Making any decision is never trouble-free. It requires an organized thought process and critical thinking at its very finest to achieve the desired results. Decision-making is so complex in nature and there are many tools and techniques to come up with a good decision. After all, different scenarios require different decision-making techniques. One of which will be discussed is the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle.
Identifying problems and solving them are important skills for managers, who are faced with dilemmas that require judgments everyday. According to De Janasz, Dowd, and Schneider (2002),
Organizational problems come in many forms--whether in processes (how managers lead, how employees communicate, how work flows, how conflicts are solved, how employees deal with customers or suppliers) or outcomes (inadequate or unsatisfactory products or services, excessive employee absenteeism or turnover, insufficient profit margins). Problems such as these can significantly hamper an organization's ability to operate and succeed long term.
Problem Solving PDCA
PDCA (aka the Deming Cycle, Shewhart cycle, or Dem...
English: Plan-Do-Check-Act Deming circle, also kno...To solve organizational problems effectively requires an
appropriate mindset--viewing problems as opportunities or challenges and looking for
solutions as opposed to placing blame, as well as developing skills in problem solving--a
disciplined approach to defining the problem and identifying and implementing
appropriate solutions.... With that in mind ... you set out to figure out what caused the errors that have been serving to dissatisfy your customers (De Janasz et al., p. 396).
Although there are plenty of tools and techniques that can be used to hinder solving problems, only one will be discussed in this paper.
The concept of the PDCA Cycle was originally developed by Walter Shewhart, the pioneering statistician who developed statistical process control in the Bell Laboratories in the US during the 1930's. It is often referred to as `the Shewhart Cycle'. It was taken up and promoted [in Japan] very effectively from the 1950s on by...