The right improvement initiative for the right situation: A contextual and systems approach

There is a myriad of improvement initiatives that can be used to continually improve an organisation's performance. `Improvement initiatives' refers herein to approaches, systems, tools and/or techniques and include, for example: Six Sigma, Lean, Business Process Reengineering, ISO9001, Balanced Scorecard or benchmarking. Unfortunately, there is a relatively lack of advice or guidance available to organisations on how to select the most appropriate improvement initiative for a given context or situation. This paper discusses key issues relating to the selection of appropriate improvement initiatives within organisations, and proposes an initial guidance model that is designed to assist organisations in selecting suitable improvement initiatives. The proposed model focuses on the steps to select a suitable initiative, which provides a structured process towards making a rational decision. This model was developed based on an extensive literature review and several semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted in New Zealand and Malaysia involving: (1) Directors and Senior Managers from the quality or business excellence (BE) areas of organisations that have won a national Quality or BE Award; (2) Chief Executive Officers and Executives from national custodians of Quality / BE award; and (3) Consultants specialising in quality management and BE.