Continuous improvement and employee participation in SMEs

The active participation of all personnel is the basis for continuous improvement in companies. This paper describes the main features of systems for channelling such participation, used in a series of companies in the automotive parts industry in the Northwest of Spain. These characteristics were obtained from research carried out in mid‐1997 and based on personal interviews. Likewise, the great spread of this kind of practice found in this supply industry, mainly made up of SMEs, supports the idea that it is not only applicable in large companies. However, it should not be forgotten that the automotive sector has one of the longest traditions in continuous improvement and employee involvement activities.