“If you can't describe what you
are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing.”_Edwards Deming
Late Edwards
William Deming was an independent thinker, corporate performance expert and
author of a number of useful management books.
He made his
contributions to the world through quality improvement on the processes of many
great companies, especially in Japan and United States.
Joe
Calloway, an expert on business strategy says that Deming’s book, ‘Out of the
Crisis’ is one of the best business books ever written.
Due to the
evident success of Edwards’ insights, I think we can learn one or two things
from him about how things work not only in business of business but also in
business of life.
This article
explains one of Deming’s strategies on corporate growth and improvement, named:
the PDSA/PDCA.
PDSA stands
for Plan/Do/Study/Act. However, it was originally tagged PDCA
(Plan/Do/Check/Act) as contrived by Deming’s genteel mentor, the physicist,
Walter Shewhart.
Though his
work was focused on corporate development, I believe we can use the same
process in the pursuit of any goal in our lives.
Therefore,
based on my own understanding of his concept, I will present the PDCA/PDSA in
this article as PDSR: Plan/ Do/ Study and Redo. Be sure that the slight change
of the word does not detract from the essence of its meaning.
If you are
eager to know more about PDCA/PDSR, please dive into the next subheading, right
away:
Plan/Plan/Plan
“It's
not enough to do your best; you must know what to do & then do your
best.”—W. Edwards Deming
Goal is the
starting point of crystallizing anything we have in our mind. This is because a
plan must have a purpose, and that is why we start with goals and objectives
whenever we have something to aim at.
Once we are crystal
clear about what we want, the next smart thing is to do is to develop a good
plan for the pursuit. This an essential start in the four critical steps of
Deming’s method of success. Planning is the pathway to our targets. If we don’t have a solid plan
for our intentions, we can easily succumb to limiting distractions.
But when we have a clear
plan on what want to achieve, it is easy not only to know if we are making
progress but also to follow through to completion.
Therefore,
the first step in this process is to create a plan, assess the clarity of our
plan to achieve our goals, and then write down precise action steps that we
need to take with starting dates, and proper deadlines.
Do/Act/Work
This is the
stage of taking action to make the plan a reality. This is about the
implementation and realization of our cherished goals.
Taking
action is perhaps the most important stage of this process as the master artist,
Pablo Picasso rightly stated: “Action is the foundation of all success.” No
matter how excellent the plan is, nothing happens until we actually do
something with the plan.
When we make
a decision to act on the plan, we get traction in the pursuit of our goals. When actually implement our
plans, we will begin to see definite results of our pursuits.
Check/Measure/Study
“What gets measured gets
improved.”_Peter Drucker
After we have
planned our work and started working on our plan, the next thing is to study
our results.
To make sure we
are moving in the right direction, we need to measure our results in order to know
what is working and what is not working.
Key performance indicators are crucial
at this stage to really know our position in relation to our destination.
Without good performance metrics, how can we know if we are doing well or
badly?
In this control phase the results of our
actions will be measured and compared to the original plan. By this measure, we
can take note of variations and make necessary corrections to do better, going
forward.
Re-Do/Re-Act/Re-Work
Upon
detection of any differences between our plans and our results, the prudent
thing to do is make adjustments on what we will do afterwards.
At this
stage, we increase not only the quality and quantity of our actions but the
direction of our attention. We do more of what works and we stop doing what
doesn’t work.
We direct
our attention and energy toward the areas that will bring about the best
possible outcomes for our aims. We focus only on what truly matters by
eliminating everything else.
In
Conclusion: be reminded that this super-simple process is one of the ways
Edwards Deming made immense contribution to Japanese industrial miracle.
It is one of
the strategies he used to generate improved quality of performance and
continuous success in big companies in developed countries of the world.
It is one of
the methods he used to create repeatable processes that have withstood the test
of time, in the complex art of manufacturing and business.
And now, if
we will genuinely work by his process, we can achieve anything that we set our
minds to, for sure.
