Queens College

School of postgraduate studies

PROJECT RISK
MANAGEMENT
MPM622

Tsegaye A, Ph.D. Cand.

2023 G.C

1
 CHAPTER ONE

BASIC CONCEPTS OF
PROJECT QUALITY

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 1.1.Quality concepts & Myths
1.1.1. Overview of Quality Concepts
 Quality is the totality of features and characteristics
of a product or service that bear on its ability to
satisfy stated or implied needs.
 Some goals of quality programs include:
Fitness for use. (Is the product or service capable of being
used?)
Fitness for purpose. (Does the product or service meet its
intended purpose?)
Customer satisfaction. (Does the product or service meet
the customer's expectations?)
Conformance to the requirements. (Does the product or
service conform to the requirements?)

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Quality Management Processes
 Quality Planning
 Quality Assurance
 Quality Control

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Quality Planning
 The process of identifying which quality
standards are relevant to the project and
determining how to satisfy them.
 Input includes: Quality policy, scope statement,
product description, standards and regulations, and
other process Output.
Methods used: benefit / cost analysis, benchmarking,
flowcharting, and design of experiments
Output includes: Quality Management Plan,
operational definitions, checklists, and Input to other
processes.

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Quality Assurance
 The process of evaluating overall project
performance on a regular basis to provide
confidence that the project will satisfy the
relevant quality standards.
Input includes: Quality Management Plan,
results of quality control measurements, and
operational definitions.
Methods used: quality planning tools and
techniques and quality audits.
Output includes: quality improvement.

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Quality Control
 The process of monitoring specific project
results to determine if they comply with relevant
quality standards and identifying ways to
eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.
Input includes: work results, Quality Management
Plan, operational definitions, and checklists.
Methods used include: inspection, control charts,
pareto diagrams, statistical sampling, flowcharting,
and trend analysis.
Output includes: quality improvements, acceptance
decisions, rework, completed checklists, and process
adjustments

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1.1.2.Major Approaches & Contributors
to Quality and Quality Management
 Deming
 Juran
 Crosby
 TQM
 Six Sigma
 ISO 9000

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Edwards Demming on Quality
 Quality is an attribute of a product or service
that can only be defined by the customer.
 Because of this its meaning is relative
 Quality or lack of it is one of the outcomes of
the specific business process that produces a
product or service
 Quality is produced by proper execution of such
a process
 The job of quality management is to provide the
system and the leadership to facilitate such
proper execution

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Joseph M. Juran: Quality
 Quality is “fitness for use”
 Balance between product features and products
free from deficiencies
 Features must meet customer expectations
 Absence of deficiency is as essential as desired
features in producing customer satisfaction
 So the ultimate test of quality is fitness for use
by customers as reflected by customer
satisfaction

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Juran: The Trilogy of Quality
Management
 Quality Planning
developing a process to achieve goals involving
customer satisfaction
 Quality Control
holding onto gains, controlling variation,
preventing waste
 Quality Improvement
lowering cost of poor quality achieving
innovation in performance

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Philip B. Crosby: on Quality
 Conformance to requirements
 Must be defined in measurable terms and
expressed as a clear target
 Either present or not present
 The Cost of Quality (COQ) = Price of
Conformance (POC) + Price of Non-
Conformance (NPOC)
 POC is cost of getting things done right the first
time
 NPOC is the cost of waste

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Crosby: Four Absolutes of Quality
 Conformance to the requirements: This idea of
quality must be integrated into the enterprise
 The system of quality is prevention (eliminating
errors before they occur)
 The performance standard is zero defects
 The measure of quality is the PONC: the lower the
PONC the more widespread the quality
 These four absolutes must be attained through strong
discipline, complete leadership commitment,
substantial resource allocation for training, tools, and
appropriate personnel, and Crosby’s 14-step approach
to achieving conformance.

