Differences Between Pdca And Dmaic

Visually, PDCA has 4 steps, while DMAIC has 5. But, it’s not just 5 steps, but 5 steps and tollgates in between each phase. A tollgate is where the project team or teamleader presents his or her findings in the current phase and the steering committee will either approve the project to move to the next phase or not.
A big differencebetween PDCA and DMAIC is the corporate infrastructure required. Six Sigma and the DMAIC methodology in which its work is carried out, requires a steering committee, tollgates, achampion, and a project sponsor.
While all those might be good, given the right context, the organizational burden on a company is real because it requires up-frontinvestment of time, resources, and attention.
On the other hand, the PDCA framework of Lean is completed many, many times without much hoopla or fanfare. Indeed, the PDCAframework of Lean allows for the involvement of everybody, whereas DMAIC of Six Sigma requires specialized and trained people, often called Black Belts, Green Belts, or MasterBlack Belts.
There are no belts in Lean; the mindset of Lean and the tools it uses to carry out its work is highly accessible to everybody – no belt required. No barriersto entry or barriers to participate, just some training, ongoing training, and a lot of hands-on doing.
So, in our compare and contrast of PDCA versus DMAIC, they are quitesimilar, except for the organizational infrastructure required in Six Sigma.
Because of the differences I note above, the benefits of Lean and the PDCA framework is oftenheralded because of its speed and velocity. This is true, because there is no organizational overhead and improvements are made – many, many small improvements – daily.