Re: PDSA - proposed operational definition

[Aetilden@aol.com]

This is the third revision of my original definition and is based on feedback 
from the following:
Frank Voehl
Al Viswanathan
Myron Tribus
Del Nelson
Wayne Mack
Walter Prevalnig
Anton Tolman
Bob Mason
Jim Clauson
Richard Zultner

Thank you all for the good feedback. I've incorporated your feedback, and the 
new definition, thus far, is as follows:

(Begin Definition) 
"BACKGROUND:
PDSA refers to the process of continual improvement and learning proposed by 
Walter Shewhart and espoused by W. Edwards Deming. The letters stand for 
Plan, Do, Study, and Act. Dr. Deming introduced Dr. Shewhart's 'Cycle' to the 
Japanese in 1950, and the Japanese English translation became Plan, Do, 
Check, Action which was changed to Plan, Do, Check, Act in the United States 
for reasons of grammar. Dr. Deming, upon hearing this translation of what he 
had taught the Japanese, said that the definition of 'check' was 'to hold 
back,' which was not what he had intended the step to be. He suggested 
several terms, but 'study' seemed to stick. The PDSA Cycle is also referred 
to as the "Deming Cycle" in honor to the man who introduced it to so many 
people in government, business and educaton.

DEFINITION - BASIC PDSA:
PLAN - Plan ahead for any change. Analyze the current situation and potential 
impacts of the change before doing anything. This is the important process of 
"prediction" and postulating a theory. Think ahead about what to measure to 
determine if you are achieving your purpose and plan to include measurements 
as part of the execution.  Do not leave thinking about what to measure until 
a later stage. Develop an implementation plan, and staff it fully with all 
process owners. Ask the following questions ("The Five Ws and an H"):
1. WHO does this plan impact (specifically, with what presumed or required 
characteristics or qualifications)?
2. WHAT is the purpose of the interface/relationship? WHAT are we trying to 
accomplish? WHAT change can we make that will result in improvement? 
(Whichever question is appropriate).
3. WHY does this support the end purpose of the system (i.e. 'vision')?
4. WHERE will this take place (addressing all characteristics of the intended 
location from parking to power to how many inches from the wall, etc.)?
5. WHEN is it to occur (i.e. earliest start/end, latest start/end, 
sequence/timing of steps/sub-processes)?
6. HOW - a step by step procedure to convert any and all system/process 
inputs to all system outputs. HOW will we know that the change is an 
improvement?

DO -Try the change on a small scale under controlled circumstances (i.e. 
experiment or prototype first).

STUDY- Analyze the results of your experiment. What do the data tell you 
about the effectiveness of the test?

ACT - Take action to STANDARDIZE the process that produced the results you 
desired. This is where we 'mistake-proof' the process to limit special cause 
variation.

DEFINITION - NESTED PDSA:
Also referred to as "wheel-within-a-wheel," the nested PDSA process involves 
doing PDSA as part of each PDSA step. In other words, within the Plan step we 
have PDSA - the need to Plan the Plan, Do the Plan, Study the Plan, and Act 
on the Plan. Each PDSA step would have a PDSA process "nested" within. 
Another analogy is a "wheel-within-a-wheel." This makes the PDSA Cycle a 
three-dimensional process. The Five Ws and an H should also be asked at each 
step in the nested PDSA cycle.

The Deming Cycle is typically depicted as a circle with PLAN at the 12 
O'clock or North position, DO at the 3 O'clock or East position, STUDY at the 
6 O'clock or South position, and ACT at the 9 O'clock or West position. It 
may also be depicted as a circle divided into quadrants - PLAN upper right, 
DO lower right, STUDY lower left, and ACT upper left. The process steps 
proceed clockwise in order. The Nested PDSA cycle can be considered as four 
separate mini-PDSA Cycles associated with each of the basic PDSA steps. One 
may visualize mini-PDSA Cycles inside or outside of the larger cycle adjacent 
to each step (two-dimensional), or above each step of the larger cycle 
(three-dimensional).

The starting point of PDSA depends on where you are in the improvement 
process. If a process already exists then you would probably start 
incremental improvement at the STUDY step where you observe the need for 
further change (SAPD). Breakthrough improvement might start at the ACT step 
where some unexpected event acts on the process and causes us to plan for 
either eliminating the event if undesirable or institutionalizing the event 
if desirable (APDS). In fact, where you start in the cycle is not as 
important as the cycle itself. Nevertheless, the Planning step is undoubtedly 
the most important step. Regardless of where you start the process remember 
that "Proper prior planning prevents particularly poor performance" (P to the 
7th power).

The PDSA Cycle repeats itself continuously - there is no ending point - and 
thus is the basis of true 'Continuous Improvement.' This repetition is 
experienced in both the basic cycle as well as the nested, or 
"wheel-within-a-wheel" cycle.

EXAMPLE:
An example of the PDSA Cycle that many people can relate to would be that of 
a person doing target practice with a gun or bow:
1. Plan - Ready/Aim
2. Do - Fire
3. Study - Count the holes and analyze their positioning on the target
4. Act - Adjust your sights

An expert marksman is continuously improving the process. An expert marksman 
who is also adept at the Deming Cycle would also be working on improving each 
step of the PDSA Cycle (i.e. Study the holes in the target with the use of a 
telescope along with wind, humidity and barometric pressure measurements).

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT:
As PDSA should be used in the continuous improvement of all processes, so too 
should it be applied to this definition. Please submit any recommended 
changes to the Deming Electronic Network (DEN) at 
den.list@deming.ces.clemson.edu ." 
(End Definition)

Ed Tilden
TQL Associates
Aetilden@aol.com, and
Atilden@unum.com 
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