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Total Quality Management: Quality
 “We define quality as consistently producing
what the customer wants while reducing
errors before and after delivery to the
customer. More importantly, however,
quality is not so much an outcome as a never
ending process of continually improving the
quality of what your company produces.”
 Close derivative of Deming’s approach to
Quality

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Total Quality Management
 “A structured system for satisfying employees,
customers, and suppliers by integrating the business
environment, continuous improvement, and
breakthroughs with development, improvement, and
maintenance cycles while changing organizational
culture” .
Great emphasis on needs and requirements analysis
Uses a systems approach with strong emphasis on both
cultural and technological elements
Strong emphasis on prevention and role of
leadership
Closely related to Deming’s approach to QM

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Six Sigma: Quality
 The value added by a productive endeavour
 Potential quality is the maximum possible value
added per unit of input.
 Actual quality is the current value added per
unit of input
 The difference between the two is waste Six
Sigma is focused on reducing waste, cycle time,
defects, and those costs that do not add value
 Goal is virtually error-free performance

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Six Sigma: Key Elements
 Implements “proven” quality principles and and a select
few of the myriad QM techniques
 Performance is measured by the sigma level measure of
variability in the company’s business processes
 Uses a Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control
(DMAIC) model
 Define goals
 Measure existing system and processes
 Analyze (including stat analysis) & develop plan
closing gap
 Improve system (Use stat methods to validate)
 Control the new system by institutionalizing it through
new policies and rules

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Six Sigma: Implementation approach
 Senior leadership training in principles & tools for
organization success, followed by SLs directing development
of management infrastructure & innovation-friendly culture
supporting Six Sigma.
 Develop systems establishing close communication with
customers, employees, & suppliers. Includes rigorous
methods and ways of overcoming cultural, policy, and
procedural barriers
 Rigorously assess training needs, provide remedial basic
skills education, and comprehensive training in systems
improvement tools, techniques, and philosophies
 Develop framework for continuous process improvement
along with system of indicators for monitoring progress and
success.
 Projects for improving business performance linked to
measurable financial results.
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ISO 8402 and 9000: Quality and QM
 “The totality of characteristics of an entity that
bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied
needs” ISO 8402
 Quality management: activities performed to
formulate and implement policies and programs
intended to achieve quality.
 Examples:
quality planning,
quality control,
quality assurance, and
quality improvement

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ISO 9000: Eight Principles
 Customer Focus (on needs and requirements)
 Leadership (establish unity of purpose, direction,
environment for participation)
 Involvement of people (full)
 Process Approach (managing activities &
resources)
 Systems Approach to Management (of inter-related
processes)
 Continual Improvement (of processes and
performance)
 Factual Approach to Decision Making (analysis of
data/info)
 Mutually Beneficial supplier relationships
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1.1.3.Quality Concepts

 Do the Right Thing Right the First Time

(DTRTRTFT)
Implies that it is easier and less costly to do the work
right the first time than it is to do it the second time.
Entails the training of personnel to ensure sufficient
skills and tools to correctly complete the work.
 Continuous Improvement Process (CIP)
(From Japanese word, Kaizen)
A sustained, gradual change to improve the situation.
Differs from innovation -- does not make a sudden
jump to a plateau where it matures over time.

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Quality Concepts
 Zero Defects
Implies that there is no tolerance for errors within the system.
The goal of all processes is to avoid defects in the product or
service.
Similar to six sigma: almost zero defects
 The Customer is the Next Person in the Process
The internal organization has a system that ensures the
product or service is transferred to the next person in the
process in a complete and correct manner.
The product or service being built is transferred to another
internal party only after it meets all the specifications and all
actions at the current work station.
Avoids incorrectly assembled components and poor
workmanship.

