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FEBRUARY 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 91 too much limits us. Cognitive team diversity maximizes continuous improvement efforts and solutions. If they are developed, diversi- fied teams can resolve a wide range of strate- gic and tactical problems. Cognitive diversity must be coached and challenged if it is to be exploited. All quality management systems (QMS) con- tain an element of continuous improvement. For example, the ISO has seven quality man- agement principles, with principle five focus- ing on continuous improvement. e aero- space (AS) 9100 quality management system is an extension of the ISO 9001 quality manage- ment system platform. AS9100 uses the process approach, incorporating the plan-do-check- act (PDCA) cycle and risk-based thinking. To- tal Quality Management (TQM) is a fact-based philosophy that defines quality as customer ful- fillment and satisfaction. TQM puts the cus- tomer as the central focus and implements con- tinuous improvement efforts to fulfill custom- ers' needs. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma began amal- gamating into a single quality management sys- tem known as Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sig- ma strives to achieve increased process speeds, eliminate waste, and reduce defects and varia- tion using Lean Manufacturing principles and Six Sigma tools. No matter what QMS is used, they typically share standard continuous im- provement tools (Figure 3). In addition to the nine standard continuous improvement tools shown in Figure 3, there are four common continuous improvement ac- tivities. Combining continuous improvement tools with continuous improvement activities produces a synergistic effect. e continuous improvement activities are gemba walks, Six-S (6S), kaizen events, and benchmarking. Figure 2: KAI distribution of scores.