EFFECT OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES ON CORPORATE PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIAN BOTTLING

EFFECT OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES ON CORPORATE PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIAN BOTTLING

Background of the Study

The impact of these improvements represents a step change in practice and performance. Continuous improvement adopts an approach to improvement that assumes a never-ending series of small incremental improvement steps (Tecce & Pisano, 1994), for example reducing a machine changeover time or within a service setting dealing with a customer complaint in real time. Continuous improvement is not concerned with promoting small improvements per se, but it does see small improvements as having one significant advantage over larger ones, they can be followed relatively painlessly by others. It is not the rate of improvement which is important; it is the momentum of improvement. Continuous improvement is defined as a “systematic effort to seek out and apply new ways of doing work i.e. actively and repeatedly making process improvements”, (Anand et al., 2009, p 444 ) and “process improvements are defined as enhancements in operational processes” where the ability to consistently improve current processes and learn new ones is termed continuous improvement capability (Ittner and Larcker, 1997)

Continuous improvement as the name suggests is an ongoing effort to improve processes, services, and products through continuous incremental improvements (Asq.org, 2017).

• A continuous stream of incremental improvements in all processes for a better business performance involving everyone in the organization (Ljungström and Klefsjö, 2002).
• Continuous improvement means that improvement activities never end (Liker and Meier, 2013).

By the above definitions and from the perspectives of researchers, it is evident that continuous improvement is not something which is a onetime project but it is a never-ending cycle that requires an understanding of the processes, teamwork, and commitment on regular basis to optimize productivity