QM tools in comparison

The PDCA model is mentioned again and again, whether in connection with ISO 9001 for quality management systems, ISO 14001 in environmental management or a modern standard such as ISO 22301 concerning business continuity. This is actually to be seen as a "support standard" for ISO 9001, because in order to ensure sustainable customer satisfaction, it is also necessary to ensure operational continuity.

The aim of this article is to create transparency between diverse yet closely interwoven standards for "improvement systems". As different as they may seem, there is a relationship between RADAR, PDCA and DMAIC, even if it is not obvious at first sight.

Important QM tools
In this text, knowledge of PDCA is assumed. Therefore, only a few remarks on RADAR and DMAIC follow. RADAR is part of the EFQM Business Excellence Model and stands as an acronym for Results - Approach and Deployment - Assess and Refine. As can be read on the EFQM homepage, "RADAR logic provides a dynamic framework for assessing the performance of an organisation" and thus ultimately its improvement system and speed.

Within the 6Sigma system, DMAIC stands for the project-oriented approach of 6Sigma projects, whereby the acronym stands for Define - Measure - Analyse - Improve - Control. This is primarily about solving chronic or difficult problems through a very systematic approach, where otherwise simpler techniques such as brainstorming fail.

Now, if you look at these three models in a picture, one below the other, it becomes clear that they have many similarities.

Comparison RADAR - PDCA and DMAIC - PDCA If you now PDCA
as a reference model and compare it with RADAR, one quickly discovers the analogies.

Planning results corresponds to the R of RADAR and the P of PDCA. While the PDCA model is about defining activities in the "DO" point, RADAR is about achieving the desired results through activities of a "high level approach" and an operational implementation ("Deployment "). In the "CHECK point" of the PDCA model - analogous to the "ASSESS point" of the RADAR model - the achieved results are evaluated in more detail.

Comparing DMAIC and PDCA, the "Do" of PDCA in DMAIC becomes a systematic approach, first getting to the bottom of the problem by "MEASURE " and then "ANALYSE" before taking "IM - PROVE" measures.

Improvement systems
Does this mean that RADAR and DMAIC are not "superfluous"? - Not at all, because RADAR is an absolutely useful implementation instruction for improvements at company level, just as DMAIC is an absolutely useful implementation instruction of the PDCA model at operational level, for example when it comes to permanently solving chronic "quality problems".

In conclusion, one could consider the PDCA model as the universal model of continuous improvement. However, there are better models at its limits, similar to Newton's law of gravity. The RADAR model is therefore a top-down solution based on EFQM, and the DMAIC model from the 6sigma world is recommended at the operational level.

The latter models are thus two very useful variations of the PDCA deming circle. All three models are to be understood and used complementarily.