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Cont’d
 Quality does not necessarily imply:
 Most expensive
Most sophisticated, most features
 Most reliable
 Good quality implies cost-effectiveness
and fitness for a specific intended purpose
 Quality is not the same as Grade
Grade is a rank or category of type of item e.g.
grades of steel include categories such as
stainless steels, tool steels, steels for pressure
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vessels, etc. 23
1.1.4. Myths on Quality Management

 Myth is “an unproved or false

collective belief that is used to
justify a social institution”.
 Why Talk about these?
Pride in Profession
Bring Clarity
 Establish realistic goals/objectives
 Don't waste your career
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1. Quality management systems require
excessive documentation and paperwork
Is This True?
 Many QMS failures come from organizations creating
documents that do not add value. This is often because
the organization incorrectly believes that the
management system is all about documents and
procedures.
 QMS ISO 9001:2008, requires only six documented
procedures, enough to provide transparency, structure,
and confidence to the organization, its customers, and
its employees. Beyond this, the number of documented
procedures depends upon the organization’s size, types
of activities, and operational needs.
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 Excessive documentation will, in fact, reduce the
management system’s value to the organization
and its customers and should be considered
counterproductive.
 An organization that adopts a QMS standard
should proceed with a focus on results and
practicality, not documents. The intent should be
to add bottom- line value to the organization and
its customers. The implemented management
system should become part of the day-to-day
operation of the organization.

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2. QMS don’t add value but it is only for customers want to have one

Is This True?
 Organizations that are not achieving value from their
management systems may not be clear on their true
purpose and may be just going through the motions.
 Management systems provide bottom-line cost savings
and improved profitability and performance through
embedded preventive practices.
 Organizations of any size performing activities of any
kind that are considering adopting a management system
standard can expect to see increased value to customers
and greater return on investment through appropriate
discipline and communication.

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3. Management systems are a net cost to my organization

Is This True?
 Excessive costs associated with management systems often come
from an organization’s failure to take ownership of the completed
management system. This is particularly true if there is a lack of
ownership on the part of top management.
 If you create a system that you are unwilling to work with on a
daily basis, it will provide little or no value, and, in fact, may be
a net cost to the organization.
 Preventing a problem is less expensive—and in many cases
much less expensive—than dealing with the consequences after a
problem occurs.
 If an organization implements a management system standard
and its net cost increases, the organization needs to examine and
reconsider its approach to implementing the management system.

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4. Management system standards do not allow my organization to be flexible and
innovative

Is This True?
 Management systems are written in a way that serves any
organization. If an organization has an inflexible management
system that ties the organizations hands, it is because the
management system was created that way.
 Careful decisions are required to balance the need for
discipline and structure on one hand and the need for
flexibility on the other.
 During management system implementation, the organization
will need to make decisions that allow it to remain flexible
where flexibility is important, while at the same time
providing enough structure to ensure good discipline where
discipline is needed.

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5. Management systems don’t help my business; in fact, they
distract my organization from its core activities

Is This True?
 This myth will almost certainly come true for organizations
that use a plug-and-play approach to implementing a
management system, instead of making sure documents and
practices fit their businesses.
 Organizations can avoid this problem by adopting
management system standards and implementing them in a
manner that fulfills its needs and the needs of its customers
and stakeholders.
 Organizations that recognize this and live by their
management systems on a daily basis will achieve benefits
that greatly exceed any cost or effort.
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6. Management system standards do not guarantee product quality

 Is This True?
 Nothing can absolutely guarantee product quality.
However, management systems can go a long way
toward preventing problems from occurring in the
first place, thus providing dramatic improvements in
results while reducing costs.
 While management systems do not assure absolute
results, the preventive steps embedded in
management systems will dramatically increase the
likelihood of consistent product and overall business
success.

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1.2. What is Project Quality
Management?
 Quality management, from the point
of view of project, will have another
dimension of the definition that
comes from various stakeholders and
sources.

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1.2.1. Identifying quality standards
 Identifying quality standards is a key component
of quality definition that will help identify the key
characteristics that will govern project activities and
ensure the beneficiaries and donor will accept the
project outcomes.
 Quality management implies the ability to anticipate
situations and prepare actions that will help bring
the desired outcomes.
 The goal is the prevention of defects through the
creation of actions that will ensure that the project
team understands what is defined as quality.

