Also called: PDCA, plandostudyact (PDSA) cycle, Deming cycle, Shewhart cycle The plandocheckact cycle (Figure 1) is a fourstep

model for carrying out change. Just as a circle has no end, the PDCA cycle should be repeated again and again for continuous improvement.

Figure 1: Plan-do-check-act cycle

When to Use PlanDoCheckAct

As a model for continuous improvement. When starting a new improvement project. When developing a new or improved design of a process, product or service. When defining a repetitive work process. When planning data collection and analysis in order to verify and prioritize problems or root causes. When implementing any change.

PlanDoCheckAct Procedure
1. 2. 3. 4. Plan. Recognize an opportunity and plan a change. Do. Test the change. Carry out a small-scale study. Check. Review the test, analyze the results and identify what youve learned. Act. Take action based on what you learned in the study step: If the change did not work, go through the cycle again with a different plan. If you were successful, incorporate what you learned from the test into wider changes. Use what you learned to plan new improvements, beginning the cycle again.

step 1: Plan

First, identify exactly what your problem is. You may find it useful to use tools like Drill Down, Cause and Effect Diagrams, and the 5 Whys to help you really get to the root of it. Once you've done this, it may be appropriate for you to map the process that is at the root of the problem Next, draw together any other information you need that will help you start sketching out solutions. Step 2: Do This phase involves several activities:

Generate possible solutions. Select the best of these solutions, perhaps using techniques such as Impact Analysis to scrutinize them.

Implement a pilot project on a small-scale basis, with a small group, or in a limited geographical area, or using some other trial design appropriate to the nature of your problem, product, or initiative.

Our section on Creativity Tools includes several tools that can help you generate ideas and solutions. Our section on Decision Making includes a number of tools that will help you to choose in a scientific and dispassionate way between the various potential solutions you generate. Note: The phrase "Plan Do Check Act" or PDCA is easy to remember, but it's important you are quite clear exactly what "Do" means. ""Do" means "try" or "test". It does not mean "implement fully." Full implementation happens in the "Act" phase. Step 3: Check In this phase, you measure how effective the pilot solution has been, and gather together any learnings from it that could make it even better. Depending on the success of the pilot, the number of areas for improvement you have identified, and the scope of the whole initiative, you may decide to repeat the "Do" and "Check" phases, incorporating your additional improvements. Once you are finally satisfied that the costs would outweigh the benefits of repeating the Do-Check sub-cycle any more, you can move on to the final phase. Step 4: Act Now you implement your solution fully. However, your use of the PDCA Cycle doesn't necessarily stop there. If you are using the PDCA or Deming Wheel as part of a continuous improvement initiative, you need to loop back to the Plan Phase (Step 1), and seek out further areas for improvement.

Something needs to change: Something's wrong, and needs to be fixed, and you've worked hard to create a credible vision of where you want it to be in future. But are you 100% sure that you're right? And are you absolutely certain that your solution will work perfectly, in every way? Where the consequences of getting things wrong are significant, it often makes sense to run a well-crafted pilot project. That way if the pilot doesn't deliver the results you expected, you get the chance to fix and improve things before you fully commit your reputation and resources. So how do you make sure that you get this right, not just this time but every time? The solution is to have a process that you follow when you need to make a change or solve a problem; A process that will ensure you plan, test and incorporate feedback before you commit to implementation. A popular tool for doing just this is the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. This is often referred to as the Deming Cycle or the Deming Wheel after its proponent, W Edwards Deming. It is also sometimes called the Shewhart Cycle. Deming is best known as a pioneer of the quality management approach and for introducing statistical process control techniques for manufacturing to the Japanese, who used them with great success. He believed that a key source of production quality lay in having clearly defined, repeatable processes. And so the PDCA Cycle as an approach to change and problem solving is very much at the heart of Deming's quality-driven philosophy. The four phases in the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle involve:

Plan: Identifying and analyzing the problem. Do: Developing and testing a potential solution. Check: Measuring how effective the test solution was, and analyzing whether it could be improved in any way. Act: Implementing the improved solution fully.

These are shown in Figure 1 below.

There can be any number of iterations of the "Do" and "Check" phases, as the solution is refined, retested, re-refined and retested again.

