Improvement worth whatever
I read in a magazine about how we humans 2.5 million years ago started making weapons with stone tips. This is believed to be one of the single most important steps in the evolution of our developed brain. Indeed, with stone weapons, our ancestors were able to cut thick-skinned animals and crush bones and thus gain access to highly concentrated energy in the form of fat, meat and marrow, which do not require as strong a mouth. The teeth and jaw muscles of the human genus therefore began to shrink, which meant that the skull could give way to the brain expansion fueled by the new, energy-rich diet. All this because of some stone chips.
I read Tor Nørretrand's classic book Note the World about how Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard in his quest to expel Maxwell's demon as early as 1929 presents a possible solution. It fails, of course, but in doing so lays the foundation for binary numbers and the whole of modern information theory. From there we have developed computers and all that they have made possible.
I listen to the Swedish-American scientist and author Frans Johansson when he describes how there is no universal method to achieve success (The Click Moment). On closer examination of the greatest business successes in modern times, he can conclude that the road to it has been marked mainly by chance. There are ways to increase the probability for success, but there is no method and no recipes. Jim Collins describes something similar in its vintage.
Against this background, we can also consider process optimization and continuous improvement work. We cannot describe in advance what values will be created, or how - or even who or which will do so.
At Ekan Management, we know a lot about models and working methods for continuous improvement, we know lots about bottlenecks and how optimal pace in different sequences / activities affects the process's productivity. But that's just the thing is - as stone chippings. To the naked eye it is simple and simple. It is only when we use this knowledge in our customers' environments that it becomes clear what the result will be.
So to the question, "What is continuous improvement worth? " the answer is simple in my world, ie “No one can answer exactly. But probably as much as anything. "