Although the AEC industry can be extremely rewarding, a lot of the time it can also be confrontational, personally draining, and riddled with waste. Some of our current challenges such as rising material and labor costs, waning quantity of skilled people, and shrinking profit margins indicate that our industry is not sustainable in the current form.

Have you ever wondered what it would take to create an industry that wasn’t so hard? Or how we could participate in a way where all stakeholders achieve outstanding and repeatable results? I’m talking about results that not only help us as individuals and our organizations prosper, but also works as a catalyst to evolve the built environment in a way that would solve our challenges to match the scale of our future constraints. A deliberate focus on continuous improvement is the solution.

To survive, we must improve. People, organizations and industry can’t grow, transform, or ensure our future success without understanding the need to change first. Lean Construction is our first step and opportunity to thrive.

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) problem-solving methodology is at the heart of lean. Lean thinking is about making tomorrow better than today and requires a dynamic approach of combining learning with action – the PDCA cycle is how we practice this.

Background

Whether you are new to continuous improvement, or you deliberately practice it as one of your core behaviors, PDCA teaches us that there is always something new to learn – and more importantly, like a “crystal ball,” helps us see our opportunity.

The concept emerged from the principles of scientific methodology based on developing ideas from observation, testing through experimentation, and refining (or eliminating) the idea. Dr Walter Shewhart changed this primarily linear sequence into an iterative cycle. Edward Deming, who was Shewhart’s student, further developed and popularized the PDCA cycle in the 1960s, although he preferred Plan-Do-Study-Act. Since inception, and later discussed in this post, the term “Adjust” is sometimes used in place of Act.

PDCA is intended to be iterative until the intended result is achieved, starting with Plan: Identify a change or test to improve with objectives. Followed by, Do: execute the test, Check: Study the results to learn, and Act: Standardize the change, try the cycle differently, or abandon the effort. The planning stage should include a couple key elements: clearly identifying the problem, breaking down the problem, identifying some measurable targets, and developing countermeasures.

Today, there are multiple variations to PDCA, each with different interpretations on how to practice your improvement effort. Some start from a different point in the cycle or use modified word(s) and associated approach. Although very similar, each work from a different angle to understand and close a gap through repeated experimentation. One example similar to PDCA, is DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Improve and Control) which is commonly used in Lean Manufacturing.

PDCA Overview

Plan

• Define value from the customer’s perspective or the goal to be achieved
• Understand existing standards, requirements or best practices
• Clarify the gap using performance metrics
• Get to the root cause
• Identify countermeasures (improvement actions)

Do

• Implement countermeasure(s) on a test basis
• Measure results

Check

• Assess the effectiveness of the countermeasure(s)
• What did you expect to happen?
• What actually happened?
• What did you learn?

Act/Adjust

• Adjust if results are not acceptable
• Standardize if results are acceptable

An example of PDCA being used in our industry: the Architect will interpret what the customer wants with a design (Plan), then they will use the information to create a model (Do), the team will run clashes and confirm design (Check), and the model will be updated until ready for fabrication (Act).

PDCA Specifics

Intentionally focusing on developing countermeasures, versus solutions which infers we are done improving, is what keeps the continuous improvement flywheel spinning. PDCA is an iterative approach that helps us work towards an ideal state. Often what we learn through the second or following improvement cycle(s) becomes much more impactful than perceived before the first improvement efforts.

Taking action and learning is the most important element of PDCA. Although Plan is denoted as the first step of the process, Act is a more intrinsic place to begin the cycle once PDCA becomes common practice. By taking some immediate action first, eventually the deeper and more important issues arise. In order to learn, you first need to make a change.

Depending on depth and problem complexity, PDCA efforts will include the use of various tools at each stage.

Plan

If we practice the PDCA cycle well, most of our time should be spent in the plan phase. This reduces our overall time and effort getting to an effective solution by ensuring we truly understand the problem and its root cause(s) and are not wasting our time addressing the wrong things based on faulty assumptions and opinions.

Start with understanding the problem by using some common techniques:

• Conditions of Satisfaction – Ensure you understand value from the customers perspective
• Standards/Benchmarking – Clarify best practices, business requirements, or target conditions
• Observation/Gemba Walks – Go see first-hand where the problem is occurring and talk to the people closest to it
• Process Mapping – Generate a visual representation of the process steps as they really are to get everyone on the same page
• Trend Chart – Plots measurable data over time to spot trends
• Pareto Chart – Helps separate the critical few from the trivial many
• A3 – One page problem solving document that follows the PDCA format

Understand the problem deeply by clarifying the root cause:

• 5 Why – Simple method to get to root cause by repeatedly asking “Why?” five times
• Cause & Effect Diagram – Structured method to identify potential cause & effect relationships
• Brainstorming – Taps into team knowledge and experience
• Work Studies – Map out the flow of work using video, spaghetti diagrams, Day-In-Life-Of employee observations

Decide on countermeasures to be implemented which address the root cause(s) of the problem or gap. Ensure there is a plan to engage participants, monitor, measure and collect feedback.

Do

Once countermeasures are identified, develop an implementation plan to test them out in practice. Best practices include using an action log, A3, or a transformation plan outlining who will do what by when. Accelerate learning by trying out ideas quickly on a small scale with controlled risk to learn and adjust as necessary before finalizing and fully rolling out the solution. This approach minimizes wasted effort on rework of solutions that don’t work as expected.

Implement countermeasures on a test basis and practice a scientific methodology – Follow the plan, observe/record the data, and implement a controlled experiment.

Check

This phase tends to be the most overlooked. Often, we assume that our solution will work in practice with no unforeseen problems or unintended outcomes. Once the actions are taken, the problem is considered closed and attention shifts elsewhere. With a healthy approach to PDCA, we continually experiment, learn and adjust. We implement countermeasures as a test to prove whether it works or not – this is the scientific method in action.

Assess the effectiveness of the tested countermeasures:

• What did you expect to happen such as: hard/soft-dollar savings, time reduction, safety/quality improvement, etc.?
• What actually happened?
• What did you learn?

Work towards clarifying the gaps and setting the stage for any additional efforts.

Act/Adjust

In this phase, we Act on what we learned in the Check phase. The action will be either to adjust our plan and try again (repeat the cycle), or to standardize and lock in the improvement.

Adjust if results are not acceptable. Based on what you learned, go back to the Plan step to revisit root causes and/or countermeasures.

Standardize and roll-out if results are acceptable. Document process changes and update standard operating procedure(s). Socialize any process changes so everyone knows what to do, train and coach people as needed.