PDCA - The Magic Mantra

During the course of our work, interactions with the seniors and during various training programmes, we come across several management concepts & tools that can help us to do more, contribute more and to achieve more. ‘PDCA – Plan, Do, Check and Act’ is one of the most powerful and effective concepts that I have come across. All of us apply this concept in many areas of our day to day life but mostly in an unsystematic manner and not everywhere.

Like most, I came across this term during the training on Quality Management System ISO 9000. But I did not realize the applicability of this principle in all walks of life. It was during my 6 weeks’ training at IIM, Bangalore in 2010, that I realized how powerful this concept is and how it can be used to improve our effectiveness in almost all areas..

This concept of PDCA can be used for managing daily activities, weekly schedules and monthly or annual or even long term strategic plans. It can be used by individuals, families, communities, cities, states countries, departments, divisions and companies. It can be used by employees, supervisors, managers, leaders, professionals, businessmen, students, housewives and so on. Wherever we desire a performance producing a specific result, this concept can be utilized to enhance the probability of success.

Its effectiveness is most visible and critically required in the areas of work, finance and career. It can help streamline the working & operations, reduce mis-communication & confusions, minimize mistakes & rework, improve the results produced and improve efficiency by considerably reducing the effort required to achieve the results.

Coincidentally, I have seen very few individuals applying this much needed concept on regular or long term basis. If I were to rate the 2 biggest weaknesses in the working professionals and students today, it will be limited knowledge / information and poor analytical skills. Both these things are essential for applying the PDCA concept effectively.

Even the people who know about this concept and preach about it also fail to apply it to their work quite often. I have noticed an overwhelming majority of people, out of their sincerity, rushing in to action directly the moment they take up a task. It is difficult to assess whether they are doing all the activities needed to accomplish the task, whether they are moving in the correct sequence, whether they are progressing at the right pace and whether what they are doing will actually produce the desired result.

The outcome of this haphazard working is under performance, non achievement of results or inordinate delays therein; lots of goof ups and rework, resultant heart burns & discord and huge amount of wastages.

Is it so critical to follow PDCA concept in everything we do?

In my opinion, YES. Only, the intensity and detail of planning and review (check) will vary as per the criticality of the result expected. Also the intensity will be more when we are doing something for the first time. Once the complete process is understood, implemented and stabilized, it can be done more easily or simply for subsequent repeat activities. The rigorousness will again be higher if the activity is being repeated after a long gap.

Let us now look at this process in bit detail and see its application in various areas of our life

Plan

This is the most vital part of this process and least practiced

The first step of planning is having a clear idea of the goal (s) to be achieved. The short, medium and long term objectives and milestones vary in line with the long term goals. PDCA for a high school student aspiring to graduate top 10 institutes of the world will be different from that for those aspiring to study in IIT or NIT or a normal engineering college or a simple BSc. Likewise, PDCA for 20% growth per annum will be different from 10% or 5%. PDCA for a startup will be different from a established global enterprise.

Very few people know how to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable and Time bound) goals. In my opinion, every person, high school onwards, must be trained in goal setting and planning.

Once the goals, objectives and milestones are set, we have to do internal and external analysis. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is the most commonly used method for that. It is always confusing whether opportunities and threats in the external environment decide what is our internal strength & weakness or is it vice versa. 

Thus, a good way would be to evaluate the external and internal situations first independently and then correlate them iteratively to arrive at the final analysis. The effectiveness of the analysis depends largely upon the depth and clarity of the information we have. Further, we must be able to extrapolate the trends and assess the impact of current situation and anticipated changes. This requires reasonable knowledge about the topic and its interfaces with the other aspects.

Once the analysis is done, next comes the formulation of action plan. The action plans usually involve 4 aspects.

1.    How to utilize our strengths to capitalize the opportunities and how to enhance our more relevant strengths?

2.    How to minimize or eliminate our weaknesses or how to prevent / counter the negative impacts of the residual weaknesses?

3.    How to capitalize the available opportunities and how to enrich the existing or create new opportunities?

4.    How to minimize or eliminate the threats or how to prevent / counter the negative impacts of the residual threats?

This is what can also be called as Strategy once prioritization, timelines & resource estimation are also added the plan.

In some cases, I have observed people equating planning or strategy with conspiracy. This creates a big mental block for them and they prefer to take on things as they come. This equivalence needs to be challenged and eliminated.

Do (Action)

This is where most plans fail. In many organizations, people responsible for planning are different from those responsible for executing them. This is a perfectly acceptable arrangement. But it would be wise to involve the executors in preparing and fine tuning the plans to gain from their execution experience. Plus this will instill some sense of involvement and ownership in them.

It requires full commitment and discipline to implement a plan, whether developed by self or someone else, consistently and persistently. All actions do not produce instant or visible result. Many times, lack of action has more noticeable effect rather than taking the action. The implementors or executors must not get disheartened by that. Absolute results carry no meaning by themselves. It is the ‘actual v/s plan’ that is more important and better indicator of the success.

Repetitive or long duration actions can bring in boredom, de-motivation or complacence. Proper care needs to be taken to avoid these.

Check (Review)

Proper check points must be incorporated in the plan itself along with review frequency and responsible reviewers. Proper & timely review can identify deviations, constraints and mistakes early enough to avoid significant damages or failures. Delay in identification can make correction more difficult and costly.

The executors / implementors must review on their own also before it being reviewed by people more senior and experienced than them.

It is like attempting sample test papers before writing an exam.

Act (Improve)

Slower progress or insufficient results can be either because of improper planning or incorrect execution. This can also be due to insufficient resources, lack of enough competence or inadequate processes.

Once the cause of under achievement is identified, immediate corrective action needs to be taken to bring the activity back on track or control the damage. Suitable amendments must be done in the strategy, plan, process, procedure, activity or review mechanism, as applicable, to prevent recurrence of the mistake or failure.

The effectiveness of the Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA) many be visible immediately or at the next review. Depending upon the severity of under-performance, next review may be held earlier than originally planned.

Overall, PDCA is an iterative process to be continued till the desired goals are achieved.