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PDCA cycle

What is the PDCA cycle?

The name PDCA cycle is an acronym for “Plan, Do, Check and Act”; in Spanish it is known as PHVA, from “Planificar, Hacer, Verificar y Actuar/Ajustar”. It is also widely known as the continuous improvement cycle or the Deming circle, and it is a process focused on continuously improving the management and operation of a business.

To this end, the four essential steps (Plan, Do, Check and Act/Adjust) are taken as a basis and are applied in a cyclical manner to achieve continuous improvement. In other words, once the four steps are completed, the cycle is finished and must be started again, so that new improvements are periodically incorporated into the operation of the company or business.

We are going to explain what each stage of the cycle involves and, finally, we will give you an example so you can see in practice how to use the PDCA cycle.

Plan

In this stage, the objectives and goals are set, and the ones that can be improved are identified. The plan should be created based on the company’s mission, vision and values.

Do

In the Do stage, the relevant changes are implemented to achieve the objectives set. It is highly recommended to apply the changes gradually, to determine whether they are really beneficial before implementing them across the board.

It consists of three basic steps: training of all employees involved in the project, implementation of the project itself and, finally, analysis of the results obtained.

Check

After making the improvement, it is time to analyze the problems and benefits obtained. Once this has been properly identified, if the improvement meets the expectations, it will be implemented across the board; if not, it will be discarded or modified to bring it in line with the desired objectives.

  • There are two ways to verify and detect issues: in parallel with the implementation or at the end of it. The main difference is that checking in parallel lets you see whether everything is going as planned, while checking once the improvement has been implemented gives you the full set of results.

Act (Adjust)

At this stage, once the established test period has passed, the results of the changes are analyzed and compared with the operation prior to the implementation of the changes. If the results are as desired, the improvement will be implemented definitively and on a large scale; if not, corrective measures must be taken to reach the desired objectives or the improvement will be discarded completely.

In any case, once the Act/Adjust stage is finished and the improvements have been implemented, the process returns to the planning stage, thus starting a new cycle.

1. Example of a PDCA Cycle

With this typical example of a PDCA cycle, you will understand much more clearly how it is implemented. It shows the development process of a new product to add to the current catalog of a company:

– Plan: the new product is developed and the production process involved is defined.

– Do: in this step a prototype is created and tested, and the test data is analyzed.

– Check: based on the test data, a detailed analysis is made of whether the product will be viable.

– Act/Adjust: with the newly developed design, the decision is made to implement the product or discard it; after that, the cycle starts again.

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