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PDCA cycle

Plan — Do — Check — Act

Project:

Owner:

Date:

How to use this template

PDCA — Plan, Do, Check, Act — is a structured improvement cycle: you test a change on a small scale, measure the effect and only standardise what works. The cycle was popularised by W. Edwards Deming and is the backbone of data-driven improvement.

When do you use it?

When you want to test an improvement before rolling it out — e.g. a new routine, a process change or a solution from a 5 Why/A3. Best when the effect is uncertain.

Time & rhythm

A cycle typically runs over 1-4 weeks. Keep it short — the point is to learn fast, not to plan perfectly.

Step by step

  1. Plan: Define the problem, a measurable goal and a hypothesis.
  2. Do: Test on a small scale and note what actually happens.
  3. Check: Measure the result against the goal — with numbers, not gut feeling.
  4. Act: Standardise if it worked; adjust and run a new cycle if not.
  5. Repeat — improvement is a series of cycles, not one project.

Watch out

  • Don't skip Check — without measurement you don't know whether the change worked.
  • Test small first; a full rollout without a test is guesswork.
  • "Act" also means discarding what didn't work — that is a valid result.

Example

  • Plan: reduce changeover time from 50 to 30 min via a new sequence
  • Do: test on one machine for a week
  • Check: actually 34 min
  • Act: standardise the sequence and run a new cycle toward 30

Method: W. Edwards Deming, “Out of the Crisis” (1986); builds on Walter Shewhart.

Read: Why Lean implementations fail →

P

PLAN

Define the problem and solution hypothesis

D

DO

Test and implement on a small scale

C

CHECK

Measure results and compare with the goal

A

ACT

Standardise or adjust and repeat

P

PLAN — Planning

Problem statement (what, where, when)

Current state / KPI baseline

Proposed solution / hypothesis

Target result (specific and measurable)

Resources / who is involved

Timeline for the test

D

DO — Implementation

Test scope (what, where, who)

Steps / actions implemented

Observations along the way

Unexpected events

C

CHECK — Evaluation

KPI — Before

KPI — After

Improvement %

What worked?

What didn't work?

Did we hit the target result?

A

ACT — Next step

Learnings from this cycle

Standardisation (what should be documented?)

Next step

Prozanta · prozanta.dk

PDCA cycle template

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