed in institutionalising CI despite deploying many CI tools over the years. The organisation thus needed a model that was adapted to its reality and strengthened the aspects of CI through cultural changes at the organisational level.

Action research was used to implement the CIP, and this research method was reinforced using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to analyse the results.

The CIP was validated in four units of analysis within the organisation. For the validation, aspects relevant to organisational cultural change and their metrics were identified. The results showed that the main barriers to the development of CI in the case organisation were lack of teamwork and poor assimilation of new CI routines.

The study was applied only in one organisation. Therefore, results cannot be generalized although the process and methodology followed to adapt and implement the CIP could be applied within other organisations.

The paper presents a CI frame of reference and describes how a CIP applied to a small- and medium-sized industrial enterprise generated cultural changes and promoted organisational excellence in the pursuit of CI, by using a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology approach.

Continuous improvement (CI) is regarded as a powerful approach to achieve business excellence. However, the implementation is not simple as it involves managing a considerable amount of tangible and intangible factors throughout the whole organization. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by presenting first-hand information about how companies really implement and organize their CI processes.

The study was based on semi-structured interviews in ten high performing companies in the Basque Country, a region in northern Spain well known for its business quality. The objective was to analyze the state of their CI processes, putting special focus on how the organizational structure integrates with the CI processes and what are the characteristics of the corresponding measurement system.

The study shows a lack of company-wide focus on CI, little written evidence of previous improvement activities, unclear improvement process owner, and poor use of adequate measurement systems to monitor CI.

Managers should understand that is not enough to guarantee their own commitment and provide the structure, since in order to become learning organization, a different holistic approach towards the CI process must be adopted.

While most previous work on this field have focused primarily on how to implement different techniques in order to achieve better productive performance, this study presents empirical research from a more holistic approach, assessing the characteristics affecting CI by considering strategy, structure, and the measurement system.

The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize capabilities and practices to ensure a resilient supply chain during an unexpected disruption. In addition, this study ranks maturity factors that influence the main capabilities identified.

This paper is conducted in three stages. First, capabilities and practices are extracted through a literature review. Second, capabilities and practices are ranked using the analytical hierarchical process method. Third, a gray technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method is used to rank maturity factors influencing capabilities.

The findings indicate that responsiveness, readiness, flexibility and adaptability are the most important capabilities for supply chain resilience. Also, commitment and communication are the highest maturity factors influencing resilience capabilities.

The findings provide a hierarchical vision of capabilities and practices for industries to increase resilience. Limitations of the paper are related to capabilities, practices and number of experts consulted.

This paper highlights the importance of high-maturity practices in resilience capability adoption. The findings of this study will encourage decisions-makers to increase maturity practices to build resilience against disruption.

The paper reveals that developing powerful capabilities, good practices and a high level of maturity improve supply chain resilience.

Evidence suggests that hospitals are having problems achieving continuous improvement project (CIP) goals or sustaining their results. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify those critical success factors (CSFs) most strongly related to CIP success in hospitals (Lean-Kaizen project, Lean Six Sigma project, Six Sigma projects, and Quality Improvement projects).

A retrospective survey was applied to any CIP leaders/facilitators from hospitals that conducted at least one CIP during the last two years.

Three main findings were obtained from the 116 valid responses. First, the level of importance of 47 out of 53 CSFs to achieve CIPs success in hospitals was assessed as very important or higher (4 or higher on a six-point scale). Second, there are important differences between the CSFs to achieve CIP success in hospitals in this research and previous investigations. Third, the type of CIP affects the level of importance of 16 out of 53 CSFs to achieve CIP success in hospitals.

Practitioners involved with CIPs activities in hospitals could use the knowledge extracted from this investigation to improve the impact of their CIPs. Future research should continue in two lines: test if the 53 CSFs for CIPs measure a unique factor and identify the main relationships or paths between CSFs for CIPs and CIP outcomes.

There are limited studies of continuous improvement (CI) from the perspective of a project-based organization (PBO). Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore challenges that PBOs may encounter when applying CI.

An exploratory and qualitative approach has been used, involving six management teams in six different PBOs, using focus groups interviews as data collecting method.

A high degree of autonomy among project managers seems to limit a collective approach to project management in PBOs. As a consequence the overall PBO performance becomes subordinate to the individual project performance—an approach opposite to that of CI. Further, the management teams themselves seem to uphold a project focus, also complicating improvement initiatives from a PBO-perspective.

The management teams have been the unit of analysis, where the PBOs mainly conduct projects in an engineering and construction context, and are located in the same country and region. This approach enables the thorough study of a phenomenon, while preconditions for generalization are limited. However, the findings could be used by researchers as a basis for more in-depth studies of specific challenges, and for making surveys to obtain generalization of results.

The results can induce awareness and understanding of different challenges if applying CI in a PBO, hence a starting point for finding ways to overcome these challenges.

The article contributes to an increased understanding of challenges that PBOs may encounter when applying CI, confirming and presenting additional findings compared to previous studies.

Liker (2003) asserts that continuous improvement’s goal is to favour organisational learning (OL), the latter being one of the key principles of lean management (LM). Yet, OL may result in better occupational health (Panari et al., 2010). The purpose of this paper is to consider Liker’s assertion seriously and to study the relations between LM, team learning (TL) and occupational health.

