Systemic intervention | about 40 minutes | free
Classify a small demand sample, trace end-to-end work, and design a prediction-led test.
A bridge to systemic service improvement, not a full Vanguard, Lean or Six Sigma course. These traditions are distinct; this exercise does not validate statistical process-control competence.
This is original learning material, not a reproduced official course. Mechanical checks have determinate answers within the stated case. Worked comparisons for open judgements show defensible reasoning, not the only possible model. Specialist pedagogical review is not recorded.
Fictional case: ten consecutive calls to a repair desk are recorded. Calls 1, 2, 4 and 8 request new repairs. Calls 3, 5 and 9 ask why an agreed visit did not happen. Calls 6 and 10 report that a supposedly completed repair still leaks. Call 7 asks for an unrelated general-information leaflet. Staff are measured on average handling time. One repair trace shows three minutes on the first call, two days waiting for approval, a failed visit because the wrong part was sent, and two more calls before a completed repair eight days later.
Use paper, your own drawing tool or the notes below. Attempt each step before opening its comparison. Describe a diagram in words when that is more accessible.
Produce: A ten-row classification with a stated definition.
Four calls request new repairs. Five arise from something the service failed to do or do right: three missed visits and two ineffective repairs. One is a separate information request whose relevance depends on the service purpose. The five repeated-failure contacts are 50% of this tiny sample, not a proven organisation-wide rate. Never infer demand type from the caller's attitude.
Produce: A resident-centred work trace.
Follow need to completed repair, including approval delay, wrong parts, failed visit and repeat contact. Three minutes of call handling does not represent eight days of elapsed experience. Reducing the first call to two minutes could worsen diagnosis and increase total work.
Produce: Prediction, bounded action, evidence and decision.
Predict that confirming the fault and required part before dispatch reduces failed visits in a small agreed set of jobs without creating excessive delay. Test, compare actual results with the prediction, and revise the explanation or practice. Include resident resolution and staff effort. A before-after improvement alone does not isolate the cause.
These checks test the supplied case, not your overall competence. Open answers and model variants still need your judgement.
'Calls are waste. Block repeat callers and the demand problem will disappear.'
Investigate why people call. Prevent avoidable failures and resolve legitimate need. Suppressing contact can hide unresolved work and increase harm elsewhere.
Handling time rises by one minute while failed visits fall. Can the change still be worthwhile?
Yes, potentially. Compare safe resolution, total end-to-end effort, repeat contact and resident experience. The local time measure alone cannot decide. Quantify the actual effects before concluding.
A different model can be defensible when its purpose, assumptions and reasoning are explicit. A contradiction, incorrect unit, invented fact or unacknowledged change of purpose needs repair. Keep both your first attempt and revision.
No sign-in or submission is required. Notes are not sent by this practice tool. Use fictional information, not identifiable client or learner data. Saving stores this page's attempt only in this browser; clearing browser data can remove it. Export a copy to keep it elsewhere.
The complete original case above is free. Links below distinguish exercises from explanations, recordings, software and paid study. Reading a page or drawing in a tool is not itself a model check.
Write a prediction before a change and compare observation with it. The service and evaluation cases here give a small exercise and answers.
The Institute's account of prediction, study and theory revision inspected. It distinguishes PDSA from a simple implementation check.
Further reading for each framework row, including the separate references associated with transposing theory.
Public sharing confirmed; approach and theory bibliography inspected. The presence of a reference does not establish that it contains self-check exercises.
Follow 'Learn PDSA in DemingNEXT' for the paid learning route, after using the free explanation and this pack's exercise.
The page links to DemingNEXT. The subscription material and current access terms were not tested.
Ask for practice with feedback in the named approach, rather than assuming every recording includes assessment.
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