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Understanding the PDCA Cycle

The PDCA cycle is a quality management process developed by William Edwards Deming. It consists of four phases: Plan - determine objectives and processes; Do - implement the plan; Check - monitor results and processes; Act - take action to improve by standardizing successful changes. For example, when buying a car the Plan phase sets criteria, Do is driving it, Check finds higher than expected fuel use, and Act addresses this issue by changing driving habits or consumption goals.

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70 views1 page

Understanding the PDCA Cycle

The PDCA cycle is a quality management process developed by William Edwards Deming. It consists of four phases: Plan - determine objectives and processes; Do - implement the plan; Check - monitor results and processes; Act - take action to improve by standardizing successful changes. For example, when buying a car the Plan phase sets criteria, Do is driving it, Check finds higher than expected fuel use, and Act addresses this issue by changing driving habits or consumption goals.

Uploaded by

ukavathekar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What is the PDCA cycle?

For those of you who dont know what this PDCA cycle is, it is basically a concept developed
about 60 years ago by a famous consultant and quality management guru called William
Edwards Deming. Essentially, it says the following:

Before you start implementing anything, you should know exactly what you really
need, and exactly what it is you want to achieve (objectives) this is the Plan phase.
Once you know what you want to achieve, you can start implementing your
information security, business continuity, quality procedures, or whatever the ISO
standard is focused on this is the Do phase.
However, the whole effort does not stop here you want to make sure you have
achieved what you have planned for, so you need to monitor your system and measure
if you achieved your objectives this is the Check phase.
Finally, if and when you realize that what you achieved is not what you have planned
for, you have to fill the gap this is called the Act phase.

Or, using an example when I purchase a car I have an idea on how much it should cost,
what color it should be, maximum fuel consumption, etc. (Plan phase); then I start driving it
(Do phase), and realize that the fuel consumption is much higher than expected (Check
phase) then, basically, I have 2 options: to drive more easily in order to consume less fuel,
or change the targeted consumption (Act phase).

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