If You Want to Invent a Better Shovel, Start Shoveling!

This is the Idea (Ideate) stage, the fun part. We get out a bunch of post-it-notes, colored pencils and leave our creativity loose. Or do we… If you want to invent a better shovel, start shoveling! What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using Read More …

Exploration Instead Of Definition

The Define Phase is well documented in the Plan of PDCA, Define of DMAIC, Discovery of Appreciative Inquiry or even the Dream of Disney. In the Explore stage of EDCA what makes this phase different? Paraphrased from Nigel Cross’s book, Engineering Design Methods: Strategies for Product Design: Designers tend to use conjectures about solution concepts Read More …

Empathy is at the Heart of Design

The difference between the thought process embedded in EDCA (Service Design) and the other disciplines of Lean can be summed up in one word: Empathy! It is a major differentiator between the traditional process methodologies of Six Sigma, and I say this tongue–in-cheek, Lean. Many times when you review Design for Six Sigma, Lean Startup, Read More …

SDCA & PDCA Are Needed For EDCA

SDCA and PDCA prepare you to maximize EDCA or Design. I like to use the term EDCA learned from Graham Hill to designate the Explore aspect of Lean. I view it as more of Design Type thinking content that allows for that collaborative learning cycle with a customer. Design and Innovation takes place outside the Read More …

Evolution and the Future of PDCA

In the paper, Evolution of PDCA, covered the development of PDCA from the introduction to the scientific method (you could argue between Aristotle or Galileo) to the latest development covered by the paper with the addition of the Model for Improvement published and described in The Improvement Guide. This book was published in 2009. In Read More …

Implementing PDCA

In Franklin Covey’s, The 4 Disciplines of Execution,  they use the term the “Whirlwind” in the same manner as I think about Standard Work. As they describe operating outside the whirlwind (SDCA) think of that as PDCA or EDCA depending on if you are looking for incremental or breakthrough type improvement. You have to allocate Read More …