Any improvement effort ultimately faces the issue of standardizing processes, in many cases under the intense pressure of an impending certification audit. Ask yourself: Is your rationale for standardization merely to pass the audit, or is it a serious effort to improve quality? If it’s the former, I’m positive most of you are clever enough to put up a good front in that tiring cat-and-mouse game, and you probably thought part one of this article was too much work. If it’s the latter, then I’d like to suggest a few additional nuggets of wisdom as you work through the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle as it applies to standardizing processes.

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