Title: Designing sustainable strategies for continuous improvement deployment programme: lessons from a steel plant in India

Authors: B.N. Sarkar

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Department, 58, K D Flat, Kadma, Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, Pin: 831005, India

Abstract: Despite the demonstrated benefit of improvement programmes such as Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), etc., initiated by different organisations, end in failure. This paper tries to analyse the internal dynamics of improvement initiative deployment in an organisation and tries to find out the loose ends for the successful deployment of an improvement programme. Through the analysis of achievements and failures after initiating different initiatives in a steel plant in India, author has suggested few issues which should be looked into for successful deployment and getting the desired result. For analysis, tools such as life cycle analysis, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) and causal modelling using System Dynamics have been used.

Keywords: continuous improvement; product life cycle; failure mode and effects analysis; FMEA; key performance indicators; KPIs; system dynamics; steel plants; India; causal modelling; improvement initiatives; six sigma.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCA.2007.017177

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 2007 Vol.3 No.4, pp.352 - 376

Published online: 17 Feb 2008 *

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