What Is PDCA? Understanding the Plan-Do-Check-Act Method

When change is required at your organization, how do you go about implementing it? ***** nilly action without planning can do more harm than good. Rather than approaching change blindly, you may want to borrow a concept from lean manufacturing philosophy – the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle

What is PDCA?

PDCA (PDCA stands for Plan-Do-Check-Act) is an iterative cycle for continuous improvement of people, products, services, and business processes

• The foundation for PDCA was developed by Walter Shewhart and developed later by William Deming

PDCA Best Practices

Ensure that upper management is on-board with changes

• Never stop improving
• Once you’ve implemented a policy change, do so across your entire organization
• Every department that deals with whatever shift you are creating should adopt this as a new way of operating

The Four Stages of the PDCA Model

Approaching change without a plan can spell disaster for your business.

• The PDCA cycle aims to eliminate those issues with a four step process, where each step is imperative because it sets you up for success in the next stage.

Act

Once you’ve planned out your change, applied it, and checked to make sure it was working, it’s time to act on it

• If you determined during the Check phase that you met your goals, you can apply your initial plan
• This then becomes the “standard” process and best practices for this aspect of your organization.

Plan

Determine a plan that will successfully implement the desired change in your organization

• Ask: What’s the problem you are experiencing
• What resources will you need to fix this issue? What resources do you already have available to you at this time? How can you best solve this issue with your available resources? What does success look like?

PDCA Template

A physical document to work in to compile all of your information, share it with team members, and make updates as time goes on

• The key to a successful PDCA template is clarity
• Write out every step in detail along with who is responsible for getting it done and by when

Over to You

Implementing change across your organization won’t be difficult when you learn to plan, do, check, and act

• The organizations that reinvent themselves to better meet market needs, their customers, and their employees are the organizations that we will see far into the future
• Adopt the PDCA cycle today and create the best business you can make

Do

Proper communication amongst your team members will help to limit the number of problems as everyone will have a clear idea of their responsibilities and expectations

Check

How did your plan work in the controlled environment? Were your goals achieved or did your intentions fall flat during execution?

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