Business improvement tools and techniques: a comparison across sectors and industries

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness, usage, perceived effectiveness and potential future use of improvement tools and techniques via two sets of comparisons: between public and private sector organisations, and between manufacturers and service organisations. The need for the study was driven by the current lack of understanding of the extent of improvement tools and techniques adoption on a global scale. A questionnaire survey of 453 respondents from over 20 countries was conducted and the quantitative data were analysed through use of the IBM SPSS software package. The study’s findings indicated that there are no significant differences between both sets of organisations for the majority of improvement tools and techniques. However, this study has shown that public sector organisations are more likely to adopt some improvement tools and techniques in comparison to their private sector counterparts. Similarly, service organisations are also more likely to adopt some improvement tools and techniques than their manufacturing counterparts. These results contradict the conventional perception that improvement tools and techniques are used more often by the private sector and manufacturing organisations.

Keywords:

• quality assurance
• quality control
• public vs. private sector
• manufacturers vs. services

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial and research support from the Global Benchmarking Network and its members.