Lean

PDCAPlan-Do-Check-Act / Deming Cycle

A four-step iterative improvement cycle: Plan a change, Do it small, Check the results, Act to standardize or adjust.

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), the Deming cycle, is the fundamental rhythm of improvement: Plan a change and predict its effect, Do it on a small scale, Check actual versus predicted results, and Act to standardize what worked or adjust and re-run.

PDCA turns improvement into disciplined experimentation rather than guesswork. It underpins kaizen, A3 thinking, and the DMAIC cycle.

Go Deeper
Continuous Improvement framework→PDCA Cycle Worksheet→
Related Terms
Kaizen
Continuous, incremental improvement involving everyone — from daily small ideas to structured multi-day events.
A3 Thinking
A structured problem-solving approach that fits the whole problem, analysis, and countermeasures on a single A3-size sheet.
DMAIC
The five-phase data-driven improvement cycle at the heart of Six Sigma for improving existing processes.
Continuous Improvement
The ongoing, organization-wide effort to improve products, services, and processes through small incremental changes.
Standard Work
The documented current best method for a task, tied to takt time, sequence, and standard WIP — the baseline for improvement.

Put PDCA into practice

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