Continuous improvement culture requires understanding customer needs, optimizing performance to provide customer value, and continuously learning and improving systems. Key principles include continuously understanding customer needs, having a customer focus, optimizing performance across functions, focusing on processes to improve customer satisfaction, learning from mistakes, and improving systems through fixing root causes of problems. Continuous improvement is a responsibility at all levels with the goal of reducing variation and waste.

1. Key Principles of Continuous Improvement Culture

2. OVERVIEW CONTEXT Leaders need to continuously improve the systems and processes in order to provide customer value. A change in thoughts and practices of people is required in order to create a continuous improvement culture A good understanding of culture will allow the leaders to carry out a sustainable change.

3. Key Principles of Continuous Improvement Creating a Culture of:- Continuously understanding customer needs. Customer focus Optimizing organizational performance Focusing on means to an end Continuous Learning on Mistakes Continuously improving systems and processes Fixing Root Cause of problems Every Level is Responsible for Continuous Improvement

4. Continuously Understanding Customer Needs Create a belief among the people that the purpose of organization is to provide customer value Leaders need to be made to understand that their role is continuously improve systems and processes to meet customer needs Have a plan to regularly engaging with customers and listening to their needs. Create a culture of listening to the customer needs and translating in it into the organizations strategy. Reward and recognize teams and individuals who have spent time listening to customers needs and translated it into actions.

5. Customer Focus Study shows that a focus on customers will inspire changes more readily. Communicate widely that successful customer focus will indirectly serve the needs of all stakeholders. Reward those who have excelled in providing customer superior customer value. Handling customer feedbacks should be top priority in the organization. Managers shall utilize at least one third of his time to improve systems and processes that improves customer focus

6. Optimizing Organizational Performance Organizational performance indicators shall be linked to providing customer value. Organizational performance take precedence against functional performance Use cross-functional approach to achieve organizational performance. This will eliminate silo mentality. Functional performance indicators shall be linked to organizational performance indicators of customer focus. Create a belief that all functions are equally important to accomplish organizational performance.

7. Focusing on Means to an End Managers need to understand that achieving superior customer focus is the end result of various work done in the organization. Hence, they need to work on causes that leads to the end results. Managers need to focus on means that lead the improve customer satisfaction. Cross functional teams come together to work on the means.

8. Continuous Learning on Mistakes Mistakes shall be accepted as part of learning process. Team-members should be allowed and feel secured to experiment and carry out test on processes that supports customer focus. Team-members should be encouraged to make suggestions to improve processes that is linked to customer focus. Mistakes are not an occasion for apportioning blame. Team-members need to feel secure to reveal bad mistakes.

9. Continuously Improving Systems and Processes Variation within acceptable tolerance is not acceptable. The role of continuous improvement is to continue to improve and reduce variation thus achieving six sigma status. Organizations should not stop improving once products/services fall within acceptable level. Hence, cause of variation is continually identified and rectified, in order to get the process to reduce variation to the six sigma level. In continuous improvement, the bar continue to be raised. Yesterdays performance might not be good enough today Eliminating waste will be a critical success factor in improving systems and processes.

10. Fixing Root Cause of problems Leaders/Managers need to be equipped and well versed with problem solving methodologies. A problem must be seen as great inconvenience to the customer and root cause need to be sought and addressed. Establishing a guideline on problem solving methods will assist managers to follow a standardized process. Fixing root cause problem means improving systems and processes that lead to the issue. Use cross-functional team to fix root cause of problems.

11. Every Level is Responsible for Continuous Improvement Leaders shall take responsibility to continuous improvement and not delegated to the Quality Assurance Department. Leaders lead continuous improvement projects and activities. Continuous improvement activities are discussed and deliberated at management committee meetings. Teams are enabled to do continuous improvement activities by providing a system that supports it. Managers who hinders or do not provide space for continuous improvement activities shall be appropriately dealt with. Different continuous improvement activities can be initiated to deal with differing issues:- Suggestion system for individual workplace, QCC for departmental issues, Cross functional teams for organizational issues.

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