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What is the P.D.C.A. cycle?

Uncategorized Oct 23, 2017

Where did it come from, and why does it work?

The importance of the P.D.C.A. cycle in the context of business cannot be understated. If we take a step back and look at business improvement in a metaphorical sense, we can see the idea as a body. The brain – your management team, provides the crucial ideas; the muscles - your staff, constantly move towards the goal; and the spine – the P.D.C.A. cycle, effectively holds everything together as the most crucial anatomic feature.

As a bit of historical context, the late American engineer, statistician and professor, Edward Deming, is known for collaborating with Walter A. Stewhart in the creation and implementation of the first P.D.C.A. cycle in a post-WWII Japan. At the time, the P.D.S.A. (plan, do, study, act) cycle was intended for use in the research and scientific fields. In 1950, Deming delivered a speech titled “Statistical product quality administration” which has since been credited as a significant contribution to Japan’s post-war ‘economic miracle’. The rest, as they say, is history, and arguably Japan has witnessed one of the biggest economic revivals in modern history.  

So then, why the history lesson? Well, if a sovereign nation managed to transform post-war ruin into an economic boom by using Deming’s teachings, we feel as though you’re underestimating the effectiveness of the P.D.C.A. cycle. First of all, the cycle essentially underpins ISO certification and continual improvement. It is one of the most effective ways in which you can identify a flaw, or underperforming aspect of your business, and turn it into a positive.

The cycle manages this by getting you to identify a flaw in the business’ operations, and gets you to understand the why variables involved. For example, why is our product arriving in a damaged condition to our customers. From there, observations and theories can be tested, otherwise known in Deming’s terminology as deductive reasoning. If your deductive reasoning doesn’t work, this will be highlighted when it’s time to analyse the data, defined as inductive reasoning. This process is repeated until the problem has been identified, solved, monitored and in turn becomes a standardised process within the process. For instance, in the above example, the method of packaging wasn’t suitable for fragile items. The packaging was modified, and now, through the measurement of satisfied customers upon delivery, we know that the problem has been not only addressed, but processes modified to ensure customers receive their deliveries in pristine condition from now on.

While this is a rather simplistic example, one of the biggest advantages of the P.D.C.A. cycle is that it ensures a business follow a structured methodology of improvement, and can benefit your operations by reducing costs, delays and customer complaints, while improving productivity, staff engagement and most importantly for you - profitability.

We’re essentially living in a business world on steroids - accelerated by globalisation and the rise of technology. This is great in many aspects. It means your business can flourish rapidly into a large enterprise in a much smaller amount of time. However, the opposite is also true, whereby your business can be left in the dust if you make a few mistakes. The P.D.C.A. cycle ensures that these mistakes are systematically addressed, monitored, and most importantly, changed before they become a bigger problem for the organisation. The cycle can be used across all aspects of the business - be it in your final product, problems in the supply chain, or even measuring the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. All in all, Stewhart and Deming selflessly created an easy to use system for individuals, companies and even nation States to analyse their performance, optimise sub-par aspects of operations and make positive changes moving into a more productive and profitable future.

If you’re committed to improvement, and you’re not using the P.D.C.A. model to analyse your performance, you’re at a massive disadvantage. Talk to us about how we can help you implement the cycle, as well as ISO certification standards into your business today.

 

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