AREIR is the tool to help you upgrade your management practice from coping to proactively managing through a defined process of anticipation, recognition, evaluation, implementation and review.

The Deming “Plan, Do, Check, Act Cycle” is useful for managing industrial processes, but it is insufficient for broader management in today’s increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous  (VUCA) world.

Planning is not the same as anticipating, and after the fact planning is too late to assure that you meet your plan without serious  negative consequences.

The AREIR Management Cycle provides a means to systematize the way that you guide your firm through today’s VUCA landscape. It consists of 5 steps

  • Anticipate
  • Recognize
  • Evaluate
  • Implement
  • Review

Anticipate is more than just planning. It is actively identifying vulnerabilities and opportunities that are likely to emerge.

Recognize means that when a change has occurred, you are aware of it.

Evaluate means to think critically about the facts and their implications for your business. (How these facts challenge your current plan and making the appropriate inferences will take courage.)

Implement gets you and your team safely back into Deming Land -it is the “Do”  in the Plan Do Check Act Cycle.

Review is where your commitment to continuous improvement is demonstrated. Without continuous improvement, companies lose their competitiveness and sustainability. Continuous Improvement is always on the agenda.

PDCA (Plan Do Check Act)  is the perfect tool for nurturing an industrial process where the inputs are known the people and processes are known, and the outputs are known.

AREIR (Anticipate, Recognize, Evaluate, Implement, Review) is the tool for managers facing a world where inputs, people, processes, outputs, and regulations can change in an instant and yet you still have to deliver results.

The ability to anticipate is what sets apart the successful managers from those who are just ‘traffic cops’ that react and respond to events.

Original Article in Production Machining