Evaluation of continuous improvement programmes

Abstract

The study began with the problem posed by an organisation for a group of researchers in the UK. There was a need to carry out an in-depth study to evaluate the continuous improvement programmes in the context of Lean Construction, and the following question emerged: How to evaluate the continuous improvement programme? This paper aims to understand how the literature on continuous improvement, including quality circles (QCs), small group activities (SGAs), and continuous improvement cells (CICs), can help to conduct the evaluation of continuous improvement programmes. The paper includes a literature review to gain an understanding of the problem from a theoretical perspective. Continuous improvement techniques are assessed in the framework of the TFV theory, with the main focus on the flow and the waste concepts. A logic model framework is used to synthesize the literature review findings and to establish an initial proposal for the evaluation of continuous improvement programmes in the Lean Construction context. This paper does not include any empirical study or actual measure and cannot ascertain the definitive benefits of continuous improvement techniques. Also, the paper does not propose any definitive procedure on how to evaluate continuous improvement techniques.