Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Simplified

Issue #19 🧩 When every door is closed 🧩 Essentials for continuous improvement 🧩 PDSA/PDCA & Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) vs. Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) 🧩 The 3E Process Lifecycle

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📑 NOTE: Treat my posts like mini-guides: choose what’s relevant or interesting.

Photo by Arno Senoner on Unsplash

So many processes work great on paper but fall apart when put into practice.

That’s because process designs are static. What makes them dynamic is constant, proactive updates to reflect the ever changing reality. Without those updates - i.e. without Continuous Process Improvement - every process becomes obsolete in no time.

So, how do we continuously improve our processes?

Read on 👇

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⛔️ NOT the Way to Go

During the height of Corona, I flew home, rented a car, and after a week of driving around, I went back to the airport to return it. Simple enough, right? I parked the car in the designated return area - which was the car park under the airport - and took the lift up. I expected to walk into the terminal and out towards the subway, but that’s when things got interesting.

The lift doors opened, and there was this massive barrier all around, with two very helpful signs at both ends saying, “NOT an entrance!” Now, when you’re searching for the entrance, you really don’t care about all the places that are NOT an entrance - that list is pretty long and useless. I was left with the only option to take the lift back down to the car park and live there forever.

So, I did the only thing I could think of: I walked in through the "non-entrance." Immediately, a staff member jumped up because I’d crossed through a restricted area. He started yelling, “That’s NOT the entrance!” I said, “Fantastic. Where IS the entrance then?” He had no idea - his entire job was to guard the non-entrance. He wanted me to go back to the car park, and I refused to enter into this labyrinth they’d created. Not knowing what to do with me, he called security.

Thankfully, the security guy was someone I could reason with. He explained that the barriers were up because of Corona to manage the flow of people - which I already knew. The problem? They only planned for people arriving to pick up cars, not returning them. I broke the flow of their human traffic plan - except there were no other people around to disturb. In the end, he kindly escorted me through the actual airport entrance (and exit, as in this case).

Now, you might think that this is an isolated case because of Corona and so on. But airports are my absolute nightmare - such a process mess, every single time! My husband already jokes that I should carry a stack of business cards to hand out whenever we fly, but that can easily deforest a region the size of the Amazon. It might be better to just tattoo a QR code on my forehead 🙄

© Dave Carpenter

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🔄 Continuous Improvement Process (CIP)