Problem Solving with PDCA

Posted by adi on Jan 2, 2009 in Default

The PDCA cycle, otherwise known as the Deming Cycle, was created by American statistician W. Edwards Deming.  Deming was instrumental in the revitalisation of Japanese business after the second world war and also helped to popularise Total Quality Management (TQM).

The PDCA cycle consists of four stages:

1. Plan
2. Do
3. Check
4. Act

1. Planning

What is the current situation?  What objective do you want to achieve?  How can this be done and what processes will be required?

2. Do

Implementation of the new processes.

3. Check

Measure the new processes and check against the previous results.

4. Act

Analyse these results and determine what action to take as a result.

Benefits of using the PDCA Cycle

• Daily routine management-for the individual and/or the team,
• The problem solving process,
• Project management,
• Continuous development,
• Vendor development,
• Human resources development,
• New product development, and
• Process trials.
  

Tags: Human resources, New product development, Project and Program Management, project management, Total Quality Management

Gaining support for your project using Nemawashi

Posted by adi on Jan 2, 2009 in Default

Gaining consentual support for your project can make or break it, yet it is a topic that is often overlooked.  In Japanese business they use Nemawashi to build support for a project.

Nemawashi literally translates as “going around the roots” so that a bonsai tree can be transported without dying.  No Nemawashi = a failed project.

If you think about how proposals are typically handled in British companies.  Often the person with the idea will gather people in a room and deliver a presentation about his idea, with the aim of persuading the bosses present there and then.

By contrast the Japanese approach involves Nemawashi to consult with people prior to making a proposal.  This consentual approach means that when the proposal is formally put to management it is often a simple matter of rubber stamping it because everyone is already so familiar with the idea at hand.

So can I use Nemawashi?

Fortunately utilising Nemawashi is very straightforward.

1. Take an A3 piece of paper and include the following pieces of information on it:

• The current situation
• Proposal
• Costs
• Plan
• Implementation
• Controls
• Time line

This is your project document and it broadly follows the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) approach.

2. Discuss this document with people. Doing this in person is best but online collaboration tools are common now so online is feasible too.  Don’t limit input from people solely within your department.  Diversity of opinion is crucial.

3. Rewrite the project document. By now your document is less a proposal and more a summary of the collective thoughts of your company.  It’s worth keeping hold of the orignal to note the changes that have been made.  This is a great tool for persuading others to use Nemawashi until doing so becomes second nature.

4. Meet formally to support the project. With the prior consultation out of the way you should have achieved excellent support for your project, so this meeting should not take very long.

That’s pretty much it.  The following are some benefits of using Nemawashi.

Benefits of using Nemawashi

1. You will have a better understanding of the current condition as people challenge the initial assumptions and results of root cause analysis

2. It creates ownership for the project because others have had a chance to influence and shape it. People support what they create.

3. Time waste in meetings is eliminated or replaced with time doing nemawashi.

Tags: Bonsai, Nemawashi, pdca, project, support

6 steps to prepare for meetings

Posted by adi on Jan 2, 2009 in Default

I’m sure we’ve all been to meetings where little seemed to be achieved and the whole process appeared to be a general waste of everyones time.  Try following these 6 simple steps and your meetings will be transformed into productive decision making exercises.

1. Establish clear objectives prior to the meeting. Most meetings have agendas but you need to make sure that your agenda is very focused on clear tasks and deliverables.
2. Ensure the right people are present. If you need certain personnel in your meeting then make sure they are there.  It is easy now to use tools like Outlook to schedule meetings and alert participants in advance.
3. Make sure that each participant is prepared. Each participant in the meeting is there for a reason, ie to put forward views based on their expertise.  Get them to prepare properly for the meeting so that their input is precise and relevant to the objectives.
4. Use visual aids effectively. Limiting all communications to an A3 piece of paper forces participants to only use what is strictly neccessary and encourages the use of visual aids.
5. Seperate information sharing from decision making. Share information with participants before the meeting as much as possible.  This then frees up the meeting itself for problem solving and decision making.
6. Make sure that the meeting starts and ends on time.
   

Tags: Agenda, decision making, Information sharing, Meeting