What’s a continuous improvement plan?

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Continuous improvement plans, also known as CIPs, are programs used by companies to improve specific situations and increase efficiency. They can focus on employees’ education and training, as well as workplace procedures. CIPs benefit employers by increasing productivity and providing a pool of qualified employees for promotions.

Also known as Continuous Quality Improvement Plans or CIPs, continuous improvement plans are programs designed to review specific situations and identify strategies to improve or improve all related factors. Plans of this type are sometimes used by companies to develop continuing education and cross-training programs for their employees as part of their ongoing mentoring process. The approach can also be used to review workplace procedures and find ways to increase overall efficiency and production.

CIP or continuous improvement process can be employed to evaluate policies and procedures in virtually any business setting. The idea is to make something already good even better, to the benefit of the company as a whole. For example, a business may take a close look at a manufacturing process and determine that by rearranging one step into two steps and adding another person to the production line, it becomes possible to produce significantly more units per hour.

When the continuous improvement plan focuses on employees, the goal is often to provide continuing education opportunities that not only help employees with their current responsibilities, but also prepare them for progress through the corporate structure. Based on the individual employee’s background and aptitudes, managers and others will use various means to further develop various skills, provide training for tasks the employee is deemed capable of handling, and guide the employee throughout the process. Over time, the employee’s performance level is re-evaluated and the improvement program is refined, based on the additional data available.

It is also possible to design a continuous improvement plan that offers continuous opportunities to different employees. Often, the plan will include continuing education in areas such as resource planning, team leadership, business management, and other training that are considered important to the company’s continued operations. There is no set template for designing a continuous improvement plan, although most plans will include periodic reviews of not only employee progress, but also the structure and design of the plan itself.

Employers benefit directly from implementing some sort of continuous improvement plan. Employees who feel that the company is willing to invest time and other resources in them will usually have a more positive view of the company in general. This often results in increased productivity in your current location. At the same time, the continuous improvement plan provides the company with a pool of highly qualified employees who can be promoted from within when positions open, rather than recruiting from outside. In many cases, this ability to promote from within allows the employee to take on the new responsibilities with little or no time needed to settle into the new situation.




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