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Why a continuous improvement cycle needs six stages

Oct 1
3 min read

Updated: Oct 13

First Heat is the pre-read for Forge Notes. In the forge, first heat is the metal's first trip into the fire, before anything gets shaped. These three posts cover the basics. The Forge Notes get specific.


Assay to Temper: The Six-Stage Continuous Improvement Cycle | Rustin Forge Consulting LLC

Six stages. Four disciplines. The frameworks your team already trusts. This is the continuous improvement cycle behind every Rustin Forge engagement, and every Forge Note maps to at least one stage of it.


Read this once and the Forge Notes make more sense. Each stage below says what happens, what you walk away with, and which note shows it in the field.


Continuous Improvement Cycle



Why a continuous improvement cycle needs six stages

The frameworks already exist. PDCA and DMAIC for operations. Double Diamond and Lean Startup for product. The Bowtie for revenue. CRISP-DM and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework for AI. Each one is good, and each one was built for one discipline.


The trouble starts when Product, Ops, GTM and AI each run their own cycle in their own language. Or small businesses that don't have the capacity to run a dozen different frameworks. The six stages of The Rustin Forge Cycle © sit on top of all of them, so every discipline moves through the same steps, in the same order, and uses each framework where it fits best and only if required.


The Six Stages


Assay, stage 1 of the Rustin Forge continuous improvement cycle: a week-one timeline of interviews, data pull and current-state map, with leaks marked between teams
Assay: first step is mapping of how work really moves, and where it leaks.
Smelt, stage 2 of the Rustin Forge continuous improvement cycle: scattered noise narrowing into three root causes ranked by dollars at stake
Smelt: the noise goes in, the root causes come out, ranked by dollars at stake.
Pattern, stage 3 of the Rustin Forge continuous improvement cycle: an X-matrix linking goals, priorities, owners and targets on one page
Pattern: goals, priorities, owners and targets on one page before anything gets poured.
Forge, stage 4 of the Rustin Forge continuous improvement cycle: process, systems, automation and agent changes shipping across two-week sprints
Forge: the fixes ship in two-week sprints, and your team keeps what it learns.
Proof, stage 5 of the Rustin Forge continuous improvement cycle: a bowler chart of four priorities, plan against actual each month, marked red or green
Proof: one bowler, plan against actual, every month, red or green.
Temper, stage 6 of the Rustin Forge continuous improvement cycle: a loop from a red result to a countermeasure to a reset plan for the next cycle
Temper: every red gets a countermeasure, then the plan resets for the next cycle.

How an engagement moves through the cycle

  1. Spark Test. A free 30-minute call. If the answer is "you don't need me," you'll hear that too.

  2. The Assay. Two to four weeks through Assay and Smelt. A readout that names the leak, the dollars at stake and the fix.

  3. Forge Sprint or Fractional Operator. Pattern and Forge in eight to twelve weeks, or the full cycle, run with your team.

  4. Handoff. Proof and Temper run on your calendar, owned by your people.


continuous improvement cycle

Read next: Forge Notes


Forge Notes are my field notes from the shop floor. Read the first installation of the series here:

Forge Notes are my notes from the shop floor. If you're not sure which stage you're stuck in, book a Spark Test. Thirty minutes, free, and you'll know where to start.


Dustin J. Richardson is the Founder & Fractional Operator of Rustin Forge Consulting LLC, based in Minneapolis and working worldwide.


Continuous improvement cycle | Rustin Forge Consulting LLC

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