The case study describes the experience of Javier Rutz as operations director and later as general manager of NERTUS, a leading company in the sector of railway maintenance services in Spain.

The company was founded by Spanish rail operator Renfe and Siemens, a leading train manufacturing company, to provide maintenance services for Siemens’ trains. From the beginning, NERTUS stands out for the high quality of its services and its great capacity for continuous improvement.
Shortly after its Foundation, Javier Rutz joined the company, first as director of operations and later as general manager. During this period, the philosophy of continuous improvement reached its maximum splendor.

After concluding a highly successful professional stage, Javier Rutz leaves the company and asks himself which is the best way to exploit his experience for his professional future: should he continue as a senior executive in another company or undertake a different challenge through his own company to provide consulting services that offer “the design and implementation of management models based on continuous improvement, with a strategic perspective?” 

Aims to identify what are the key strategic and organizational elements that allow the successful implementation of a continuous improvement methodology. These strategic and organizational variables, such as customer orientation, company culture, leadership, transparency of information, etc., are shown throughout the case in a general way and in some examples presented by J. Rutz on NERTUS.