Blue and Grey

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle

Rahul Laxman IyerASQ Certified Quality Engineer

Mesa AZ USA

10/31/2015Image Source: Health & Safety Executive, United Kingdom; http://www.hse.gov.uk/managing/delivering/

The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle

What is PDCA?

History of PDCA

Where PDCA Can Be Applied

Examples of PDCA

What Is PDCA?

Definition of PDCA:

An iterative four-step management method used in business for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products

Sometimes referred to as the Deming Circle/Cycle/Wheel or the Shewhart Cycle

Bedrock of continuous improvement, and forms part of the foundation for the Toyota Production System (TPS)

PDCA Cycle

PLAN

Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the expected output

DO

Implement the plan, execute the process, make the product.

CHECK

Study the actual results

ACT

Act on the recommendation/change based upon the data. This then becomes the new standard. The process then can restart.

P-D-C-A is an iterative process

History of PDCA

Traditionally attributed to W Edwards Deming, PhD, Yale University

Deming attributed the methodology to Walter Shewhard, PhD, University of California-Berkeley

Developed in the 1930's originally by Walter Shewhard, PhD

Revised by W Edwards Deming, PhD in the 1940s, and used as part of the development of the quality field post WW II

Rooted in the Scientific Method as described by Francis Bacon, Cambridge University, 1620

History of PDCA

W Edwards Deming, PhD, Yale University

Walter Shewhard, PhD, University of California-Berkeley

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, Cambridge University

Application of P-D-C-A

Process Improvement

Product Improvement

Examples of PDCA

Evolution of the mobile telephone & the automobile

Conclusion

What is PDCA?

History of PDCA

Where PDCA Can Be Applied

Examples of PDCA