Thesis defense of Gorka Unzueta Aranguren
Thesis defense of Gorka Unzueta Aranguren
Thesis defense of Gorka Unzueta Aranguren
Title of the thesis: "Desarrollo y despliegue de un modelo de madurez de mejora continua adaptado a una pyme industrial de bienes de equipo del País Vasco". Obtained the SOBRESALIENTE qualification.
- Title of the thesis: "Desarrollo y despliegue de un modelo de madurez de mejora continua adaptado a una pyme industrial de bienes de equipo del País Vasco"
- Court:
- President: Dr. D. Francisco Javier Tort-Martorell
- Vocal: Dr. D. Manuel Francisco Suarez
- Vocal: Dr. D. Unai Apaolaza
- Vocal: Dra. Dª. Carmen Jaca
- Secretary: Dra. Dª. Itxaso Amorrortu
Abstract
The objective of this thesis is to develop, implement and validate a continuous improvement model (CIM) adapted to industrial small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to generate a sustainable continuous improvement (CI) organisational culture.
The field of CI in industrial processes is a mature field of study, where there are many publications and case studies. Year after year, many publications have become known, giving rise to the idea that it is a field of study of interest for industrial companies. During the literature review, different evolutionary models were identified based on the maturity level and sustainability models of CI. However, the need to develop a continuous improvement process (CIP) has been confirmed. This will allow organisations to adapt and deploy CI in a systematic and structured way, for which it is necessary to identify and define the phases and activities and apply them in a clear way. In addition, it has been found that in SMEs, the adaptation and deployment of such CI is more complicated. Therefore, the environment chosen to develop the evolving CI and validate it based on the results obtained was an industrial SME in the capital goods sector. Over the years, this organization used different tools and methodologies for improvement but was nevertheless unable to generate a sustainable CI organisational culture, placing itself as an organisation with a low CI maturity level at the beginning of this thesis. The present study has been developed during a period of two years between September 2017 and November 2019, in which the CIM has been deployed through the CIP in eight units of analysis (UA) at the industrial SME.
The research strategy used to address this thesis has been action research (AR) with a phenomenological hermeneutic (PH) approach, in which the researcher has taken an active part. The results of the research have been obtained through the application of the designed evaluation system. This system evaluated the CI maturity level, the development of CI routines and the development of the CI elements, which allowed for analysis of the evolution of the CI organisational culture in the organisation.
The academic contribution of this research focuses on two general lines: first, the detailed description of the design, implementation, application and evaluation of a CI initiative for the development of an improvement-oriented organisational culture; second, the research strategy used covers the lack of studies executed through AR with a PH approach in the field of CI in industrial environments.
The CIM developed, the CIPs adaptation and deployment, the evaluation system for assessing its application and the conclusions obtained can serve as a reference for academics and professionals in any industrial sector. These results are especially useful for organisations with low CI maturity levels that aim to generate an organisational CI culture.