What Is the PDCA Cycle in Maintenance and Manufacturing?

An Explanation of the PDCA Cycle and How It Can Impact Your Business

As a business owner, you understand the necessity of continually improving your manufacturing and maintenance processes. You also understand that this is often easier said than done. 

How do you go about deciding what needs to be changed, how to execute the changes, and whether the finished outcome meets the objectives you set out to accomplish?

The PDCA cycle is a tool that can help businesses implement continuous improvement in manufacturing and maintenance. 

Here you’ll find out more about the PDCA cycle, when and why to use it, and how UpKeep’s CMMS can help the PDCA cycle run at optimal efficiency. 

What Is the PDCA Cycle?

The PDCA cycle stands for plan-do-check-act. 

This 4-step model for continuous improvement is commonly used throughout the manufacturing industry to facilitate incremental changes to a company’s processes, services, and products.

The purpose behind the PDCA cycle is to test out potential changes on a small scale without having to commit to large, complicated, or costly changes up front.

The PDCA cycle may also referred to as the:

• Plan-do-study-act or PDSA Cycle

• Deming cycle

• Deming wheel

• Shewhart cycle

The Origin of the PDCA Model

W. Edwards Deming, an American engineer in the 1920s, was the first to voice the concept of the plan-do-check-act cycle. It eventually evolved into the PDCA cycle through the collaborative work of Deming and his fellow engineer Walter Shewhart. 

Following WWII, Deming began collaborating with Japanese industry leaders, including Toyota, who were beginning to attract international attention for their streamlined and efficient manufacturing processes. 

When referring to the cycle, Deming preferred to use the term PDSA, believing that the word ‘study,’ as opposed to ‘check,’ better represented his intent of the process of determining whether a proposed change was worth implementing. 

UpKeep’s CMMS helps simplify the PDCA cycle by making it simple to see where everything stands, all in one place. 

Learn more about UpKeep by requesting a free demo today.

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4 Steps of the PDCA Methodology 

#1: Plan

Step one in the PDCA cycle is to create a plan outlining what must be done.

While this stage can take a significant amount of time and effort for your team, it's critical if you want the cycle to do its job.

The planning stage is where you assess your baseline, decide what resources you will need, and choose your rubric for success.

The planning stage is often easier when it is broken down into smaller steps as you determine: 

• The core problem you want to solve

• Which potential solutions you want to pursue

• The cost reduction or product improvement you want to achieve

• Which resources are available vs. resources you need to acquire 

• How you will measure success

Since an effective planning stage is critical for future outcomes, it is worth spending as much time as needed on this step.

#2: Do

Stage two is where you execute the plan you created.

This will be done by taking small steps to apply the solutions or processes you determined would best meet your company's needs. 

This step may encompass: 

• Changing maintenance procedures

• Updating production techniques

• Training your existing team on new practices

The ‘do’ stage also generally takes time to apply and shouldn't be rushed.

#3: Check

During stage three, you're checking the data through systematic analysis and review. You’ll be realizing the answers to questions such as:

• Was your planning cycle effective?

• Did you reach the determined business goals as anticipated? 

• What challenges did you face along the way? 

At the end of this stage, you will want to compare your outcomes with your current business-as-usual procedures.

#4: Act

Now it’s time to act. This final stage is where you execute the new method or process.

Keep in mind that the plan-do-check-act cycle is a progressive process. If the solution you selected the first time around isn't satisfactory, you may need to start over by creating a new plan and completing the cycle once again.

No matter the outcome, however, the data and experience you gained from the initial testing process can be documented and utilized as a part of your continuous improvement processes.

When To Use the PDCA Method

This likely invokes the question of when the PDCA method is most practical. 

We recommend utilizing this process when you are:

• Improving an existing product, service, or process, or drafting a new one.

• Documenting a frequently repeated standard work process.

• Collecting data to pinpoint issues or root causes.

• Executing changes in processes, organizational methods, or technology.

• Pursuing continuous improvement.

• Forging a new improvement initiative, like shortening cycle time, reducing defects, or optimizing the utilization of your resources.

