The Excellence PDCA Cycle
Dinakar Murthy Krishna
Author | Speaker | Mentor | Managing Partner at Samuthána | Expertise in Process, Operational and Business Excellence | Creator of doHow? Methodology | Ex- Bosch
Commencing this blog with illustrative examples of ideal states in manufacturing, such as achieving 100% on-time-in-full delivery, surpassing industry growth rates, ensuring profitability significantly higher than market benchmarks, maintaining costs below market expectations, and achieving various zeros, including zero accidents, zero pollutants, zero waste, zero defects, etc., serves as a foundation for the discussion on the excellence PDCA cycle.
Reflecting on my own experiences, I have found that periodically contemplating the ideal state, preferably at least once a quarter, facilitates the prompt implementation of new insights, propelling us toward a continuous journey of improvement. Beyond individual awareness of the ideal state, fostering a collective common understanding among the entire team regarding both the ideal state and the current reality is paramount for determining the ideal-reality gap. This practice aligns with the planning or standardising phase of the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
Once the gaps between the ideal and reality are identified, a common purpose for any manufacturing company emerges—to continually or perpetually bridge this gap, in addition to fulfilling its unique purpose. This purpose is guided by the company's values and boundaries, essentially forming the rules of the game. Drawing parallels to impactful routines from our school days, like morning prayers and proverbs, in a manufacturing setting, a daily pledge to the purpose and the rules of the game becomes a fundamental routine for excellence—the doing phase of the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
Recognizing the innate human tendency to forget or make mistakes, especially during conscious multitasking, underscores the importance of transforming daily tasks into subconscious routines through regular practice. Conducting daily audits to ensure adherence to the rules of the game, coupled with immediate containment in case of deviations, is essential not only for sustaining improvements but also for supporting us in transforming the daily tasks into subconscious routines—the checking phase of the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
Moving to the acting phase of the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, characterized by weekly retraining sessions on the purpose, ideal-reality gaps, rules of the game, audit outcomes, and systematic focused improvements based on the pareto principle, enables internalization of insights derived from the checking phase. This phase, crucial for learning and improvement, leads to updated policies, guidelines, processes, procedures, and instructions within the company.
Despite many manufacturing companies implementing various improvement programs and growth initiatives, a common challenge persists—failure to grow in spite of significant efforts. Upon analysis, in my observation the root cause often lies in weak fundamentals, emphasizing the importance of the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
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In conclusion, achieving excellence is easy and just a matter of focusing on these basics–the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. Once these basics become strong, for everyone in the organisation, the many top management driven initiatives such as lean manufacturing, theory of constraints, six-sigma, total quality management, continual improvement or Kaizen, employee engagement, digital transformation, business process reengineering, Industry 4.0, IoTSP, value analysis and value engineering, etc. for operational excellence and programs such as design thinking, blue ocean strategy, customer journey, diversification, e-commerce, data analytics, digital marketing, technology upgrading, etc. for revenue growth, make sense and the implementation becomes seamless with agility for delivering exceptional outcomes.
Let me take the example of 5S. How often do we discuss the importance of 5S for a robust manufacturing company, apart from the training sessions? How regularly do we reinforce the need of 5S during the shift info meetings? How regularly do we audit and immediately contain/correct the non-conformance at least once a day? How often do we retrain the team on the importance and the need of 5S for effective and efficient work?
Let me take another example of prospecting? How often do we discuss the value proposition, target market, marketing strategy, communication channels, marketing collaterals and sales pitch, apart from the annual retreats? How regularly do we reinforce the need for staying in touch with the target market, making calls, fixing potential client appointments, marketing actions, and networking every day? How regularly do we audit and immediately contain/correct the missed out daily routines? How often do we retrain the team on what is going well and what needs some tweaking?
The simplicity of this approach underscores the ease of achieving excellence. It is all about consistently practicing the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
How good are you in these four phases of the Excellence PDCA?
Please do share your insights!
Happy reading!
Doctor of Philosophy in Macroeconomics - PhD at KL University
1 年Dear Dinakar, it is well known that "Implementation is Key". Especially, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quaterly bais etc. has to go on, and each one, everybody in the organization MUST contribute, do a bit for "Objectives" outlined. Anyways, I am happy that you have shared it on linked for the benefit of large audience. Regards.
Director Buoyancee Growth & Corporate Training.. Empowering Human Excellence for more productivity and profitability
1 年This article effectively underscores the timeless relevance of the Deming Excellence Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle in navigating the complexities of today's manufacturing landscape. Its practical insights and relatable examples, such as 5S and prospecting, make the PDCA approach accessible and applicable. ? The emphasis on simplicity and consistent practice aligns with the need for adaptive and sustainable strategies in the dynamic business environment. ?Every leader should make their team members to reflect on their proficiency in the PDCA cycle, to nurture a practical and self-aware approach to achieving excellence.
Freelancer/ Ex Amneal pharmaceuticals/ Ex Dr Reddys |Engineering| Projects mgt| safety Professional |TPM | operation excellence
1 年Great work
Corporate Trainer II Mentor II Consultant II Promoter of Saraswati Industrial Services,Bengaluru
1 年You touched well on PDCA, a single tool for improvement. Daily PDCA gives better results. Once PDCA loop is closed S(Standardize)DCA to follow, followed again by PDCA by higher goal. On lighter note, in some companies, A stands for Abort and starts with new PDCA cycle every time. ??
Civil Engineering Professional | Geotechnical Engineering And Management
1 年Nice article sir... often it is intriguing whether we can adopt pdca for human excellence in our day to day work?For example defects often occur due to our lack of will, self-awareness and clarity of goal.As a part of check can we do a quick assessment on these three parameters,assign a defect id and act on it as a part of continual initiative?Can we create a work book having provision to do such planning, logging of activities done for such planned activities,check against these three parameters and act on it? Does it lead to improved quality and human excellence?