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1.2.2. Sources of Quality Definition in Projects

1. Donors
One source for definition of quality comes from the
donor;
The project must establish conversations with the
donor to be familiar with and come to a common
understanding of what the donor defines as quality.
The donor may have certain standards of what is
expected from the project, and how the project delivers
the expected benefits to the beneficiaries.
This is in line with the project’s ultimate objective that
the project outcomes have the ability to satisfy the
stated or implied needs.
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2. Beneficiary
Another source for quality definition comes from the
beneficiaries;
The project team must be able to understand how the
beneficiaries define quality from their perspective, a
perspective that is more focused on fitness for use, the
project outcomes must be relevant to the current needs
of the beneficiaries and must result in improvements to
their lives.
The project team can create, as part of the baseline data
collection, questions that seek to understand how the
beneficiaries define the project will meet their needs,
and a question that also helps define what project
success looks like from the perspective of a beneficiary.

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3. The Organization
 The development organization may have its
own quality standards that can reflect
technical and managerial nature of the project.
 The organization may require from the project
timely and accurate delivery of project
information needed for decision making, or
compliance to international or locally
recognized quality standards that define
specific technical areas of the project, this is
quite often in health, water and nutrition
projects.
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4.International standard(Sphere Standard)
A worldwide recognized standard for
project is the Sphere Standard
(www.sphereproject.org), used for
emergency projects whose aim is to improve
the quality of assistance provided to people
affected by disasters.
This guideline defines the minimum
standards for water, sanitation, health,
shelter, food security, nutrition, shelter and
settlement.

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1.2.3. Definition of Quality in projects

 The project manager and the team must identify what quality
standards will be used in the project, it will look at what the
donor, beneficiaries, the organization and other key
stakeholders to come up with a good definition of quality.
 In some instances the organization or the area of
specialization of the project (health, water or education) may
have some standard definitions of quality that can be used by
the project.
 Quality has been defined as "the totality of characteristics of
an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied
needs.”The stated and implied quality needs are the inputs
used in defining project requirements from the donor and the
beneficiaries.

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Project Quality definition
 A subset of project management that
includes the processes and activities of the
performing organization that determine
quality policies, objectives, and
responsibilities so that the project will
satisfy the needs for which it was
undertaken.

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 It is also defined as the “Conformance to
requirements or fitness for use”; which means
that the product or services must meet the
intended objectives of the project and have a
value to the donor and beneficiaries and that the
beneficiaries can use the material or service as it
was originally intended.
 The central focus of quality management is
meeting or exceeding stakeholder’s
expectations and conforming to the project
design and specifications.

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 The ultimate judge for quality is the beneficiary, and
represents how close the project outputs and deliverables come
to meeting the beneficiaries’ requirements and expectations.
 How a beneficiary defines quality may be completely subjective,
but there are many ways to make quality objective; by defining
the individual characteristics and determine one or more
metrics that can be collected to mirror the characteristic. For
instance, one of the features of a quality product may be that it
has a minimum amount of errors. This characteristic can be
measured by counting errors and defects after the product is
used.
 Therefore:
 Quality management is not an event - it is a process, a consistently high
quality product or service cannot be produced by a defective process.
 Quality management is a repetitive cycle of measuring quality,
updating processes, measuring, updating processes until the desired
quality is achieved.
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1.3. Project Characteristics/Attributes that bear on quality

1.3.1. Manufacturing attributes of Quality

1. Producibility (technology required)
 Ability of a product or service to be produced within the
existing technology, human resources, skills, knowledge,
and materials at a cost compatible with market
expectations.
 Producibility is one of the most critical aspects of
developing any new product.
2. Usability (effort expended to use)
 The ability of a product to perform its intended function
for the specified user under the prescribed conditions.
 Usability is determined by examining performance,
function and condition of a product.

