Continual Improvement

The concept of continual improvement

The requirement of continual improvement is found in both the ISO14001 and EMAS standards. The approach of continual improvement can be summarised as:

  1. Defining customers as both internal customers and external stakeholders
  2. Addressing problems at their source, rather than merely curing the problem
  3. Fully identifying the costs associated with bad performance
  4. Making environmental issues the responsibility of employees on all levels
  5. Introducing improvement systematically

Incentives

The benefits arising from continual improvement the environmental sphere are:

  • Improved relations with the enforcing authorities
  • Improved public relations
  • Implementation of innovative technologies
  • Cost savings

Incorporating an approach of successful continual improvement to EMS' brings with it key components such as:

  1. Multi-purpose environmental improvement teams
  2. Training opportunities/increased training
  3. Top level commitment
  4. Mapping processes
  5. Benchmarking
  6. Measurement
  7. Target setting
  8. Communication of success.

Barriers

The barriers to continual improvement identified can be summarised as:

  • Limited resources
  • Lack of inertia
  • Lack of training and communication
  • Lack of environmental considerations in accounting
  • Belief that product quality and efficiency will be adversely affected
  • Limitations on technology

How continual improvement can be achieved:

The cycle of plan, do act and check is often referred to when looking at the means by which continual improvement can be successfully deployed throughout an organisation.

Each component of the cycle is summarised below in brief as it is beyond the scope of this module to provide you with an in depth study of this topic, merely to give you a feel for what it entails.

PLAN: The main customers should be identified at this stage and the stakeholders. This will identify areas that can be chosen for improvement and subsequently the development of programmes to do this.

DO: Implementing the programme

CHECK: Reviewing and monitoring the programme's progress, using targets that can be quantified where possible.

ACT: Altering, if applicable, current programmes and using them as case studies to begin the cycle again with fresh plans and programmes.