PDCA ON DISPLAY
When we see an athlete perform at the Olympics, we are looking at someone who has become intimately familiar with plan-do-check-act (PDCA) in its simplest form.
Each Olympian has measured every possible aspect of his or her ability to perform. Each has done everything in his or her power to improve in an effort to be the best. It’s not only the drive to win that makes them winners, it’s the effective application of PDCA. To win, they can’t just want to be better, they need to be better. Every Olympic event is PDCA in action and under pressure to deliver.
Like the songs says, “I get knocked down, but I get up again.” When we look at an Olympian, we see someone who has been knocked down a lot. They’re Olympians because they keep getting up again. They don’t quit when they fall down, instead, they improve. Over and over and over and over and over again. And then they win.
It’s what you do after you fall down that shows the color of your mettle. Gold, silver, and bronze are just colors of medals at the Olympics. Look at the ice skaters and half-pipers whose falls took them out of medal contention, yet while knowing that still showed us amazing performances. The true colors of these athletes are brighter than the shiniest medals on the podium.
On a different global stage, a different kind of fall has happened, though it’s not as visible as in ice skater landing on his rear end. It’s not just a single athlete that has fallen, but an entire community of professionals—those involved with ISO 9001. Many in this community latched onto a bad idea right out of the gates with the release of ISO 9001. Now seemingly a global case of group-think, many in the ISO 9001 business have fallen for a bad idea but they don’t know it.
GLORY AFTER THE FALL
This problem is alive and well today is due to a misinterpretation arising shortly after ISO 9001 was released back in 1987. Many in the ISO 9001 business have been laboring under a misunderstanding of the standard for years. These folks have unwittingly been harming ISO 9001 and quality management for decades due to this common, simple misunderstanding. A tenacious adherence to, and promotion of, a bad interpretation of ISO 9001 has resulted in a miserable experience for many organizations. This problem hasn’t been good for ISO 9001 or the quality management profession, either.
More information about this problem itself can be found here:
- Quality Insider Column, “A QMS Designed for Results” (re: process approach), Quality Digest, Jan. 2014
http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-column/qms-designed-results.html
- Feature Article “Is ISO 9001 Working?” (re: process approach / ISO 9001 effectiveness), CERM® (Certified Enterprise Risk Management) Risk Insights eMagazine, #29, Oct. 2013
https://insights.cermacademy.com/2013/10/29-is-iso-9001-working-t-dan-nelson/
- Feature Article, “Abolishing the Standard-Based Mind-set with ISO 9001” (re: process approach),
SAQI (The South African Quality Institute), e-Quality Edge, No. 171, Sept. 2013
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9JfgnGKRwahTXRCMHlzdlUtUTg/edit?usp=sharing
BAD TASTE IN QMS DESIGN
Organizations have developed a taste for the canned, macro solutions of a standard-based mindset. Here’s an example of a standard-based, macro solution: one book full of pre-written procedures based upon the clauses and sub-clauses of the standard, a book intended for use by companies all over the world to ‘get ISO certified.’ Or, almost as bad, a book that provides only a clause-by-clause analysis of what the standard requires in explanation of how to implement quality management. These solutions urge users to view quality management through the lens of ISO 9001 requirements.
Sure, it’s easy for an ISO 9001 consultant to come up with one set of documents to answer each requirement of ISO 9001. But these macro solutions are at the very crux of the problem with understanding and applying a process approach. It’s these type of macro solutions that foster, and clearly promote, a standard-based mind-set that has brought quality to its current confused state.
Victory after a fall is somehow more glorious, coming from behind, beating the odds, or rising up after all fall to succeed. Those who improve and get up again will be rewarded. Those who abandon the standard-based mindset that has so pervaded the ISO 9001 industry for decades will help clear the way for the quality revolution to move forward. Those who promote the process approach will start to bring glory to Deming, Shewhart, ISO 9001, and quality management.
A NEW MARKET FOR QUALITY PROFESSIONALS
The upcoming revision of ISO 9001:2015 will again clarify and emphasize the requirement to apply a process approach to quality management because most certified organizations fail to understand and apply the process approach. They hurt themselves as a result, misapplying the standard as a routine part of their business.
Professionals involved with ISO 9001 who cling to a standard-based mindset, refusing to rise above their current understanding, will be left behind. Macro, standard-based solutions should no longer pass muster after release of the 2015 standard, so the market for those standard-based solutions should dry up and blow away.
So, we may see a distinction arise with emergence of a new market: ISO 9001 professionals on one hand, and quality management professionals on the other. Here’s a litmus test to determine which is which:
- ISO 9001 professionals seek to systematically implement ISO 9001 in organizations; quality management professionals seek to systemically implement PDCA in organizations.
- ISO 9001 professionals allow an understanding of ISO 9001 to serve also as an understanding of quality management; a quality management professionals understands that quality management precedes ISO 9001 and does not arrive with it.
- ISO 9001 professionals arrive at organizations telling management what their procedures are, based upon an understanding of ISO 9001; a quality management arrives asking management what their procedures are, based upon management’s understanding of their own processes.
- An ISO 9001 professional views a procedure as something to answer a requirement of ISO 9001; a quality management professional views a procedure as a plan, pursuant to the P in PDCA.
QUALITY PROFESSIONALS DAY IN THE SUN
Once the process approach is understood, demand for micro solutions should explode. An effective QMS cannot be defined by a one-size-fits-all set of documents designed to address ISO 9001 requirements. While macro solutions intend to shoehorn each management system into a pre-defined solution, micro solutions tailor definition of each management system to fit comfortably.
Organizations and their management systems are as unique as people are. Each QMS represents a specific context in which ISO 9001 will be applied, so each requires individual attention. Defining a sensible management system requires tailoring, not shoehorning. This demand for individual QMS attention will require many, many quality professionals who understand the process approach and how to apply it. Those who rise to the occasion—getting up after being knocked down—will do well in the new market. Those who don’t, won’t.
The world will be watching as ISO 9001 practitioners and leadership in the quality management field respond to this quality problem in their own industry. This quality failure has provided the circumstances under which astute quality professionals will shine. Quality professionals who understand and promote a process approach to quality management will be the next generation of management heroes.
Bio:
T. D. (“Dan”) Nelson is a quality management consultant, author, and trainer specializing in the process approach, ISO 9001, and related sector schemes. Dan has roughly 20 years of experience with ISO 9000 and over 15 years’ experience with the process approach. Dan holds an MA in Business Administration from the University of Iowa. Dan can be reached at:
dan@tdnelson.com
319.210.2642