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Process Improvement Quotes and Blogs.

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Process Improvement Quotes and Blogs

Large assortment of process improvement quotes and continuous improvement blogs.

Process Improvement Quotes

  • “It is impossible to improve any process until it is standardized. If the process is shifting from here to there, then any improvement will just be one more variation that is occasionally used and mostly ignored. One must standardize, and thus stabilize the process, before continuous improvement can be made.”  ~ Masaaki Imai
  • “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”  ~ Henry Ford
  • “A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation.”~ Andrew Grove
  • “Continuous improvement is not about the things you do well — that’s work. Continuous improvement is about removing the things that get in the way of your work. The headaches, the things that slow you down, that’s what continuous improvement is all about.” ~ Bruce Hamilton

“In God we trust; all others bring data.”  ~ W. Edwards Deming

process improvement quotes

  • “Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures.”  ~ Tom Peters
  • “Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes and the hardest to correct is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material.” ~ Henry Ford
  • “The worker is not the problem. The problem is at the top! Management!” ~ W. Edwards Deming

“Where there is no Standard there can be no Kaizen.”  ~ Taiichi Ohno

process improvement quotes

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.”  ~ Max DePree

process improvement quotes

  • “Many of our best opportunities were created out of necessity. “ ~ Sam Waton, founder of Walmart
  • “Sometimes no problem is a sign of a different problem”  ~ Mark Rosenthal
  • “Every breakthrough business idea begins with solving a common problem. The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. I discovered a big one when I took apart an IBM PC. I made two interesting discoveries: The components were all manufactured by other companies, and the system that retailed for $3,000 cost about $600 in parts.”  ~ Michael Dell

“What gets measured gets improved.”  ~ Peter Drucker, considered the father of Modern Management

process improvement quotes

  • “For much of Toyota’s history, we have ensured the quality and reliability of our vehicles by placing a device called an andon cord on every production line – and empowering any team member to halt production if there’s an assembly problem. Only when the problem is resolved does the line begin to move again.”  ~ Akio Toyoda, CEO Toyota Motor Company
  • “Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” ~ Albert Einstein

“When you are out observing on the gemba, do something to help them. If you do, people will come to expect that you can help them and will look forward to seeing you again on the gemba.”  ~ Taiichi Ohno

process improvement quotes

  • “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”  ~ W. Edwards Deming
  • “Quality is free. It’s not a gift, but it’s free. The ‘unquality’ things are what cost money.”  ~ Phil Crosby
  • “If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improved tomorrow; you get somewhere.”  ~ Henry Ford, founder Ford Motor Company
  • “Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.” ~ Thomas A. Edison

“Many people think that Lean is about cutting heads, reducing the work force or cutting inventory. Lean is really a growth strategy. It is about gaining market share and being prepared to enter in or create new markets.”  ~ Ernie Smith

process improvement quote

  • “Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat?  The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity.  People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’ they go there to ‘think’”   ~ Taiichi Ohno
  • “All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”  ~ Taiichi Ohno, father of Toyota Production System (TPS)

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”  ~ Mark Twain

continuous improvement quotes

  • “A relentless barrage of “why’s” is the best way to prepare your mind to pierce the clouded veil of thinking caused by the status quo.  Use it often.”  ~ Shigeo Shingo
  • “Good is the enemy of great. That’s why so few things become great.”  ~ James C. Collins 
  • “Don’t look with your eyes, look with your feet. Don’t think with you head, think with your hands.”  ~ Taiichi Ohno
  • “All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”  ~ Taiichi Ohno
  • “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” ~ W. Edwards Deming
  • “Everything can be improved.” ~ Clarence W. Barron
  • “I say an hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour out of the entire system. I say an hour saved at a non-bottleneck is worthless. Bottlenecks govern both throughput and inventory.”   ~ Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal
  • “Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.” ~ W. Edwards Deming
  • “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” ~ Peter F. Drucker
  • “Improvement usually means doing something that we have never done before.” ~ Shigeo Shingo
  • “If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow.”  ~ Phil Crosby
  • “The key to the Toyota Way and what makes Toyota stand out is not any of the individual elements…But what is important is having all the elements together as a system. It must be practiced every day in a very consistent manner, not in spurts.” ~ Taiichi Ohno
  • “When you go out into the workplace, you should be looking for things that you can do for your people there. You’ve got no business in the workplace if you’re just there to be there. You’ve got to be looking for changes you can make for the benefit of the people who are working there.”  ~ Taiichi Ohno
  • “Nature does constant value stream mapping — it’s called evolution.” ~ Carrie Latet
  • “An hour saved at the non-bottleneck is a mirage.”   ~ Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal
  • “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”  ~ W. Edwards Deming

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” ~ Bruce Lee

process improvement quotes

  • “Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest.”  ~ W. Edwards Deming
  • “If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.” ~ Steve Jobs
  • “If you can make time to fix problems you can make time to plan so problems don’t occur.” ~ Dave Waters
  • “Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.” ~ W. Edwards Deming