{"id":64120,"date":"2023-05-09T17:40:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/glossary\/pdca-cycle\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T09:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T09:10:10","slug":"pdca-cycle","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/pdca-cycle\/","title":{"rendered":"PDCA cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The PDCA cycle, known as PHVA in Spanish, is a four-phase continuous improvement method whose phases repeat over and over: plan<\/em>, do<\/em>, check<\/em> and act<\/em>. It helps you improve a process, a product or a campaign step by step, with data and without making changes blindly.<\/p>\n\n

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 how a business is managed and run.<\/p>\n\n

To do this, the four steps (Plan, Do, Check and Act\/Adjust) are used as a basis and carried out cyclically to achieve continuous improvement. Once all four steps are complete, the cycle is finished and has to be repeated again, so that new improvements are regularly built into how the company or business runs.<\/p>\n\n

We’ll go through what each stage of the cycle involves and, finally, give you an example so you can see in practice how to use the PDCA cycle.<\/p>\n\n

The 4 phases of the PDCA cycle at a glance<\/h2>\n\n
Phase<\/th>Stands for<\/th>Key question<\/th>What you do<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Plan<\/td>Plan<\/td>What do I want to improve and how will I measure it?<\/td>You set the goal, the hypothesis and the metric<\/td><\/tr>
Do<\/td>Do<\/td>How do I test it on a small scale?<\/td>You apply the change to one part of the process<\/td><\/tr>
Check<\/td>Check<\/td>Did it work?<\/td>You compare the results with what you expected<\/td><\/tr>
Act<\/td>Act<\/td>Do I roll it out everywhere, adjust it or drop it?<\/td>You roll it out, correct it or drop it, and start again<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n
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Origin of the PDCA cycle<\/h2>\n\n

The cycle builds on the work of Walter Shewhart, who proposed an early three-step improvement cycle: specify, produce and inspect. W. Edwards Deming expanded it to four steps and presented it in Japan in the 1950s, and in 1951 the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) gave it the PDCA form we know today. That’s why it is also called the Deming circle or Deming wheel. Deming later preferred to speak of PDSA, with study<\/em> instead of check<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

The cycle is still very much in use today. The ISO 9001 standard recommends applying it so that processes deliver their intended results, and it is the hands-on way to carry out the Kaizen method<\/a>, the philosophy of improving little by little, all the time.<\/p>\n\n

Plan<\/h2>\n\n

At this stage, you set the objectives and goals to pursue, with a KPI<\/a> to measure them, and you also identify which areas can be improved. All of this must be based on the company’s own mission, vision and values.<\/p>\n\n

Do<\/h2>\n\n

In the Do stage, the relevant changes are implemented to achieve the objectives set. It is highly advisable to make the changes gradually to find out whether they are really beneficial before rolling them out across the board.<\/p>\n\n

It consists of three basic steps: training all the employees involved in the project, implementing the project itself and, finally, analyzing the results obtained.<\/p>\n\n

Check<\/h2>\n\n

After making the improvement, the problems and benefits it has brought are analyzed. Once these have been properly identified, if the improvement meets expectations it will be rolled out across the board; otherwise, it will be discarded or modified to bring it in line with the desired objectives.<\/p>\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n

Act (Adjust)<\/h2>\n\n

At this stage, once the set test period is over, the results of the changes are analyzed and compared with how things worked before the changes were introduced. If the results are as desired, the improvement will be implemented permanently and on a large scale. Otherwise, corrective action must be taken to reach the desired objectives, or the improvement must be discarded altogether.<\/p>\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n

PDCA cycle example<\/h2>\n\n

This typical PDCA cycle example will make it much clearer how the cycle is implemented. It shows the process of developing a new product to add to a company’s current catalog:<\/p>\n\n