Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA)
Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) is a model that is used to assist the control and continual improvement of processes and projects. It has been used in construction project management as a means of balancing the systems and behavioural aspects of management and health and safety. Its cyclic approach allows for the constant updating of health and safety measure ultimately leading to a safer working environment.
PDCA was popularised by W. Edwards Deming, a leading figure in modern quality control processes and procedures. Deming intended that PDCA should be used when developing a new or improved process, product or service; when implementing changes; when defining a repetitive work process, and so on.
It is made up of the following stages:
- Plan: Assess a current or new process and how improvements could be made.
- Do: Test small changes as part of a limited study to assess their effectiveness.
- Check: Gather and analyse the test results, compare them with the expected outcomes and identify what has been learnt.
- Act: Take action according to the lesson learned in the ‘Check’ step.
In some iterations of PDCA, the fourth step ‘Act’ is replaced with ‘Adjust’. This is often used when the PDCA process has been run several times and enough information has been accumulated for it to have been adopted as a new ‘standard’. ‘Adjust’ allows for continual monitoring of the process after changes have been made, with small improvements as and when appropriate, creating a cycle of continuous improvement.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Assurance and self-certification.
- CDM Regulations: a quality perspective.
- Contingency theory.
- Continuous improvement process.
- Design freeze: a quality perspective.
- Digital engineering.
- Game theory.
- Lean construction.
- Lean Six Sigma.
- Pareto analysis.
- Project execution plan.
- Project manager.
- Quality control.
- Quality Management System.
- Total quality management in construction.
- Transition time.
Featured articles and news
Introducing or next Guest Editor Arun Baybars
Practising architect and design panel review member.
Quick summary by size, shape, test, material, use or bonding.
Types of rapidly renewable content
From forestry to agricultural crops and their by-products.
Terraced houses and the public realm
The discernible difference between the public realm of detached housing and of terraced housing.
Put digitalisation and sustainability at the core of curricula
Project management educators are urged.
Looking back at the influence of climate events
From a designer and writer: 'There are limits to growth but no limits to development'.
Terms, histories, theories and practice.
Biophilic design and natural light
Letting in the light and natural elements into spaces.
APM Programme Management Conference 2024
Strategies for Success.
Residential takes the reins as contract awards even out
Contracts down, but remain above the last quarter of 2023.
Celebrating Eid and the largest mud-brick building.
Barry Kingscote claims prestigious CIOB CMYA Award.
The British Mosque: an architectural and social history
The story of some 1,500 mosques or more in Britain.
Heat pump refrigerants, efficiencies and impacts
R12 to R1270 what are the differences?
Global heat pump market in 2023
Challenging times with positive but modest outlook.
Beyond the infrastructure pipeline
Opportunities and chokepoints.
Comments
This doesn't seem have been developed for practical application in a construction environment.