Deming and others advocated that managers intent on continuous improvement (Japanese term - Kaizen) should focus on systems and not functions or departmental units. Systems run cross-functionally.
Differences between CQI and BPR.
Continuous quality improvement programmes tend to favour incrementalism. Existing directions and complex organisational relationships tend not to be disturbed. BPR and CQI focus on customers and improving processes, but BPR is about radical change and CQI: incremental adjustment. CQI fine-tunes whereas BPR should eliminate unnecessary processes and build entirely new ones. All the better however if CQI is built into the corporate culture.
