Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

When W. Edwards Deming modified Walter A. Sherhart's original Plan, See and Do method of managing; changing it to Plan, Do, Study, and Act (PDSA), he made a tremendous breakthrough in Total Quality Management (TQM). At first America resisted it and it was brought to the Japanese who embraced it and helped them to bring top-quality products to the marketplace in a relatively short time.

In our current business practices, there are some that think this way of doing things is obsolete, but I don't agree with that conclusion.

Here are the four steps that Deming encouraged:

1. Plan - Look ahead and plan for change, project what you see the results as being

2. Do - Execute the plan, in a controlled atmosphere take small steps forward

3. Study - This was another way of saying that we must check and measure the results

4. Act - Once we measure results, then we take action by adjusting to improve the process

This is a simple system that will always work.

So why bring it up? There is only one glitch that could happen with this system, as it can happen with all systems: We've got to be working on the right thing.

The difference between today and the past is the speed at which things are changing. So we could build a fantastic, terrific product that nobody wants.

One of the great challenges of management is to make sure we're working on the right things in our businesses. That's the reason why some people think that the above formula doesn't work anymore because people are working on the wrong things, so it's assumed the process is no longer relevant to today's workplace. That's wrong thinking and understanding.

The whole issue is getting the product choice right. At that time the process of development will work all the time. The key is to make sure it's continuous improvement, and not something that just stands still.