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LCIM-594: Continuous Improvement & Quality Management Report a Broken Link

Continuous improvement is a systematic, ongoing effort to improve processes, services, or products through small, incremental changes in an effort to realize efficiencies and better quality. Quality management is related to continuous improvement, but focuses more specifically on consistency of products, services, and processes. The main components of quality management are quality planning, quality control, quality assurance, and quality improvement. After addressing the core principles and some of the history and roots of continuous improvement, this course will introduce kaizen, Six Sigma, lean management, and Training Within Industry (TWI) as strategies that may be applied in the manufacturing industry.


Required Readings

Lesson 1

Reading 1: Knowles, G. (2017). Managing quality in the 21st century: Principles and practice. Graeme Knowles & bookboon.com.

  • Chapter 1: Introduction (pp. 7–9)
  • Chapter 2: Why quality management? (pp. 10–20)
Reading 2: Rokke, C., & Prakash, Yadav, O. M. (2012). Challenges and barriers to total quality management: An overview. International Journal of Performability Engineering, 8(6), 653–665.
Reading 3: Knowles, G. (2017). Processes. In Managing quality in the 21st century: Principles and practice (7.1-7.4, pp. 56–66). Graeme Knowles & bookboon.com.
Reading 4: Knowles, G. (2017). Change and process improvement. In Managing quality in the 21st century: Principles and practice (10.2, pp. 71–74). Graeme Knowles & bookboon.com.
Reading 5: Knowles, G. (2014). Six Sigma. Graeme Knowles & bookboon.com.

  • Chapter 1: Introduction (p. 10)
  • Chapter 2: Background and history (pp. 11–13)
  • Chapter 3: Why Six Sigma? (pp. 14–24)

Lesson 2

Reading 6: Knowles, G. (2014). Six Sigma. Graeme Knowles & bookboon.com.

  • Chapter 4: Six Sigma: Key strategic concepts (pp. 25–29)
  • Chapter 7: Variation (pp. 45–49)
  • Chapter 9: People and organizational learning (pp. 55–62)
  • Chapter 11: Six Sigma projects: Key concepts (pp. 71–79)
  • Chapter 14: Variability Reduction in DMAIC (pp. 99–124)

Lesson 3

Reading 7: Antony, J., & Kumar, M. (2014). Introduction to book. In J. Antony & M. Kumar (Eds.), Lean Six Sigma: Research and practice (pp. 13–14). Professor Jiju Antony, Dr. Maneesh Kuman & bookboon.com. 
Reading 8: Holweg, M. (2007). The genealogy of lean production. Journal of Operations Management, 25(2), 420–437.
Reading 9: Godsell, J. (2009). Embracing the five lean principles. Management Services, 53(3), 36–38.
Reading 10: Marsh, J., Perera, T., Lanarolle, G., & Ratnayake, V. (2014). Lean Six Sigma: Exploring future potential and challenges. In J. Antony & M. Kumar (Eds.), Lean Six Sigma: Research and practice (pp. 35–45). Professor Jiju Antony, Dr. Maneesh Kuman & bookboon.com.

Lesson 4

Reading 11: Harrison, A. (2014). What makes Lean/Six Sigma succeed. In J. Antony & M. Kumar (Eds.), Lean Six Sigma: Research and practice (pp. 175–189). Professor Jiju Antony, Dr. Maneesh Kuman & bookboon.com.
Reading 12: Atkinson, P. E. (2013). Creating culture change: Kaizen and performance improvement. Operations Management, 39(2), 10–16. 
Reading 13: Crom, S. (2000). Implementing Six Sigma in Europe: A cross-cultural perspective. Quality Progress, 33(10), 73–75.
Reading 14: Ruona, W. E. (2001). The foundational impact of the Training Within Industry project on the human resource development profession. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 3(2), 119–126. 

Supplementary Readings

Lesson 1
Golder, P. N., Mitra, D., & Moorman, C. (2012). What is quality? An integrative framework of processes and states. Journal of Marketing, 76(4), 1–23. 
Lesson 3
Lasa, I. S., Laburu, C. O., & de Castro Vila, R. (2008). An evaluation of the value stream mapping tool. Business Process Management Journal, 14(1), 39–52. 
Howell, V. (2012). Total productive maintenance: A strategy for your lean journey. Ceramic Industry, 162(10), 18–23. 
Charles, V., Puthraya, N. R., & Kavitha, S. I. (2007). Simple kanban technique for better inventory management. ICFAI Journal of Operations Management 6(4), 60–74.
Singh, J., & Singh, H. (2009). Kaizen philosophy: A review of literature. ICFAI Journal of Operations Management, 8(2), 51–72. 
Lesson 4
Scherrer-Rathje, M., Boyle, T. A., & Deflorin, P. (2009). Lean, take two! Reflections from the second attempt at lean implementation. Business Horizons, 52(1), 79–88.