PDCA Cycle« Back to Questions List

The full form of PDCA is Plan-Do-Check-Act, is also known as the Deming Cycle. It is used in supply chain management almost everywhere with the difference in application. Let’s understand this with an example of implementing automation in a warehouse.

The first step, PLAN – makes us draft a complete plan of arranging a set of manpower and other entities which will be required for the project, the vision and its execution methodology along with timelines.
The second step, DO – involves process study and feasibility check for different automated infrastructure whether can be and should be implemented in the warehouse or not. Thereafter, the implementation is done in the warehouse.
The third step, CHECK – will help us in analyzing the results from the automation where we check on the advantages that we gain from it. We’ll be here able to figure out whether our solution is able to optimize our operations and improve efficiency or not.
The last step, ACT – makes us take the next course of decisions on how should we be running our warehouse and what actual amount of automation should be solving our purpose.

This was one of the usages of PDCA, similarly, it can be utilized in different scenarios in supply chain planning or solution development