Continuous improvement through innovative information management

Innovation remains central to competitiveness. Most manufacturers, regardless the products, share a common set of challenges: improving quality, reducing wastes and optimising productivity; and at the same time striving to be more responsive to the customers’ demand. For those reasons, manufacturers tend to rely upon accurate, timely provision and management of information to support particularly manual, operative tasks. The paper describes some insights from a study of the development and implementation of information systems to support continuous improvement initiatives at two global manufacturers in the UK. The study has revealed typical problems associated with managing abundant information and suggests an innovative method of addressing the problems. The method ensures the provision of task-related information that is accurate and concise, delivered only when and wherever needed, and is adapted to the users’ levels of skill. The benefits of the proposed method include improved accuracy of information, time/cost reduction and increased efficiency.