Plan, do, check, act model

Lead Author: Ralph Stuart (other articles)
Article Topics: Business and the environment and Environmental and resource management
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Michael Toffel (other articles)
Last Updated: September 4, 2008

In the 1950s, Edwards Deming proposed that business processes should be analyzed and measured to identify sources of variations that cause products to deviate from customer requirements. He recommended that business processes be placed in a continuous feedback loop so that managers can identify and change the parts of the process that need improvements. As a teacher, Deming created a diagram to illustrate this continuous process, commonly known as the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle:

  • PLAN: Design or revise business process components to improve results
  • DO: Implement the plan and measure its performance
  • CHECK: Assess the measurements against established goals and report the results to decision makers
  • ACT: Decide on changes needed to improve the process

This cycle has been widely adopted to analyze many different aspects of an organization's performance and is the conceptual basis for the ISO 14000 (and many other) standards for Environmental Management Systems.

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Citation
Stuart, Ralph (Lead Author); Michael Toffel (Topic Editor). 2008. "Plan, do, check, act model." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth October 18, 2006; Last revised September 4, 2008; Retrieved November 26, 2008]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Plan,_do,_check,_act_model>
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