LEAN Sigma 6/ continual improvement etc.
The ideals are great.
They are better suited for a proactive environment EG: production and overhaul.
I have seen such programmes used in a line (reactive environment), it is hard to implement as in a reactive environment the variables out number the constants.
It is usually up to a select few to determine processes and often creates more chaos than efficiency. I have seen poor processes that were abandoned out of plain old common sence written back in stone because someone who was just seeking a better solution were able to sell it withought reguard to the fact that it had failed in the past to advance their career.
The only way any continual improvment process works is when the people doing the tasks are motivated and believe their voices can be heard and respected, they are often trumped by office politics. Human nature is the largest issue, take the personal greed and desire for dominance out of it and it works best.
Don't let me get off my point that in a reactive environment it sucks the common sence out of the workforce replacing it with confining procedures and processes that end up biting a company in the ass. Not to mention the millions companies spend trying to turn a reactive environment vainly into a proactive one.
Proactivity and common sence needs to be nourished and enouraged for a line maintenance operation to be sucessfull. Humans lack this intelligence at this time in my experience. Hell, scratch that, it's there. It is just that few have the cajones or ovaries to stand up for it in our corperate culture.