The purpose of this literature review is to examine research of the critical success factors for continuous improvement deployments.  Faced with a wide range of specific topics on the subject of continuous improvement, it is important to first define continuous improvement.  Continuous improvement (CI) is a broad categorization of philosophies, strategies, systems, and methods used by businesses to systematically improve quality, safety, service, and production metrics.  Caffyn (1999), in his analysis of different CI programs, defined these efforts as a focused, company-wide mandate to make small improvements to achieve business goals.  Three of the most common, modern systems are Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, and TRIZ.  Other well-known systems are business process reengineering (BPR) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO).  According to Li (2010) and Wu, Chien, Lin, and Yang (2011), the method of analytical hierarch process (AHP) is also emerging as a powerful tool for creating optimal designs for improved performance.

The initial research question came from the known problems that many companies experience when implementing these continuous improvement programs.  While continuous improvement methods such as Six Sigma continue to grow as a choice to propel companies to the top of their market, many companies fail in the implementation or the sustainability of these methods (Bovey & Hede, 2001; Byrne, 2003; Coronado & Antony, 2002).  Based on the prior experiences of experts and the available research, one could hypothesize that while several key success factors apply in general to most deployments, these factors must be prioritized and customized to fit the individual company.