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Cont’d
3.Reliability (MTBF)
 The degree to which a unit of equipment performs its
intended function under specified conditions for a
specified period of time.
 Computed by 2 methods of Mean-Time-Between-
Failure (MTBF):
Predicted MTBF: Based on a mathematical computation of a
component failure using a tree diagram to determine
sequential failure aspects of the component rated periods.
Least desirable method because it cannot account for
environmental variations that can degrade components to
lower rates.
Actual MTBF: Use of field collected data to compute the
failures under realistic operating conditions to find the
average time between failure. The actual reliability will
seldom be the same as the predicted reliability
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Cont’d
4. Maintainability (Mean-Time-To-Repair: MTTR)
 The ability of a unit to be restored within a specified
time to its performance capability under the
environmental operating conditions within a
specified, average period of time.
 Availability (Probability of performance)
 The probability of a product being capable of
performing a required function under the specified
conditions when called upon.
 The key parts of availability are reliability and
maintainability.
5.Operability (Expected conditional use)
 The ability of a product to be operated by human
resources for specified periods of time under given
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Cont’d
6. Flexibility (Expected variable use)
The ability of a product to be used for different purposes at
different capacities and under different conditions.
7. Social Acceptability (Environment and safety)
The degree of compatibility between the characteristics of a
product or service and the prevailing values and
expectations of the relevant society
The degree to which a public accepts a product for use.
8. Affordability (Return for quality required)
The ability to develop, acquire, operate, maintain, and
dispose of a product over its life.

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1.3.2. Service Attributes of Quality
1. Reliability
 It is the ability of the service or product to
perform as intended under normal conditions
without unacceptable failures.
 Material used for blood testing should be able
to provide the information in a consistent and
dependable manner that will help identify
critical diseases.
 The trust of the beneficiaries depend on the
quality of the tests

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Cont’d
2. Relevance
it’s the characteristic of how a product or
service meets the actual needs of the
beneficiaries, it should be pertinent,
applicable, and appropriate to its intended
use or application
3.Timeliness
how the service is delivered in time to solve
the problems when its needed and not after,
this is a crucial characteristic for health and
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emergency relief work 47
4.Suitability
the fitness of its use, it appropriateness and correctness, the
agriculture equipment must be designed to operate on the
soil conditions the beneficiaries will use it on.
5.Completeness
the quality that the service is complete and includes all the
entire scope of services. Training sessions should be
complete and include all the material needed to build a
desired skill or knowledge
6. Consistency
services are delivered in the same way for every
beneficiary. Clinical tests need to be done using the same
procedure for every patient.

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1.4.Quality and People in Project
Management
 Management defines type and amount of
work
 Management is 85% responsible for
quality
 The employee can only assume
responsibility for meeting the
requirements of completing the work
when the employee:
Knows what's expected to meet the
specifications
Knows how to perform the functions to meet
the specifications
Has adequate tools to perform the function
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Cont’d
 Project quality team consists of:
Senior Management
Project Manager
Project Staff
Customer/Client
Vendors, suppliers, and contractors
Regulatory Agencies

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1.5. Project Management Maturity Model

 In organizations where we have done assessments, we

have seen that the evolution of project management
typically lags behind development of other capabilities
within a company.
 It isn’t until the need for project management becomes
critical that organizations pay attention to improving the
project management skills within their organization.
organization.
 This lack of foresight frequently creates an environment
where the project management systems and
infrastructure are not in place to support the needs of the
practicing project management community.

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 There are a great number of interrelated
challenges to deal with in improving an
organization’s infrastructure:
Project managers aren’t getting the information they
need to manage effectively;
Management is not getting accurate forecasts of
completion data;
There is inconsistent understanding of expectations,
etc.

