PDCA concept

The continual improvement process the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) concept... 

The standard is built on the well-known Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) process for continual improvement. Understanding the PDCA concept is necessary to effectively implement the standard. A brief review of the concept is given in Chapter 2, The Plan-Do-Check-Act Concept (PDCA). In ZlO s Introduction, there is a chart based on the PDCA concept. A slightly reduced form of the chart is presented at the beginning of each of the standard s major sections. That version is shown in Chapter 2. 

Similar continual improvement charts, based on the PDCA concept, are shown in the ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9000-2000 series, the Quality Management Systems Standards. The ISO 14000 series on environmental management was revised in 2004 to make it compatible with the ISO 9000 series. It is also based on the PDCA concept. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests building an environmental management system on a PDCA model. 

The writers of ANSI7AIHA ZlO-2005, the Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) Standard, emphasized that the OHSMS continual improvement cycle [is] based on the recognized quality concept of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). A depiction of the PDCA concept appears at the beginning of each of the Scope, Purpose, Application, and Definitions sections. Figure 1 duplicates that depiction. 

However, little information is provided on the PDCA concept and applying it in problem-solving initiatives undertaken for continual improvement. Thus, this chapter will ... 

Relate the PDCA concept to basic problem-solving techniques. 

Deming became world-renowned for his successful approaches to quality management. Deming s depiction of The Shewhart Cycle predates all other diagrams this author has been able to locate that are comparable to what is now known as the PDCA concept. 

Walter A. Shewhart was a Bell Laboratories scientist and friend and mentor of Deming. Shewhart is credited with having developed a Statistical Process Control Method in the late 1920s. Thus, the origin of the PDCA concept lies in statistical process control, a methodology developed to address the need for improvement in product quality. The emphasis of the PDCA concept with respect to product quality applications is process control and continual improvement. That is also the case in ZIO. The words process and processes and the phrase continual improvement appear in ZIO over 60 times. 

So, PDCA is a concept, cycle, procedure, flow diagram, process, model, and methodology—all for continual improvement. To relate directly to ZIO and the work of safety professionals who give counsel on its implementation, and striving for simplicity, I offer the following definition The PDCA concept is a sound problem-solving and continual improvement model. 

Throughout ZIO, there is frequent repetition of the premise that the organization shall establish and implement processes [emphasis added] to ensure that the elements of the OHSMS are established and implemented. In accord with the PDCA concept, ZIO is a process standard. 

The emphasis given to processes is appropriate and important. Having effective processes—that is, management systems—is necessary in the fulfillment of the PDCA concept. Furthermore, stressing the need for effective processes appropriately puts the focus in determining causal factors for injuries and illnesses on the adequacy or inadequacy of the processes, that is, the management systems. 

Each process is interdependent on the other for the overall management system to achieve its goals, hi the application of the PDCA concept, the impact that making a change in one process may have in another process must be considered. Deming addresses the interdependence of processes in Die New Economics, as follows ... 

The aim of the OHSMS, in accord with the PDCA concept, is clearly established To provide a management tool to reduce the risk of occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Each continual improvement process is an integral part of the system... 

Entering Plan-Do-Check-Act into a search engine on the Internet will bring up thousands of variations of the PDCA concept. There are so many adaptations of the PDCA concept because, through its use, it has proven to be a sound problem-solving and continual improvement model. However, there is a major difference in the literature on the PDCA concept and the literature on age-old, problem-solving techniques. The literature on PDCA seems to concentrate a great deal more on processes and the theme of continual improvement. 

RELATING PDCA CONCEPTS TO BASIC PROBLEM-SOLVING TECHNIQUES... 

A search for easily available literature on the PDCA concept that would be helpful to safety professionals, and particularly smaller and medium sized organizations, was not overly fruitful. However, publications of the U.S. ERA on developing Environmental Management Systems (EMS) provide good conceptual information for managers and safety professionals who are about to adopt the PDCA concept. 

In applying either the problem-solving methodology or the PDCA concept to prevent injuries and illnesses, the process is as follows. 

To repeat, the only important difference in the literature on the PDCA concept in relation to the writings on age-old, problem-solving techniques is that more emphasis is given in the PDCA literature to continual improvement of processes. 

That ZIO is a process and continual improvement standard cannot be said enough. Improvements in the processes, as the PDCA concept is applied, are to address the OHSMS issues. Those issues are defined in the standard as Hazards, risks, management systems deficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. ... 

Giving due recognition to the emphasis in the standard on PDCA processes and continual improvement, this author nevertheless believes that safety professionals who are schooled in basic problem-solving techniques can take comfort in knowing that they need make only minor adjustments in their thinking to adapt to the PDCA concept. 

The organization has been certified with respect to the ISO 9000 (quality) and ISO 14,000 (environmental) standards. The management staff is familiar with the PDCA concept and welcomes with enthusiasm that the proposals being made to achieve continual improvement in the safety management systems are in accord with their PDCA applications. Even then, a few successful hands-on demonstrations that lead to process improvements related to hazards, risks, and deficiencies in the safety management system will be beneficial. 

The starting point in undertaking a continual improvement initiative can be as narrow as addressing a particular hazard or as broad as installing a process that does not exist (e.g., risk assessment.) Two real-world indicators of micro and macro applications of the PDCA concept follow ... 

The drafters of ZIO did weU in basing the Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Standard on the PDCA concept. Doing so makes the standard compatible with other internationally accepted standards and facilitates melding the provisions in ZIO with other business practices. 

In every problem-solving method reviewed, the first steps are to identify and analyze the problem. Also, they end with a provision requiring that evaluations be made of the effects of the actions taken. Figure 1, The Safety Decision Hierarchy, presents a logical sequence of actions that safety professionals should consider in resolving safety issues identify and analyze the problem consider the possible solutions decide on and implement an action plan and determine whether the actions taken achieved the intended risk reduction results. Note that such a sequence of actions also fits weU with the PDCA concept. 

In applying the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) concept with respect to occupational health and safety management, after the issues (hazards, risks, management system deficiencies, and opportunities for improvement) are identified and analyzed, and solutions for improvement are developed and implemented, the next step is to evaluate the results and take remedial action when shortcomings have been found. That sequence is shown in the following depiction of the PDCA process ... 

In accord with the PDCA concept, the overriding theme of the Management Review is to achieve continual improvement. Thus, the development of action items for improvement in the review process, and foUow through, is vital. 

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