Managing Continuous Improvement in Vietnam: Unique Challenges and Approaches to Overcome Them

Abstract

As Vietnam emerges into world markets, Vietnamese organizations are facing the predicament of how to avoid the low-cost labor trap and move up the production value-chain by improving quality and productivity. Continuous improvement (CI) practices have proved fundamental to building and sustaining competitive advantage in other Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. If Vietnamese organizations are to pursue higher value-added activities, CI will be critical for them, too. Despite the tremendous interest in Vietnam from the international business community, little research on Vietnamese management practices has been done, particularly on the use of CI techniques. The language barrier, lack of reliable business data, and the culture of government and corporate secrecy in Vietnam make it extremely difficult to do management research in that country.

This paper is a report on an ongoing multiyear research project to study the state of CI in Vietnam. It surveys the current management literature relevant to Vietnam. Then, based on fieldwork in five companies and extensive interviews with business leaders and managers, directors of professional and business associations, and other individuals who have extensive knowledge of Vietnam, the authors identify a number of unique challenges to managing CI in that country, and offer approaches to overcome them.

• continuous improvement
• productivity improvement
• quality improvement
• Vietnam
• Vietnamese management

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Phuong Anh Nguyen

Phuong Anh Nguyen is a doctoral candidate in operations management at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. She received her M.B.A. from the California State University, East Bay, and a bachelor's degree in molecular and cell biology from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research interests are in lean production, quality management, continuous improvement, innovation, and creativity. Her doctoral dissertation is on continuous improvement practices in Vietnamese organizations.

Alan G. Robinson

Alan G. Robinson is on the faculty of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. He received his doctorate in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University, and bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in Great Britain. His book Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen (co-authored with Sam Stern) has been translated into 13 languages and was a finalist for the Financial Times/Booz Allen Hamilton Global Best Business Book Award. His 2004 book Ideas Are Free, co-authored with Dean Schroeder, was named Reader's Choice by Fast Company magazine and named as one of the 30 best business books of 2004 by Soundview Executive Books. Robinson can be reached at [email protected].