The Deming PDCA cycle is a method for optimizing work on any product or project, a theory that is effective in quality management.
The first mention of this method was made in 1939 by engineer Walter Shewhart (Shughart). The essence of the idea is simple: "Everything starts with a plan, then comes implementation, and then verification." A little later, economist William Edwards Deming added the "error correction" clause to the existing plan.
What is the Deming Cycle
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In psychology, this cycle is designated realtor email list by the abbreviation PDCA ("Plan, Do, Check, Act"). Then this abbreviation was transformed into PDSA. This philosophy is named after Deming, although it is also called the Deming-Shewhart or Shewhart-Deming cycle.
The elements of the Deming wheel mean the following:
P — Plan — plan.
D — Do — do.
C — Check (or S — Study ).
A — Act — act.
It turns out that when implementing everything, as Shewhart and Deming believed, it is necessary to follow a strict order of processes:
The first is planning . It includes analytics: thinking about the company's problems, its competitors, and the goals of creating the project. As a result, a plan should be created that takes into account the actions of each team member.
The second is work. Strict adherence to the plan without deviations from the course under the supervision of the leader. It is necessary to act through established channels and exclusively jointly. At this stage, it is advisable to create a corporate group in the messenger.
The third is checking. In other words, it is checking and evaluating the results of work. Feedback, financial calculations and determining whether the set goal meets expectations are very important in this case. Along with checking, it is necessary to learn - analyze processes, find weaknesses in order to broaden your horizons.
The fourth is correction. During this, the cycle is modernized, the team makes a decision to apply new ideas or completely change the course. Everything depends on what the company has achieved and how much the results meet expectations.
This name was given to the cycle precisely because the number of repetitions in it is not limited. No one has the right to prohibit returning to the first point and planning a strategy. The Deming quality cycle can be presented in the form of sprints in Scrum, it has common features with Kanban boards, but it does not focus on lines. Generally speaking, this method is applicable in almost any business - business, software development, as well as in production.
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Deming Cycle Levels
All process cycles running within a company are subject to conditional division into levels. There are three of them. The first is processes related to the main activity, the second is not related to it, and the third is corrective. Let's consider Deming's recommendations regarding the application of his cycle to each of them:
Processes that are related to the company's core business require synchronization of the entire PDCA cycle with the calendar date of the report. To resolve such global issues, it is necessary to use many resources, and if the strategic planning period has passed, making adjustments to the management plan is prohibited.
Processes that are not directly related to the company's activities and do not need to be synchronized with the calendar (introduction of corporate culture, expansion of the team or relocation). They can be carried out when there is an opportunity to improve the quality of PDCA.
Business processes aimed at correcting individual aspects of the company's activities. They can be synchronized with reporting or applied as needed. In this case, the nature, volume and duration decide everything.
Deming's Principles
In his lectures, Deming often spoke about the importance of the PDCA principle of constancy of purpose. He believed that it was simply necessary to follow the initial guidelines boldly and without question.
This principle of PDCA hides the secret of its effectiveness: an incorrectly set management goal deprives the rest of the management stages of meaning. As a result, the result of the work will be very different from the intended one. The company allocates resources in such a way as to solve problems in the long term - to improve the quality of the product, services or work.