The role of creativity within best practice manufacturing

Abstract ‘Best practice’ manufacturing is linked directly to aspects of creativity, through an appreciation of the operation of the practitioner's brain. It is suggested that the introduction of techniques such as benchmarking or business process re-engineering cannot succeed in the long term, unless the correct understanding is developed within the management team. Concepts of mind set and lateral thinking are related to the top-down introduction of step change, whilst ‘total quality’ programmes develop the culture necessary for bottom-up continuous improvement. Successful companies will run the two approaches in parallel.