Continuous improvement strategies and production competitive criteria: Some findings in Brazilian industries

The Brazilian economy has been substantially deregulated over the past 10 y ears, which not only has exposed previously protected industry sectors to g lobal competition, but also has been forcing Brazilian industries to implem ent best practice management principles, strategies and technologies in ord er to remain competitive. In view of that, a study was conducted in a sampl e of companies representative of different Brazilian industry sectors aimed at identifying the relationship between continuous improvement strategies and production competitive criteria. The study also focused on the use of m anagement practices such as performance measurement and benchmarking. A the oretical discussion as well as a conceptual framework for continuous improv ement deployment are presented so as to validate the conduction of the stud y. The results of the study indicate that although competitive priorities a re drawn from customer and market demands, there is no clear indication of alignment between competitive priorities and deployment of improvement acti ons.