Continuous quality improvement

Continuous quality improvement is an important part of the long-term monitoring and improvement of the performance of the many systems. It also involves a feedback cycle of data collection and analysis.

Example: Declining numbers of a native bird

Sightings of a native bird have been declining and funding is allocated to reverse this trend. How should the funding be used to address the problem?

The statistical process in other contexts

In many other contexts, a similar cycle is used to obtain 'improvements' in the system. For example, hospitals may be concerned that patients are taking longer to recover from heart surgery. What is the cause? Older patients, changes to surgical procedures, changes to care, ...?

The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle can be used to determine reasons for the longer recovery times and improve them.

A Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle underlies most practical applications of Statistics.