PDCA vs DMAIC: Which one should you use?
This guide helps you to understand once and for all the similarities and differences between the PDCA cycle and the DMAIC!
It's time to solve your doubts about the PDCA cycle and its relationship with the DMAIC method!
In this guide, you will see their similarities, their differences and why one of them is the basic method of applying the Six Sigma methodology.
Let's start by defining the PDCA cycle and the DMAIC method, knowing more about them it will be easy to understand their relationship in the next topics.
What is PDCA?
The PDCA cycle, also known as the Shewhart cycle, is a management tool that structures thinking into four phases, which are: Plan, Do, Control, and Act.
The image below shows how the PDCA cycle can have the activities defined in each stage:
To continuously improve production processes, you can apply the PDCA cycle to solve problems. The performance in this case will be much more efficient, which can bring competitive advantages to the companies that adopt it.
Now let's see how the DMAIC method works.
What is DMAIC?
The DMAIC method is a roadmap to be followed for conducting a project through 5 steps which are: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.
In DMAIC, the processes have technical analysis, avoiding hasty conclusions. This method highlights the importance of planning before taking action, dedicating three exclusive steps to this.
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PDCA vs DMAIC
The image below shows a list of each step of the PDCA cycle with the DMAIC method in a simple way. So, let's look at it:
As you see, the planning stage encompasses more stages in the DMAIC method than in the PDCA cycle, as already mentioned, this is a differential of DMAIC. And, to compare each stage, we will divide it into three analyzes: planning, execution and control.
Planning: The Road to Success
"If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”
(Albert Einstein)
When reading this quote you may be wondering: is it so important to know how to identify the problem? Why is a well done planning the key to success?
Einstein himself can answer, "For once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."
Looking at the picture we can see that the DMAIC method has a more detailed planning phase.
While in the PDCA cycle the problem identification, phenomenon analysis and process analysis are made in the single step of Plan, in the DMAIC method these actions are sectioned in different steps.
Considering the DMAIC, the problem identification is made in the Define stage and the analysis of the phenomenon and the process are made in the Measure and Analyze steps .
By separating these steps, we can study each of them in more detail, making possible a better understanding of the problem and a more efficient planning.
This is extremely important, since Einstein was right (which brings no news right?). The more successful this stage is, the fewer problems we will have in designing and implementing our action plan, making the process much faster and more productive.
Elaborate and execute
In the PDCA cycle, the construction of action plans is still made in the Plan stage. In the DMAIC method, we made it in the Improve stage.
It is where we seek to analyze which proposed action plans will generate more results without side effects that would harm another area of the process.
After all, what's the point of improving one stage by hurting another? That is not our goal. By using these two tools of continuous improvement, we seek to optimize our production more and more.
Then, we move to the Do step of the PDCA, while in the DMAIC method the execution is also made in the Improvement step.
In this phase of implementation, you will put into practice the action plans elaborated and prioritized previously.
Controlling the Results
Finally, we reached the Control stage. In the PDCA cycle this step is divided into two, Control and Action, while in DMAIC there is no division.
In both cycles, this phase is responsible for controlling the results obtained, analyzing if they were satisfactory and guaranteeing their functioning.
After all, these are cycles of continuous improvement, so you need to be in constant progress, not being able to regress in this process, as can be seen in the image above.
Similarities and Differences between PDCA and DMAIC
In order to be clear to you about the similarities and differences between the PDCA cycle and the DMAIC method, we chose the similar points of these cycles, as well as their differences.
Similarities
- They are methods of problem-solving.
- They work within the context of continuous improvement.
- They have a planning - execution - control phase.
- They use quantitative and qualitative tools.
Differences
- The PDCA cycle usually uses simpler statistical tools, while the DMAIC method uses more advanced statistical resources.
- The DMAIC method has a more detailed planning phase, allowing a more in-depth study of this step.
- By using more advanced tools and allowing a more structured analysis of the planning stage, the DMAIC is used as a base method in the Six Sigma methodology.
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