How to Use the Tool

The PDCA Cycle encourages you to be methodical in your approach to problem solving and implementing solutions. Follow the steps below every time to ensure you get the highest quality solution possible. Step 1: Plan First, identify exactly what your problem is. You may find it useful to use tools like Drill Down, Cause and Effect Diagrams, and the 5 Whys to help you really get to the root of it. Once you've done this, it may be appropriate for you to map the process that is at the root of the problem Next, draw together any other information you need that will help you start sketching out solutions. Step 2: Do This phase involves several activities:

Generate possible solutions. Select the best of these solutions, perhaps using techniques such as Impact Analysis to scrutinize them. Implement a pilot project on a small-scale basis, with a small group, or in a limited geographical area, or using some other trial design appropriate to the nature of your problem, product, or initiative.

Our section on Creativity Tools includes several tools that can help you generate ideas and solutions. Our section on Decision Making includes a number of tools that will help you to choose in a scientific and dispassionate way between the various potential solutions you generate. Note: The phrase "Plan Do Check Act" or PDCA is easy to remember, but it's important you are quite clear exactly what "Do" means. ""Do" means "try" or "test". It does not mean "implement fully." Full implementation happens in the "Act" phase. Step 3: Check In this phase, you measure how effective the pilot solution has been, and gather together any learnings from it that could make it even better. Depending on the success of the pilot, the number of areas for improvement you have identified, and the scope of the whole initiative, you may decide to repeat the "Do" and "Check" phases, incorporating your additional improvements. Once you are finally satisfied that the costs would outweigh the benefits of repeating the Do-Check sub-cycle any more, you can move on to the final phase. Step 4: Act Now you implement your solution fully. However, your use of the PDCA Cycle doesn't necessarily stop there. If you are using the PDCA or Deming Wheel as part of a continuous improvement initiative, you need to loop back to the Plan Phase (Step 1), and seek out further areas for improvement.

When to use the Deming Cycle

The Deming Cycle provides a useful, controlled problem solving process. It is particularly effective for:

Helping implement Kaizen or Continuous Improvement approaches, when the cycle is repeated again and again as new areas for improvement are sought and solved. Identifying new solutions and improvement to processes that are repeated frequently. In this situation, you will benefit from extra improvements built in to the process many times over once it is implemented. Exploring a range of possible new solutions to problems, and trying them out and improving them in a controlled way before selecting one for full implementation. Avoiding the large-scale wastage of resources that comes with full-scale implementation of a mediocre or poor solution.

Clearly, use of a Deming Cycle approach is slower and more measured than a straightforward "gung ho" implementation. In true emergency situations, this means that it may not be appropriate. Note: PDCA is closely related to the Spiral Development Approach which is popular in certain areas of software development, especially where the overall system develops incrementally. Spiral Development repeats loops of the PDCA cycle, as developers identify functionality needed, develop it, test it, implement it, and then go back to identify another sub-system of functionality.

Key Points:
The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle provides a simple but effective approach for problem solving and managing change, ensuring that ideas are appropriately tested before committing to full implementation. It can be used in all sorts of environments from new product development through to marketing, or even politics. It begins with a Planning phase in which the problem is clearly identified and understood. Potential solutions are then generated and tested on a small-scale in the "Do" phase, and the outcome of this testing is evaluated during the Check phase. "Do" and "Check" phases can be iterated as many times as is necessary before the full, polished solution is implemented in the "Act" phase.

Drill Down is a simple technique for breaking complex problems down into progressively smaller parts. To use the technique, start by writing the problem down on the left-hand side of a large sheet of paper. Next, write down the points that make up the next level of detail on the problem a little to the right of this. These may be factors contributing to the problem, information relating to it, or questions raised by it. This process of breaking the problem down into its component part is called 'drilling down'.

Cause and Effect Analysis gives you a useful way of doing this. This diagram-based technique, which combines Brainstorming with a type of Mind Map, pushes you to consider all possible causes of a problem, rather than just the ones that are most obvious

The 5 Whys is a simple problem-solving technique that helps you to get to the root of a problem quickly. Made popular in the 1970s by the Toyota Production System, the 5 Whys strategy involves looking at any problem and asking: "Why?" and "What caused this problem?" Very often, the answer to the first "why" will prompt another "why" and the answer to the second "why" will prompt another and so on; hence the name the 5 Whys strategy.