When to Use the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) Model
Definition: PDCA is a continuous improvement method, and means; Plan, Do, Check, Act.
PDCA is used immediately after a SMART Goal has been set.
What are the benefits of PDCA?
PDCA helps people systematically achieve goals by organising their efforts in a logical way:
Plan.
Immediately after we set a SMART goal, we formulate detailed written plans, which describes the steps we take in order to achieve it.
Plans should be written, not merely thought or spoken about.
Written plans have many advantages:
- They make us more specific in our use of language.
- They are more permanent.
- They can be more easily improved.
- They can be more easily communicated to whomever needs to know.
Do.
Immediately after the plans are communicated, we must DO something:
We intelligently implement the plan.
Many people don't follow the plans they write.
If we are serious about our SMART goals, then we ensure that every day, we DO things that will contribute to their achievement.
Check.
Since no plans are perfect, we experience setbacks and difficulties.
We find that:
- Parts of our plan work well.
- Other parts do not work well.
"Check" means that we discover which parts of our plans work well, and which do NOT.
Act.
Immediately after we discover the parts of the plans, or actions, which do NOT work well, we take corrective actions.
We adapt, amend or replace our original plans with better plans.
In that way, we return to the beginning, and we repeat the PDCA cycle.
We continue to repeat PDCA until we achieve our SMART goal.
How to use PDCA to continually improve
PDCA implies "continuous improvement" in two ways:
- Plans are continually improved, by constant checking and adaptive actions.
- When we achieve our original SMART goals, we immediately set new, improved goals that take us to higher levels of achievement.
Goal Setting Training
To learn more about how to use continuous improvement, we recommend attending our Goal Setting Training Course, available as both face-to-face and online training.
PDCA model
In business, the PDCA model is a continuous improvement process. It demands that a team plans work, does the plan, checks the results, then acts on the findings before looping again. Each cycle uses real data to refine the next plan and keeps running until the team reaches or resets its goal.
CG4D Definition
Context: Business
Genus: Process
- Runs in four ordered steps: plan, do, check, act
- Operates as a repeating loop that continues while improvement is possible
- Uses measured results from the check step to guide changes in the act step
- Starts after a clear target is set and stops only when the target is achieved or revised
Article Summary
After you set a SMART goal, use the PDCA model to plan clear steps, do the work, check the results, act on the lessons and run the loop again; each cycle lifts quality, cuts waste and moves you closer to success.