The Model for Improvement developed by API and published in numerous papers is based on three fundamental questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish?
• How will we know that a change is an improvement?
• What changes can we make that will result in improvement?

It is easy to see how these questions could be used to guide an improvement effort of small scale. However, the approach to answering the questions needs to be enhanced when the system under study is large or complex.

The aim of this effort is to build on the methods such as Quality Function Deployment and Re-engineering and to develop an effective approach to designing or redesigning large or complex systems.