For this purpose, the authors compared 22 teams in nine case studies. A mixed methodology approach called qualitative comparative analysis (Ragin, 1987) was used to test the hypothesis that TL plays a key role in preserving occupational health in LM implementations, leading to improved performance that is not at the expense of workers’ health.

The central hypothesis questioned was that complete LM when resulting in a TL dynamic (i.e. systemic lean), would enable both increases in industrial performance and maintain or improve occupational health. The data tend to validate this hypothesis.

This research may enrich three types of research literature that hardly know each other, namely, LM literature (production research), occupational health literature and OL literature. For professionals concerned with the social dimension of modern production, this research shows that there is a path for a mutual gain perspective in LM, but this is a demanding process with many conditions to satisfy.

Companies use continuous improvement (CI) as a strategy to achieve business excellence and innovation. Yet CI initiatives fail mostly due to a lack of employee engagement. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Based on the CI literature and the technology acceptance model (TAM), a comprehensive model called continuous improvement acceptance mode (CIAM) was developed to understand the main organisational antecedents that predict employee intention to participate in CI. The CIAM is based on structural equation modelling using partial least squares and it was validated in a large manufacturing plant in Europe.

Emulating the findings of the TAM, this study shows that employee intention to participate can be predicted by two variables called ease of participating and usefulness of participating. The CIAM then relates these constructs with relevant CI enablers found in the CI literature.

The CIAM could help academics and practitioners to better understand employee participation in CI activities, allowing CI systems to be better designed and achieve long-term sustainability.

The CIAM presents new variables and interactions that help to understand employee participation in CI activities. Some of these variables and interactions have received scant attention in the CI literature and thus they are worth investigating in greater depth in the future.

To present the internal dialogue of a TQM practitioner using the conceptual lens of reflective practice.

This study used a pragmatic philosophical approach to collect qualitative critical reflection data and quantitative career construction data from stratified and purposively sampled respondents, using structured questionnaires. The qualitative data were analyzed through reconstruction, while the quantitative data were analyzed through co-construction using the percentage agreement value and Wilcoxon–Mann Whitney test.

Five questions were found to be valuable for steering the internal dialogue for critical reflection, thus recommended as a must-have in a TQM practitioner's toolkit. This study found the career adapt–abilities scale to be a valuable tool for assessing the career construction of a TQM practitioner. This was supported by a 64% agreement and non-significant difference between the two groups of raters used, p < 0.05 (U = 3356.5, W = 7451.5, Z = 1.9826), two-tailed.

The pragmatic philosophical stance used in this study lends it to a certain level of subjectivity. However, the inputs from the three other participants neutralize the subjectivity. Most notably, this study is not about consensus-seeking but rather verifiable/testable self-reflection.

The theory-informed results presented in this study are useful for the continuing professional development of TQM practitioners.

This study provides insights for applying an individual-level self-assessment tool for TQM implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of implementation of Six Sigma (SS) in the construction industry of Pakistan along with the current state of affairs and the challenges, and opportunities for a successful implementation.

The research is purely exploratory in nature. Based on published work, critical success factors are gathered, and a number of questionnaire surveys and interviews are conducted to refine and quantify their impact. A system dynamics framework to assess the SS influence on project success is developed and case study project are simulated.

The construction industry of Pakistan is still functioning in a traditional way; marred with low level of awareness and ad hoc approaches, the findings point to a huge improvement opportunity. Further, when under planning projects are exposed to SS, the chances of project success improve better than under execution projects.

The limited level of awareness possessed by the respondents constrains the possible outreach of this work in industrially developed contexts. However, this work may become an impetus for further research in managing quality in construction industry.

The findings can be used to improve the quality provision of construction projects.

This work may trigger an important debate over the research and implementation of SS in the construction industry of developing countries that may greatly benefit by improving the quality of their projects and rectify their diminishing reputation for project success.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the empirical research on project management (PM) maturity assessments, specifically based on a maturity model.

The empirical data are based on a case study including in-depth interviews with a semi-structured approach, followed by a focus group interview. A survey was distributed within a project-based organisation (PBO) and to client and stakeholder representatives, and then analysed. The organisation in the case study is a project department within a Swedish mining company.

Careful considerations are needed when choosing a PM maturity model (PM3) as the model structure can influence the assessment’s focus. It is also important to include both internal and external project stakeholders in the assessment to achieve an efficiency and effectiveness perspective when analysing PM capabilities. Valid information from an assessment is crucial, therefore, clear communication from management is important in order to motivate the participants in the assessment.

Improved understanding for implementing and applying a PM3 contributes to the increased knowledge of drivers, enablers and obstacles when assessing PM maturity, which also creates a basis for further research initiatives.

An increased knowledge of drivers, enablers and obstacles should be valuable for practitioners introducing and applying a PM3.

Projects are a common way of working in many businesses. Activities which aim to improve PM capabilities should contribute to more effective and efficient project performance.

This case study gives an in-depth insight into the implementation of a PM3 within a PBO. Through conducting a literature review, it was found that this type of empirical research is rare.