Integrating continuous improvement and innovation into a corporate culture: a case study

Continuous improvement, as the name implies, adopts an approach to improving organisational performance, with small incremental steps, over time. In this approach, it is not the size of each step which is important but the likelihood that the improvements will be ongoing. Many companies are now complementing continuous improvement with innovation, which is seen as the successful exploitation of new ideas, and there appears to be a clear synergy between these two philosophies when integrated under an appropriate corporate culture. In this paper, the authors describe a case study of a small/medium subcontract jobbing shop situated in the industrial heart of North West England. The paper explains how, despite considerable setbacks and hardship, the company managed to keep its continuous improvement ideas and ‘best practice’ beliefs intact throughout the UK recession of the early 1990s. The paper goes on to describe the corporate culture within which an approach to continuous improvement and innovation has allowed the entire workforce to continue their quest for total quality.