A Continuous Improvement Maturity Assessment

This article will cover a proposed qualitative maturity assessment oriented toward a continuous improvement initiative.

We can’t improve what we can’t measure.  Therefore, a qualitative assessment is a useful benchmark to understand the status of an initiative, identify gaps & actions, and measure how the maturity of the initiative is progressing.

First, let’s consider two measurement (output) sub-categories (1) enablers and (2) enterprise-level stages of progress toward a higher maturity level:

• Continuous Improvement Strategy
• Continuous Improvement Leadership and Governance
• Application of Continuous Improvement Tools & Infrastructure
• Organizational Development
• Process Ownership and Management
• Customer & Value Chain Focus
• Key Performance Indicators

If all these enablers were in place (or mature) we’d be in pretty good shape.  

Know what your initiative ideal state looks like, measure and plan accordingly  

Each of the enablers are assessed according to high-level outcomes per the following stages:

Stage 1 – Foundations for Excellence

Stage 2 – Localized Improvement

Stage 3 – Enterprise Improvement

Stage 4 – Value Chain Optimization

Stage 5 – Pursuit of Perfection

Note that the assessment should include detailed descriptions for each of these stages.  Begin with the end in mind: how will we recognize success when we achieve it? 

Below is the proposed matrix with some made-up data:

In this example, organizational development is behind in enabling the initiative.  Addressing this gap would therefore improve implementation of the overall CI strategy.  

In this example (with a maximum score of 35) there is more foundational work to do as well as localized improvement.  (Other growth areas can perhaps wait as these are later stages.)

It can be seen there is a scale of 1-to-5 ranking within the matrix.  Proposed criteria for these (input) rankings is provided as follows:

0)	No evidence
1)	Awareness	Awareness inadequacy exists, just getting started
2)	Planning	Basic scope defined, first steps taken, isolated implementation
3)	Understanding	Basic plans/systems in place, exhibits some of the time, glitches still happen
4)	Commitment	Exhibits characteristics most of the time, capable/focused implementation in place
5)	Habit	Exhibits all of the time for all cases

Objective evidence should exist justifying each of these rankings.  A corresponding list of representative characteristics can provide implementation details and 1-5 ranking guidance.  It is challenging but important to know what the ‘yardstick’ is by which Awareness-Planning-Understanding-Commitment-Habit is measured.   

For example, in the Foundations for Excellence and CI Strategy category, representative characteristics might be:

• Continuous improvement activity is linked to strategy, policy deployment and improvement targets.
• Employees are trained on policy deployment, can outline what it is and describe their ability to impact the target improvements.
• Senior leadership holds regular reviews to check progress of strategy vs. execution

Returning to our example and the matrix above, enablers including “application of CI tools”, “organizational development” and “process ownership & management” will get us to higher levels of maturity for these stages. We would then look to the representative characteristics for guidance.

The assessment is a living document with representative characteristics based on your continuous improvement plan. Objective evidence details are added as the initiative progresses. Any newly identified representative characteristics can also be incorporated.

Finally, assessment data can be taken quarterly to understand overall progress toward higher levels of maturity