Process Improvement — Work Smarter, Not Harder

Consider a simple system, such as your car’s cruise control. You set the desired output speed; the speed control system monitors the actual speed, compares it to the target speed and makes the necessary adjustment on the gas pedal. This is referred to as a first-order system with a balancing feedback loop. First order basically means that a single cause (input = gas pedal) leads to a single, immediate effect (output = speed). Good feedback loops are critical to any well-behaved system.