Global Improvement Initiatives

Executives of a multinational company were looking for ways to spread improvements made at one location to other locations throughout the world. Their initial approach of sharing examples and case studies had proven ineffective. In addition, the localized improvements were having little impact on the worldwide corporate business measures. The principles of quality management and change management added little insight. Frustration with their lack of success had given way to an interest in an approach developed by the Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) for the health care industry (Kilo, 1998). The concept of an “improvement collaborative” provided the framework for developing their global improvement initiatives.