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Meaning of Project Maturity Level
It is alignment of an organization’s projects to
its strategic goals 3-domain structure: projects, programs,
portfolio;
3-phase implementation: knowledge, assessment,
improvement and;
five-step iterative cycle; level1upto level 5
It emphasizes assessment and continuous improvement,
and; the adoption and enhancement of best practices
The degree to which organizations practice this kind of
practice is referred to as project maturity.
Maturity is reflected by the combinations of best
practices achieved within the Project, Program and
portfolio
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domain. 55
Level 1: Initial Process

 Although there is a recognition that there are

project management processes, there are no
established practices or standards, and individual
project managers are not held to specific
accountability by any process standards.
 Documentation is loose and ad hoc.
 Management understands the definition of a
project, that there are accepted processes, and is
aware of the need for project management.
 Metrics are informally collected on an ad hoc
basis.
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Level 2: Structured Process and
Standards
 Many project management processes exist in
the organization, but they are not considered
an organizational standard.
 Documentation exists on these basic
processes.
 Management supports the implementation of
project management, but there is neither
consistent understanding, involvement, nor
organizational mandate to comply for all
projects.
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 Functional management is involved in the
project management of larger, more visible
projects, and these are typically executed in
a systematic fashion.
 There are basic metrics to track project cost,
schedule, and technical performance,
although data may be collected/correlated
manually.
 Information available for managing the
project is often a mix between summary-
level data and detail-level data

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Level 3: Organizational Standards and
Institutionalized Process
 All project management processes are in place and
established as organizational standards and these processes
involve the clients as active and integral members of the
project team.
 Nearly all projects use these processes with minimal
exception management has institutionalized the processes
and standards with formal documentation existing on all
processes and standards.
 Management is regularly involved in input and approval of
key decisions and documents and in key project issues.
 The project management processes are typically automated.
 Each project is evaluated and managed in light of other
projects.
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Level 4: Managed Process

 Projects are managed with consideration as to how

the project performed in the past and what is
expected for the future.
 Management uses efficiency and effectiveness
metrics to make decision regarding the project and
understands the impacts on other projects.
 All projects, changes, and issues are evaluated based
upon metrics from cost estimates, baseline estimates,
and earned value calculations.
 Project information is integrated with other corporate
systems to optimize business decisions.

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Cont’d
 Processes and standards are documented and in place
to support the practice of using such metrics to make
project decisions.
 Management clearly understands its role in the project
management process and executes it well, managing at
the right level, and clearly differentiating management
styles and project management requirements for
different sizes/complexities of projects.
 Project management processes, standards, and
supporting systems are integrated with other corporate
processes and systems.

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Level 5: Optimizing Process

 Processes are in place and actively used to improve

project management activities.
 Lessons learned are regularly examined and used to
improve project management processes, standards,
and documentation.
 Management and the organization are focused not
only on effectively managing projects but also on
continuous improvement.
 The metrics collected during project execution are
used not only to understand the performance of a
project but also for making organizational
management decisions for the future.
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 Many organizations will achieve
significant benefit by reaching
the repeatable process level area.
 In effect, a good model for the
measurement of project
management maturity creates a
strategic plan for moving project
management forward in an
organization.
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Project maturity Level implementation
phases
 There are three basic elements
and steps to apply project
maturity cycle in an
organization
Knowledge
Assessment
Improvement
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 Knowledge

 Maturity level is the first iteration of a

body of knowledge on the subject of
organizational project management and a
subset of the larger project management
body of knowledge.
 Because this standards will form the basis
of an organization’s maturity assessment,
familiarity with the contents of the
standard is essential.
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 Assessment

 In an assessment the organization uses an assessment

tool in relation to the body of best practices.
 This assessment process will help the organization
decide which best practice or groups of best practices to
investigate further either to
 Confirm competency in an area or to identify constituent
capabilities of one or more best practices that need
attention.
 Project Maturity cycle outlines how to conduct this
detailed investigation in the most helpful way for the
organization in the most helpful way for the
organization, through the use of Directories.

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 Improvement

 The results of the assessment will include a list of

capabilities not yet fully developed in the
organization.
 Maturity lifecycle provides guidance in placing these
in order of importance, and this sequence forms the
basis for any subsequent plans for improvement.
 The actual process of implementing improvements in
an organization, which may involve organizational
development, change management, restructuring,
retaining, and other initiatives, is beyond the scope of
this standard.

