The PDCA cycle
The PDCA cycle was first developed in the 1930s by Walter Shewhart, a quality statistician. It was later promoted by W. Edwards Deming, a quality management expert, and is still sometimes referred to as the 'Deming Wheel'.
The PDCA cycle is a four stage model: Plan – Do – Check – Act. It is often used to illustrate the cyclical nature of 'continuous improvement' where changes start with careful planning, move through the implementation and checking phases, and then back to planning again.
This cycle highlights the principle that plans should remain flexible, so they can be easily modified if things aren't going the way you expected them to. Flexible plans allow you to adjust quickly to the changing conditions and still move towards the goal you have set.
The four stages of the PDCA cycle are as follows.
PLAN – your goals. Define the problems, set your objectives and come up with ideas on how you will put the plans into action.
DO – the things you have planned, but only on a small scale at first. This will let you test the ideas before the plan is fully rolled out.
CHECK – to see whether your changes are working. Also check that there are no new problems being introduced.
ACT – to implement the changes on a larger scale if the first introduction was successful.
Once you have completed the cycle, go back to the Plan stage and work through the next problem or goal. If the small-scale implementation was not successful, skip the Act stage and go straight back to the Plan stage to come up with another approach to solving the problem.
Remember that it is okay to go 'back to the drawing board' when a well-planned strategy falls apart due to an unforseen problem. Adopt a flexible approach to your work and the various issues that crop up on a day to day basis.
Learning Activity
Did you know that you have probably been using the PDCA cycle to implement change without even knowing it? Do you now recognise the model as something that has been applied to current processes in your workplace? If so, select one example of a change you've introduced recently and see if you can describe the steps you took in terms of the PDCA model.
If you haven't used this type of approach before, think about how you would apply the PDCA model to an existing problem or opportunity for improvement.
To help you go through the steps systematically, select each area of the cycle below, starting with 'Plan', and try to define your own processes in the terms shown for each stage. List the actions you would take, the people you would involve and the documents that would form a part of the reviewing, monitoring or informing process.
As you select each area, you will see suggested examples of people and documents that might be involved in that stage of the process.