ABSTRACT
Companies who have used the entire Plan-Do-Knowledge-Act (PDKA) process have seen dramatic improvements. The fact that most or all of these companies have participated in a quality awards application and assessment of some type indicates that they have an organizing framework or theory by which to integrate their information to turn it into knowledge. How well they have done this may vary in that they may not have used an approach as disciplined and orderly as that of the PDKA process. No single assessment or survey will give an in-depth analysis about the business. Because of human error, time constraints, or other issues, a single information source may give partial guidance toward some broad areas of improvement but not toward a definitive focus for significant business improvement. Senior managers of companies who are new to the assessment process often feel that the feedback implies something negative, and they may want to brush that piece of information off as erroneous feedback.
