Benchmarking, employee empowerment and team approach

Watch the video and then summarise what you have learned.

Another way companies implement continuous improvement is by studying business practises of companies considered best in class. This is called benchmarking. The ability to learn and study how others do things is an important part of continuous improvement. For example, many companies have used Lands’ End to benchmark catalogue distribution and order filing, because the Lands’ End is considered a leader in this area.

Similarly, many companies have used American Express to benchmark conflict resolution. Employee empowerment, part of the TQM philosophy is to empower all employees to seek out quality problems and correct them, which the old concept of quality employees were afraid to identify problems for fear that they would be reprimanded.