Wednesday's Words of Quality, Lesson #10: PDCA Problem Solving

 Wednesday's Words of Quality, 

Lesson #10: PDCA Problem Solving 

Richard Zarbo, MD  © 2022 Wednesday’s Words of Quality

Lesson #10 of 13

"Your success will be affected by the quality and quantity of new ideas you suggest."

                                                                            -Brian Tracy 

 

PDCA

 

In our continuous improvement culture, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is a core process for problem resolution of individual work defects and systematic deficiencies. You will recall that our continuous process improvement adheres to specific work rules as defined by Steven Spear in "Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System."

 

Making improvements relies upon subjecting proposed changes to the discipline of measurement, data collection, analysis and then reassessment for effectiveness via data collection again. From using deviation management and daily management we can get a sense of the ‘pulse of the machine’ in near real-time, from the employees who are closer to the point of receiving or producing work defects. In our system, everyone is empowered through a defined process improvement routine to work toward effective resolutions in concert with their team leader or ‘teacher’.  This team based, worker-empowered approach to continuous problem resolution has been described as the 4th "Rule in Use" of the Toyota Production System by Steven Spear and clarified as the ‘Improvement Kata’ by Mike Rother. 

 

The Improvement Kata, founded in Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), deals with scientific experimentation, discovery and learning in the workplace. At its core, this approach to problem solving relies on the development of people so that insight into root causes and proposed interventions and process repair arises closest to the level of the actual work and those who do it. With employees engaged and accountable for solving their own work problems, this is how the culture changes for the workforce from one of hiding and blaming to one of openness and learning.

This reliance on measurement and data is at the heart of the PDCA or Deming cycle and has been referred to as the scientific approach to quality improvement. We approach this as a culture of aligned and self-directed work teams and leaders in the Henry Ford Production System resulting in thousands of documented improvements over the years.

 

The Hypothesis

 

Scientific advances require the generation of a hypothesis about what could be and an experiment to potentially disprove that hypothesis based on experimental data. This is not unlike suggestions generated to make changes that are hypothesized to improve processes.  We test them for positive effect and then agree to adopt the change or not. The more numerous and more frequently we can turn around these tests of proposed changes, the more rapidly we can improve current conditions.

 

To base changes, especially thousands of them, on fiat or the voice of the loudest, the first or the oldest amongst us would be folly. The scientific basis of change requires us to propose a hypothesis statement or best guess that may or may not be true. "If we change this, then this will happen." This statement of proposed change is then to be tested. Therefore the test plan requires a mini-experiment and requires us to take the time to propose and agree on measures and data collection that would properly assess the change reflected in the hypothesis statement.

 

For instance, our hypothesis statement might be as simple as- if we move and store the routine supplies for our job closer to the place where we conduct the work, we will shave off the time of wasted human motion by 20% over one shift. Ergo, we will open capacity for increased productivity and throughput. Now we must sit down as a team and devise how to measure our wasted human motion on that task and the other variable parameters so that we can compare the precondition baseline of motion associated with getting supplies and the post-change condition of motion in that same job.

 

Science is an open-ended system in that each hypothesis answered generates more questions that require an explanation. Thus, there is a cycle of questions, answers, and more questions advancing knowledge.  This mirrors the PDCA cycle.

 

To translate to our world of work, in our endeavor of striving for more efficient work processes, we continually ask what else can be done and tested to push us toward a target goal or a more perfect way of doing things. 

 

The Ideal Condition

 

Often, that more perfect way of working is characterized by handling work such that it can be completed 'on demand', defect-free, one piece at a time (with minimal if any batching), with no waste (remember there are 7 forms of waste), immediately (timely for your customer/patient), and safely with respect for people (emotionally, physically, professionally). These attributes describe a so-called ideal condition in a lean production system espoused by Toyota.

 

 

The Process of Process Improvement 

The simplified process that we follow in the Henry Ford Production System to effect continuous improvement looks like this:

The process of fixing the identified defect may take the form of:

 

1. A rapid, often daily resolution (just fix it in place when found)

 

This may be elevated to a more involved process with-

 

2. A PDCA based data-driven (A3) resolution with root cause analysis that requires further study about the nature of the defect (e.g., frequency, type, associations, root cause, etc) 

 

This may require team members to represent their team in Customer-Supplier meeting between work stations to better define work requirements and understand root causes and how work can be redesigned for a better outcome

 

In our Henry Ford Production System Lean culture the second more involved resolution process calls for creating a PDCA storyboard of the defect and the proposed countermeasures on a large A3 size piece of paper. This is known from Toyota as an A3 resolution and requires teams to think through the problem more slowly, to go and see, to analyze for root cause in order to understand the problem better. Only then can proposed interventions or changes be entertained and tested as pilots and the effect measured against a baseline. This type of change requires data, before and after, that define aspects of the condition that need improvement.  

 

The defined aspects of an A3 that we have adapted in the Henry Ford Production System are shown below. The left side describes the PLAN aspects of the current state problem, analysis with data, the target condition and the proposed solution while the right side defines actions of the proposed solution and the measured outcome (DO- CHECK and ACT). Our understanding of the ACT aspect of PDCA emphasizes standardization of the new work activities to sustain the improvement. 

This approach above leverages PDCA thinking repeatedly by incrementally moving toward successive targets of improvement through a process of testing many proposed interventions at the level of the work. This now is the basis or routine of problem solving in a continuous improvement culture as proposed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming in the 1950s who in turn borrowed the PDCA concept from Dr. Walter Shewhart, who originated it in the 1930s. As you can see, there is "nothing new under the sun." Just better approaches to execution as described in the many academic texts elaborating on Toyota's production system.

 

The typical questions you would ask yourself and share as a team to derive a plan in PDCA based change are described below.

Now, I’m asking you to borrow all of these concepts and truly integrate them into your own process of problem solving with your teams. Here, practice makes perfect, as this is not a natural means of problem solving and not rapid initially by any stretch when leveraging a team and root cause analyses. But you will get faster with time.

 

Just some thoughts as we tackle the challenges of 2022 together, one piece at a time.

 

So, blind us with science this year!

 

 

References:

1. Liker J. The Toyota Way. 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.

2. Ohno T. Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production. Portland, OR: Productivity Press; 1988 

3. Rother M. Toyota Kata. Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.

4. Spear SJ, Bowen HK. Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System. Harvard Bus Rev. September 1, 1999:96-106

Next WWQ: Lesson #11 – Deviation Management