The Road to Quality: Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: A, Walsh College (-), course: MGT 565, language: English, abstract: 'Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection' - Mark Twain. Organizations can appreciate Mark Twain's philosophy when they decide quality is a top priority and seek a continuous improvement initiative. In order for a corporation to remain competitive in the 21st century, it must be able to identify how it measures against other corporations and its competitors. After a corporation contrasts itself against others, it must be able to continuously change and improve its strategy and processes. It is crucial that corporations remain competitive and responsive to their customers' needs. Benchmarking and continuous improvement allow organizations to compare themselves to industry leaders and improve its' processes and products by employing total quality management. For a corporation to implement continuous improvement and benchmarking, it must familiarize itself with the current trends and issues, influential organizations, best practices, and important theories and concepts.