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 summary
 Implementation of Project maturity level is excellent for aligning an
organization’s strategic goals to its corresponding projects.
 It enables the organization to run projects more effectively and to
realize savings by identifying and eliminating projects that do not fit
the organization’s strategic goals.
 It also raises the disciplines of project management from an
administrative role to strategic planning functions, thereby
enhancing the prestige of project management in the organization.
 Furthermore, proactively using Project maturity level to feed the
strategic plan and set priorities helps an organization choose
methods and tools in a more informed fashion.
 Tools are therefore more effective, and chances of success and
progress are greatly increased.

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1.5. Continuous Improvement(CI)
Definition
 Continuous improvement, sometimes called continual
improvement, is the ongoing improvement of products,
services or processes through incremental and
breakthrough improvements.
 These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time
or "breakthrough" improvement all at once.
 Continuous improvement (CI) is an ongoing effort to
improve products, processes, or services by reducing
waste or increasing quality. This continuous effort drives a
competitive advantage for organizations that get it right but,
as with many things in life, consistency is not easy to
achieve.
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 Goal/Purpose of continuous
improvement
 Continuous improvement strives to
accomplish two main goals, namely,
streamline workflows and
 reduce waste.
 Together, these work to reduce costs
and optimize outputs, whether that
be the quality of a product or service
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 Four Principles of Continuous Improvement

Principle 1: Stop fixing and start

improving
Principle 2: The best practices are the
ones you already have
Principle 3: Changing behavior is more
important than changing processes
Principle 4: If you aren't failing, you
aren't trying
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key elements of continuous improvement

 Implementation of the continuous

improvement model works best when five
essential elements are included.
Goal Alignment
Employee Engagement
Control
Transparency
Recognition

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Management’s Role in Continual
Improvement
 Management can play the necessary
leadership role by doing the following:
Provide necessary moral and physical support.
Physical support comes in the form of resources
needed to accomplish the quality improvement
objectives.
Schedule periodic progress reviews and give
recognition where it is deserved.
Build continual quality improvement in the
regular reward system, including promotions and
pay increases.
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Continuous Improvement Tools and Methodologies

 The PDCA cycle

 Gemba Walks
 5 Why's
 Toyota kata Coaching from
Managers
 3M's – Muri, Mura, and Muda
 Continuous Improvement Software

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1.The PDCA Cycle

 PDCA is associated with Edwards Deming

 The PDCA cycle (short for plan, do, check, act) provides a
systematic approach to testing different ideas and
hypotheses.
 The framework gives front line teams a four-step guide for
executing incremental improvement practices. It enables
them to avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly.
 Some companies follow a slightly modified PDSA cycle,
where the S stands for ‘study’ instead of check.
 It facilitates continuous process improvement and
empowers employees to test ideas on a small scale. Over
time, this creates a culture of creativity and innovation
which is difficult for competitors to replicate
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PDCA stands for:

Plan – define your strategic goals and

how you’ll achieve them.
Do – implement the plan and make any
changes required to ensure it works.
Check/Study – evaluate the results and
identify opportunities for improvement.
Act – make adjustments based on what’s
found in the previous step.
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06/17/2024 78
Benefits of PDCA Cycle:
 Encourages the methodical way of problem solving
and implementing solutions.
 Ensures that you plan, test and incorporate feedback
before you start full-scale implementation. This
brings you closer to your goals as knowledge is
increased:
From solving problems.
From failures.
From the feedback received.
 Improves the critical thinking skills of your team.
 Helps to reach towards a more integrated system.

