Managing and organising collaborative improvement: A system integrator perspective

More than ever, companies are challenged to improve their performance and respond quickly and accurately to changes within the market. Because of external dynamics, competition is moving towards the level of networks of organisations, and thus the individual firm is an inadequate entity for identifying improvements. The concept of continuous improvement must be applied and used in inter-organisational settings, leading to the concept of collaborative improvement. In order to gain an insight and develop knowledge of the process of collaborative improvement from a system integrator perspective, we use the network model of actors. This paper will discuss some empirical findings on the scope, scale, skill and value, and social networking of collaborative improvement as part of the network model.