An Example of the PDCA Model at Work

Now, let's take an up-close look at how to practically apply the PDCA model when it comes to inventory management. 

As a business owner, you understand the frustrations of maintaining an inventory. Things can easily be misplaced or disappear altogether, and keeping track of how many spare parts you have for each of your assets is always a challenge. 

This is where the PDCA can prove to be indispensable by helping to optimize the way you manage and store inventory. 

You can execute a test by formulating a detailed inventory procedure, complete with a checklist that outlines how each item is to be documented upon arrival at your facility and where it is to be stored. 

As you go, evaluate each step of the process to determine if there are any gaps in communication between team members or if additional clarity is needed in the instructions and/or checklist. 

Keep repeating the process until all involved are comfortable with the procedures and satisfied with the new inventory documentation system.

6 Benefits of Using the PDCA Cycle

#1: Enhancing Quality and Reliability

The PDCA cycle helps to ensure your team is following standardized practices and procedures throughout the ‘plan’ stage. This helps enable maintenance personnel to clarify the guidelines for their maintenance processes, leading to:

• Improved consistency and reliability in maintenance processes

• Greater predictability in outcomes

• Reduced variability

#2: Creating a Structured, Standardized Approach

Another great benefit of the PDCA cycle is that it establishes a systematic method for maintenance teams to plan, execute, evaluate, and fine-tune their maintenance procedures. 

By following this process, they can more easily confront any issues while they improve and optimize the company’s maintenance procedures. 

UpKeep’s intelligent and intuitive preventive maintenance tool helps your maintenance professional prevent asset breakdowns before they happen. Reduce maintenance costs and maximize uptime with UpKeep.

#3: Relying on Data-Driven Decision-Making

The PDCA cycle also prioritizes data and information in the decision-making process. During the check phase, maintenance teams are consistently gathering and analyzing data to assess the effectiveness of their maintenance processes. 

By following such a data-driven approach, they’re able to execute informed decisions that are factual and measurable, which leads to optimally effective maintenance strategies.

UpKeep’s Analytics & Reporting feature quickly generates maintenance reports, making it easy for your team to evaluate:

• Work order completion rates

• Maintenance costs

• Technician productivity

• Inventory levels

• And more

#4: Increasing Efficiency and Productivity

Utilizing a standard-setting tool such as the PDCA cycle means all employees are on the same page when it comes to how to address specific issues and improve the company’s overall productivity. 

Due to its design, employees can easily use the plan-do-check-act cycle as many times as needed to increase their work efficiency. The PDCA method can also assist management teams in understanding their roles when it comes to resolving issues and how they can best contribute to the company's success.

#5: Identifying Areas for Improvement

The PDCA cycle is a continual loop of planning, doing, checking, and acting. 

Throughout the process, areas for improvement are clarified and a procedure for improvement is defined. 

Potential solutions are first tested on a small scale, the outcome is studied, and areas for growth are identified. 

#6: Mitigating Risk

The plan-do-check-act cycle gives teams the tools they need to correct errors and reduce risk. 

The PCDA cycle paves the way for:

• Effective problem analysis

• Testing of possible solutions

• Process repetition to get productive results

By keeping risks at a minimum you can prevent issues that may arise and impact your business by testing changes on a smaller scale and analyzing any potential risks.

Using UpKeep helps you stay on top of safety and compliance regulations and puts risk mitigation at the top of the priority list. 

UpKeep’s CMMS Helps the PDCA Cycle Run More Efficiently

UpKeep is a CMMS solution that gives every maintenance and reliability team the tools and information they need to run operations efficiently and effectively.

Our CMMS platform offers a user-friendly, secure, and readily accessible storage space for your manuals, work order maintenance schedules, and SOPs. 

We make it easy to ensure that your production and maintenance teams have universal access to the most up-to-date information.

Additionally, UpKeep’s CMMS tool provides analysis and reporting capabilities, enabling you to evaluate the outcomes of your PDCA efforts and maintain your team's commitment to continuous improvement.

And best of all, you can try UpKeep for free. 

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