Operations Management

Assignment
on

Plan-Do-Check-Act
Concept

Introduction
PDCA

(Plan-do-check-act) is an iterative four

step management method used in business for the

control and continuous improvement of processes
and products.
It

is also known as Deming Circle/cycle or wheel

and Shewhart cycle.

Walter A. Shewhart

The

concept of the PDCA cycle was originally

developed by Walter Shewhart, a statistician.

It was taken up and promoted very effectively
from the 1950s by Edwards Deming and is
also known as the Deming wheel.

When to use Plan-do-check-act

It is used :

When continuous improvement is required.

When a new improvement project is started.

When developing a new or improved design

a process, product or service.

When implementing any change.

of

First stage - Planning

The

purpose of the planning stage is to

investigate the current situation an understand

fully the nature as well as the root cause of the
problem.
In

the planning stage, the first step is to

identify the problem.

 The

second step is to analyze what can be done to

solve the problem and fix a goal or a target.

It

is also necessary to recognize the benefits which

can be derived when the problem is solved or when

the goal or target is achieved.
The

third step in the planning stage is to plan a

schedule to solve the problem as well as to acquire

the goals and targets fixed.

Second stage - DO
The

second stage in the PDCA cycle is the

DO stage.
In

this stage the first step is to develop a

solution to the problem.

After

developing the solution to the problem,

the second step is to decide who shall

implement the corrective action.

 The

third step in the DO stage is to implement

the corrective action.

Third stage - Check

The main objective of this stage is to determine

the effectiveness of the new plan.

The

first step in the check stage is to compare

the results before and after the plan was

implemented .

The second step is to note down these results.

Before

After

 For

example, the quality of the product before and

after the plan was implemented may be checked.

Also,

other factors like cost savings, labor effort and

time consumption may also be compared.

The

third step in the check stage is data analysis.

 The

results before and after the plan may be

analyzed.
Also,

a summary chart showing the percentage

of improvement may also be displayed.

Fourth Stage - ACT

The

last stage in the PDCA cycle is the Act

stage.
The

first step in the Act stage is to correct

the defects in the new plan by comparing the

results before and after the implementation of
the plan.
Before

After

 The

second step in the Act stage is to implement the

corrective actions and check whether the outcome is

as expected.

The

third step in the Act stage is to find new targets

and repeat the PDCA cycle again.

Thank you

Presented by,

Priyanka Prasad
B.B.A.LL.B.(HONS).
Roll No:23
School of Legal Studies
Cochin University of Science & Technology