PDSA/PDCA

Act Plan

Check/Study Do

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 PDSA/PDCA: What is it?
• PDSA : Plan-Do-Study-Act
• PDCA: Plan-Do-Check-Act
• In its infancy, it was called the
Shewhart Improvement Cycle
• W. Edwards Deming popularized it Act Plan
in the 1950's
• Later in Deming's career, he
modified PDCA to "Plan, Do, Study, Check/Study
Act" (PDSA) because he felt that
Do
"check" emphasized inspection
over analysis.

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 PDSA/PDCA: What is it?

• An Improvement Cycle
• A systematic methodology Act Plan
that ensures we thoroughly
work through a problem Check/Study
Do

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 PDSA/PDCA: What is it?
 Plan a change or a test aimed at
improvement.
 Do – Carry out the change or test Act Plan
(preferably on a small scale).
 Check/Study the results. What did we
learn? What went wrong? Check/Study
Do
 Act – Adopt the change, or
abandon it, or run through the
cycle again.
 Be sure to study the results and evaluate for further improvement.

Always study the results of any change.  Ask:  What did we learn?
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 Plan

 Plan a change or a test aimed

at improvement
 What do you want to test?
 How will you test it?
Act Plan
 How will you collect your data?
 How will you know whether the Check/Study
test is a success or failure? Do

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 Do

 Carry out the change or test (preferably on

a small scale)
 Collect your data
 Document the process you used

Act Plan

Check/Study
Do
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 Check/Study

Act Plan
 How did the experiment go?
 What did we learn? Check/Study
 What went wrong?
Do
 Did you accomplish what you wanted?
 Did you have any setbacks?
 Is there anything you would change if
you could do it again?

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 Act

 Implement your changes, yes or no?

 Monitor progress and make sure process
is performing
 Adopt the change, adjust it, or
Act Plan
abandon it and run through
the cycle again Check/Study
Do

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 PDCA Example

 Problem: Employee turnover has taken a sharp increase. How

can we reduce employee turnover?
 Plan:
 Which employees have left the company?
Act Plan
 Who is in and out of scope?
 How much do we want to reduce turnover?
Check/Study
 Do: Do
 Survey current and past employees
 Benchmark other organization’s programs
 Collect turnover data
 Collect exit interviews
 Determine methods needed to reduce turnover
 Check:
 Analyze survey data, what trends and patterns exist, what
changes will reduce turnover?
 Act:
 Implement changes to system
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 Monitor progress to see if turnover is reduced
© BMGI. Except as may be expressly authorized by a written license agreement signed by BMGI, no portion may be altered, rewritten, edited, modified or used to create any derivative works.