Management of Continual Improvement for Facilities and Activities : A Structured Approach (IAEA Tecdoc Series)

In recent years there has been an upward trend in the safety and operational performance of nuclear installations. Continual improvement of the processes of organizations has led to enhanced safety performance and efficiency benefits such as cost reductions and improved cycle times. Many organizations have experienced significant cost improvement largely by or through better financial management. Without the use of a structured methodology to identify and implement improvements, changes to an organization to reduce costs through cutting staff and activities could eventually fail to produce the desired changes and even have a negative effect on safety and overall performance. The objectives of this publication are to explain how an approach of continual improvement can be implemented and how to conduct process improvements. It also describes good practices and the problems that may be encountered, based on experiences in a number of different organizations in the nuclear field. A number of case studies and a summary of some of the many improvement techniques available are provided. The methodology used in this publication contains steps and practices that are common to many of the continual improvement strategies. This publication will assist readers in successfully applying continual improvement in their own organizations in the pursuit of enhanced safety and improved performance.