The PDCA Cycle: A Guide to Understanding the Process

Understanding the PDCA cycle is important for every business management student and someone who is going to own a business. The importance of this theoretical framework is immense in the field of business management. Many students are unaware of the theory of PDCA and how exactly it operates in a business environment. What is it, and what does it talk about? What is the main focus of this cycle, and how does a business ensure that it is being followed correctly? To know the answers to these questions, keep reading further to learn more about it.

What is the PDCA Cycle?

PDCA cycle, also known as the “Deming PDCA Cycle'', is a four-step process that explains why improving a product or service is important and how we can do it. The fundamental theorem of this cycle is that a business must keep on monitoring the effectiveness of its product or service among consumers. It is important to keep a regular monitoring of your business and the offered products or services. The cycle provides a theoretical framework for businesses to implement this particular process to improve the product and service. There are certain pillars to understand when it comes to applying the theory of this cycle. Let’s take a closer look at these pillars.

Four Fundamentals of PDCA Cycle

There are four different stages of the PDCA process, which are the fundamental theories of the cycle. This includes planning, implementation, monitoring and acting in order to assess a product or service as per the consumer demand. William Edwards Deming restructured a famous theory presented by a statistical quality control manager, Walter A. Shewhart. William Deming explained in 1951 that to break this, you will need to look at each alphabetical letter in the cycle. There are four different types of pillars in assessing and implementing these pillars. Here are those four different types of fundamental theories and these include:

P - PLAN

According to the business management assignment help experts, the first part of the fundamental theory of this cycle is “Plan”. This involves the identification of the area where the product or service can be improved. In this process, the product and service undergo a planning process to work on the area where it can be improved or rectified (from a previous failing experience). A thesis is formed with the objective of better understanding the areas of improvement in that product or service. This pillar includes defining the tasks, objectives, responsibilities, and resource requirements.

D - DO

The second part of the PDCA cycle is “Do”, highlighting the initiation of the implementation process. Whatever was planned in the first part of the cycle is being worked upon practically to make it into reality. This can also mean that for certain products or services, a business should implement the plan on a small scale. This is just to test the implementation, which is also called a pilot test. In this process, the data collection related to the performance of the product or service is done thoroughly before transitioning to the next pillar of the cycle. 

C - CHECK

The third component of these different stages of the PDCA process is “Check”. This fundamental step talks about the importance of monitoring the implementation that was planned. You monitor all the activities related to the implementation of the plan for improving/rectification of the product or service. When you have collected the necessary data to evaluate the objectives of the implementation, compare it with the original plan. We have to also determine whether there have been any issues in the implementation of the plan. This is an important component of the fundamental framework of the cycle because the next pillar is dependent on the monitoring of the implementation.

A - ACT

The final and most important part of the PDCA cycle is the “Act”, which is justified by its name. This part involves coming up with strategies to stabilise the process of your implementation, depending on the results you found in the third part - “Check”. If the findings from the implementation show improvement, then we will apply the standard implementation on a larger scale. If the findings from the implementation are not satisfactory, then we will analyse and evaluate the shortcomings of the implementation. This helps us determine the adjustments and further improvements needed, and this step establishes the reinforcement of the cycle once again.

How Does the PDCA Cycle Hold a Significant Position?

The principles of PDCA provide several benefits to businesses and their decision-makers. The cycle is a proven theory that has gone through an evolution to become what it is today. It allows the organisation to sustain itself in a competitive environment and keep improving the effectiveness of its products and services. This, by default, benefits the customers in the process as an end result and the main objective of the entire process. Customer satisfaction is the end goal, but it also helps the organisation sustain itself, which is why it is a cycle.

Let’s look at some of the benefits of the PDCA cycle and understand why it is important:

• Provides a structural framework for improving the product and service
• Allow identify the root cause of the problem, reducing costly error risk
• Help in decision-making based on the evidence and not assumptions
• Successful findings can be integrated into standard operating procedures
• Applicable and feasible to practice in any industry or work environment
• Encourages the participation of employees in bringing innovation
• Give a quality assurance and high-quality management system in certain industries

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