It isn't so much that it is not applied as that the pressure to generate data inside academic science makes it extremely difficult for grad students and postdocs to allocate the time to doing science on their experimental processes. They already only barely have time to do experiments on the system they are actually trying to study!
Engineering organizations inside major corporations usually actively engage in process improvement because they are resourced to do so.
Engineering organizations inside major corporations usually actively engage in process improvement because they are resourced to do so.