The Deming Cycle or PDCA model is a mature model for continuous improvement of quality. It emerged in the 1920s from Walter Shewhart. The four phases establish a basis for quality improvement. The PDCA cycle essentially begins with the strategy and ultimately operates on the analysis of the knowledge gained in the process. Later, Deming changed the word "check" to "study" in order to emphasize the development and verification of new knowledge in this cycle.
What is PDCA Cycle?
It is a very efficient way of improving the company's efficiency, improving the products' quality, optimizing the cost structure, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Plan: In the planning stage, to accomplish the ultimate target, a detailed plan needs to be chalked out. One needs to analyze an existing plan or a new plan and find ways to develop it in order to do this effectively.
Do: In the Doing stage, it's time to actually carry out the strategy. Starting small on a scale to quickly measure the output is often useful.
Check: In the Checking stage, Data and findings from the do phase are analyzed in this phase. Similarities and differences are examined with the outcome expected. It is also beneficial to consider which changes will be effective and how to make those improvements.
Act: It is the final stage where the gaps are dealt with. Corrective steps are taken and changes are made to close the gap between the target desired and the result obtained.
Lessons learned from each iteration of the loop are incorporated and continued in the next iteration so that the process improves over time. This approach leads to a continuous optimization of the business.
