# Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle The Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle is an iterative design and management method used for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products. It is part of [[Lean manufacturing]], and was part of the [[Toyota Production System]]. It is based on the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle created by [[Walter Shewhart]], and later revised/improved/used by [[W. Edwards Deming]] which applied it to improve management and production practices in Japan in the 1950s. ## Cycle - Plan: establish objectives and processes required to deliver the desired results - Do: carry out the objectives from the previous step - Check: gather and analyze data and results from the "Do" phase. Helps see what changes work better than others, and if those can be improved as well (cfr [[Gap analysis]]) - Act (or Adjust): improve the process by analyzing/leveraging the records from the "Do" and "Check" phases to identify issues with the process. These issues may include problems, non-conformities, opportunities for improvement, inefficiencies, etc. Root causes of those issues are investigated, found, and ideally eliminated. Risks are also re-evaluated. At the end, the process has better instructions, standards, or goals. And planning for the next cycle can proceed with a better baseline ## References - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCA ## Related - [[Kaoru Ishikawa]] - [[W. Edwards Deming]] - [[Walter Shewhart]] - [[Gap analysis]]