Continuous Improvement in the Netherlands: a Survey-based Study into the Current Practices of Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement is a well-known and consolidated concept in literature and practice and is considered vital in today’s business environment. In 2003 a survey, as part of the international CINet survey, has been performed in the Netherlands in order to gain insight into the current practices and the evolution of continuous improvement over the past 5 years. From a sample of 51 companies, this paper describes the results of the Dutch survey. The main motives for continuous improvement are customer satisfaction, productivity, quality and delivery reliability. Continuous improvement contributed to several performance areas, but the implementation is fraught with a lot of difficulties. It appears to be difficult for companies to design and implement an approach towards continuous improvement that is in line with their own perception.