PDCA
Business & Finance abbreviation · Management & Strategy
| Stands for | Plan-do-check-act |
|---|---|
| Categories | Business & Finance |
PDCA stands for Plan-do-check-act, a management & strategy abbreviation.
Four-step iterative cycle for continuous improvement: plan a change, do it on a small scale, check the results and act by adopting, adjusting or abandoning the change. It underpins quality management systems and lean practices.
Example: Each kaizen team follows PDCA, testing changes on one line for two weeks before rolling them out plant-wide.
Usage notes
Also called the Deming cycle or Shewhart cycle after Walter Shewhart and W. Edwards Deming; Deming himself later preferred PDSA (plan-do-study-act). The ISO 9001 quality management standard is explicitly structured around the PDCA cycle.
Related abbreviations
More management & strategy abbreviations
- MNC – Multinational corporation
- MoM – Minutes of meeting
- MVP – Minimum viable product
- OEE – Overall equipment effectiveness
- OGSM – Objectives, goals, strategies and measures
- OKR – Objectives and key results
- PEST – Political, economic, social and technological
- PESTLE – Political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental
- PMF – Product-market fit
- QA – Quality assurance (software)
- QBR – Quarterly business review
- QC – Quality control