How do you get from Galileo to a single 11.7 x 16.5 inch paper?
Ron Moen fills in some gaps in his writing "Foundation and History of the PDSA Cycle." In his paper, he illustrates the history of the PDSA from Galileo and Bacon to American pragmatism. C.I. Lewis wrote "Mind and the World Order" in 1929, profoundly influencing Dr. Walter Shewhart and Dr. Edwards Deming.
Foundation and History of the PDSA Cycle - Ronald Moen
Shewhart and Deming brought the scientific method into industry during the twentieth century using this philosophy. Dr. Shewhart introduced his Shewhart Cycle in 1939. The A3 ball starts rolling here.
1950 - Japan was introduced to Dr. Shewhart's ideas by Dr. Deming. Deming put all the pieces together for Japanese industrial leaders after Shewhart's work had been well-known before the war. Deming Wheel is what they called it.
1951 - A group of Japanese executives redefined the Deming Wheel into Plan Do Check Act (PDCA).
1954 - Denso, a Toyota spinout in 1949, opened a training center based on the principle of "Monozukuri is Hitozukuri" (roughly translated as our performance depends on our people)." This was eight years before the Toyota Production System was introduced.
1959 - As a result of Kaoru Ishikawa's concept of kanri, the PDCA cycle expands to include more steps during the planning stage, such as determining goals and targets and formulating methods to achieve them.
1960 - Denso wins the Deming Prize based on their work during the late 1950s and 60s. Denso began developing a Total Quality Control (TQC) philosophy, continuously improving quality and kaizen.
1963 - Eiji Toyoda, Toyota's executive vice president, was impressed by what Denso had done and suggested implementing TQC for the third generation of the Corona. Toyota invited several TQC experts, specifically Kaoru Ishikawa, president of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). Ishikawa was one of the critical influencers and translators of Dr. Deming's management concepts in Japan. From 1963 to 1965, Toyota implemented a plan to introduce TQC throughout the company.
1965 - Masao Nemoto leads Toyota to win the Deming Prize based on TQC initiatives. The inventor of the Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno, apparently refused to read past the first page of any report. As a result, his team used an A3 piece of paper to address and summarise their problem-solving.
1978 - Masao Nemoto developed the Kanri Nouryoku Program, shortened to "Kan-Pro." Nemoto based this critical management development initiative on the A3 model. Katie Andersen discussed this project through the eyes of Isao Yoshino in her book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn.
https://www.praxisframework.org/files/pdsa-history-ron-moen.pdf
https://www.profound-deming.com/blog-1/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg
https://www.profound-deming.com/blog-1/a-brief-history-of-pdsa
https://nulab.com/learn/project-management/use-toyotas-legendary-a3-problem-solving-technique/
https://planet-lean.com/interview-with-isao-yoshino-on-management-at-toyota/
https://kbjanderson.com/learning-to-lead/
