I have had discussions with clients, contractors, consultants, and pretty much everyone else at one time or another regarding the benefits of providing both continuity and consistency of services. Continuity and consistency are generally complementary, but are obviously not the same, and are not always necessarily complementary. What unites the two concepts is the pursuit of reliable processes that produce expected results — namely continuous operations.
In manufacturing, assembly-line production, and in many construction processes, consistency in execution tends to result in fewer defects and higher quality. The relationship between consistently performing repeatable actions and achieving quality results has been studied and refined to the point of becoming a science. An engineer at Motorola introduced a formal continuous process improvement methodology in 1986 that is known as “Six Sigma.”