PDCA
Plan, Do, Check, Act—repeat
What Is PDCA?
A four-step iterative management method used for continuous improvement of processes and products.
PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), also known as the Deming Cycle or Shewhart Cycle, is a systematic approach to continuous improvement. It was popularized by W. Edwards Deming, who learned it from Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Laboratories.
**Plan:** Identify an opportunity or problem, analyze it, and develop a hypothesis about what changes might improve it. Define objectives and determine what data you need to collect.
**Do:** Implement the change on a small scale. This is a pilot or experiment, not full deployment. Document what happens.
**Check:** Analyze the results. Did the change produce the expected improvement? What did you learn? Compare results against your hypothesis.
**Act:** If the change was successful, standardize it and implement broadly. If not, learn from the results and begin the cycle again with that new knowledge.
The power of PDCA lies in its iterative nature—each cycle builds on the previous one, creating a spiral of continuous learning and improvement rather than a one-time fix.
- •Any process improvement initiative
- •Testing new ideas before full-scale implementation
- •Solving recurring problems systematically
- •Developing and refining standard work
- •As a mental model for scientific thinking
- •Emergency situations requiring immediate action
- •When you already have proven solutions that just need execution
- •Trivial issues that don't warrant systematic analysis
- •Problems outside your control or influence
- •Skipping the Plan phase and jumping to Do
- •Not measuring baseline before making changes
- •Implementing at full scale without testing (skipping Do as pilot)
- •Ignoring the Check phase—assuming the change worked
- •Treating Act as optional—not standardizing successful changes
Standard Example
Problem: Customer complaints about order delivery time have increased 40% this quarter.
PLAN:
• Goal: Reduce average delivery time from 5 days to 3 days within 6 weeks
• Analysis: Value stream map shows 2-day wait at packaging station
• Hypothesis: Dedicated packaging staff during peak hours will eliminate the bottleneck
• Test plan: Assign one person to dedicated packaging from 10am-2pm for 2 weeks
DO:
• Implemented dedicated packaging role for Maria from 10am-2pm
• Tracked daily order completion times
• Documented issues encountered
CHECK:
• Average delivery time dropped to 3.2 days (vs. 5 days baseline)
• Peak time orders shipped same-day 85% of time (vs. 45%)
• Maria identified that label printer location added unnecessary walking
ACT:
• Standardize dedicated packaging role during peak hours
• Move label printer to packaging station (next PDCA cycle)
• Update job instructions and train backup personnel
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