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2.Gemba Walks
 In business, Gemba refers to the place where
value is created and the general notion is that the
best improvement ideas will come simply from
going to the Gemba (’bottom-up’ vs. ‘top-
down’)
 The ‘Gemba Walk’ is an activity that takes
management to the front lines to look for waste
and opportunities a.k.a. to practice Gemba
Kaizen which is similar to the “western” concept
of MBWA (Management by Walking Around)

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What Gemba Is NOT
 Walking around without a purpose
 An opportunity to find fault in others
 A time for solving problems and making
changes
 By-passing middle management
 Participating or observing a daily or tier
management meeting
 One place that is not “Gemba” is a
manager’s desk
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Why the Gemba Walk?
 It helps to:
See what is happening
Instill discipline (e.g. standard work practices)
A chance to talk with employees, to hear what problems are
not getting solved
A chance to emphasize quality and safety
Connect team goals with the organization’s strategy
 It is to grasp the situation by involving everyone
touching the process to understand purpose,
process, and people .Once the situation is understood,
improvement is possible and more likely to succeed
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Four Steps to Gemba Walk Success

1. Know Your Purpose

2. Know Your Gemba
3. Observe the Framework-
Observe the environment
and the 5M’s
4. Validate
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3. 5 Why’s

 The 5 why’s is one of the best continuous

improvement tools for root cause analysis.
 It can help you to identify the source of a problem
and see beyond the superficial issue.
 By asking ‘why’ several times in a row, you can dive
deeper into the heart of a problem.
 This enables you to them come up with potential
solutions that accurately address it instead of just
treating the symptoms.
 It also helps teams to move past apportioning blame
or finger pointing to find the real issue.

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4. Toyota kata Coaching

 The Toyota Kata concept was observed by

Mike Rother as part of his research into the
car company.
 Kata-means behavior patterns or ‘katas’
that were contributing to continuous
improvement
 One of these katas related to the coaching of
employees so that they learn, improve and
focus their efforts in the right direction.

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 It is practically used for a team that is unmotivated or
no longer developing, by manager through
implementation of:
Setting regular challenges for them to achieve so that
they’re always striving for continuous improvement.
They are encouraged to develop daily improvement routines
or habits that eventually become second nature.
This approach provides a structure for continuous learning
and development.
This helps to reengage employees who feel stuck or those
that have hit a plateau in their professional growth.
 Over time, this contributes to quality improvement and
boosts productivity, so that your employees, customers, and
bottom line all benefit.

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5. 3M’s – Muri, Mura, and Muda
 The 3M’s were identified as part of the Toyota
lean production system.
 They refer to three different categories of
deviation that cause problems for companies.
 By focusing improvement activities on
eliminating the non-value-added activities
throughout the production process, and on
establishing production flow, balance is
naturally achieved between capacity and load.

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  The 3M’s refer to Japanese words that are
usually translated as:
Muri – overburden caused by lack of
resources, poor planning, or too much
waste removal.
Mura – unevenness or irregularities
which tend to be the source of ‘muda’
waste issues.
Muda – waste such as excessive
transport, inventory, waiting,
overproduction, or defects.
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Eight Types of Muda (Waste)
 Over-production- Producing more than what the customer
needs
 Inventory Building and storing extra services/products the
customer has not ordered
 Transportation
 Moving product from one place to another
 Rework Reprocessing, or correcting work
 Over-processing
 Adding excess value when the customer does not require it
 Motion Extra physical/mental motion that doesn’t add
value
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6. Continuous Improvement Software

 There are now many digital continuous improvement

tools that offer powerful business benefits.
 They tend to leverage the best aspects of other
improvement tools and combine them into one easy-
to-use solution.
 Online platforms enable companies to easily capture
ideas and feedback from employees.
 Some have built-in guides that walk people through
continuous improvement processes (such as the
PDCA cycle), empowering them to take action

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 Continuous improvement software also makes
analysis and reporting a easier.
 Instead of spending time creating complex
spreadsheets or gathering key performance
indicators from different departments, reports can
be generated instantly.
 This enables you to see how your company is
progressing towards its continuous improvement
goals and how productivity, profitability, or
quality are being impacted.

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 END OF CHAPTER
ONE

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