An improvement's project model to foster sustainable continuous improvement

Continuous Improvement programs are constantly applied amongst companies to reach competitive advantages. However, it is known that companies struggle to sustain benefits of continuous improvement projects in long-Term periods. Indeed, there is not a common shared framework assessing which are the managerial variables that can guarantee improvement's projects success. This research presents a model and a pool of improvement's projects could be framed and carried out accordingly. The model and its enabler mechanisms foster the importance that the outstanding literature assign to human focused factors and soft practices to sustain continuous improvement benefits in the long-Term period. This study presents a first assessment analysis of the model, even if not statistically valid, highlighting its enablers and barriers for a correct application. Then, based on the first data collected on a sample of improvement's projects framed with the model described, the study draws some considerations about which are the critical success factors for improvement's projects.