Continuous improvement (CI) is a process of examining performance, recognizing opportunities, and bringing incremental changes to processes, products, and strategies followed by any company or organization. It is the endless pursuit to improve products, services, and processes through sound strategy, a focus on customer value, and the elimination of waste. CI is essential for any organization that wants to achieve ongoing success and sustainable growth.

Continuous improvement can incorporate a variety of strategies, from total predictive maintenance to lean manufacturing. It can also employ one or many data-driven models to guide improvement practices. The backbone of any successful manufacturing operation, continuous improvement in this context means searching for and resolving defects, deviations, and other bottlenecks within a plant to improve production processes.

There are many continuous improvement activities that a company can perform, regardless of its operational philosophy, business strategy, or CI model, whether Six Sigma, TQM, or some other approach. These CI activities include Kaizen, value stream mapping, root cause analysis, and many others.

In summary, continuous improvement is a process of making small, incremental enhancements to processes, products, or systems to achieve better results over time. It is a mindset that can transform an organization and its endeavors, and it is essential for any organization that wants to achieve ongoing success and sustainable growth.