Kaizen via Plan-Do-Check-Act – PDCA (Shewart cycle)
Why organizations should use it? To diagnose problems, create awareness and education, draw roadmaps and lead implementation.
How organizations should use it? Through small incremental steps, according to Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, by performing little things better and setting/achieving higher standards.
What is it for? Continuous incremental improvement process.
PDCA steps, for Kaizen, are composed of:
- Plan: Definition of the problem, documentation of the current situation, visualization of the ideal situation, definition of the measurement targets, brainstorming of solutions to the problem
- Do: Development and implementation of kaizen plans
- Check: Measurement, recording and comparison of results compared to targets, preparation of summary documents
- Act: Creation of short term action plans and on-going standards