The Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle is a problem-solving strategy designed to drive change in business processes. This framework is used across various sectors including healthcare, tech, and education. In the spirit of the lean manufacturing principle of continuous improvement, PDCA cycle examples encourage iteration at all stages.

Begin the exercise by identifying the problem you’re facing. Let’s say, for example, that your sales have suddenly dipped in the last quarter. With our free, editable Plan, Do, Check, Act template in front of you, start brainstorming strategies around your problem—following the framework of the PDCA cycle:

Plan – Create a strategy for a potential solution. For example, you may strategize to increase sales by targeting a new audience.

Do – Implement your strategy. For our example, this might mean creating new messaging and promotional materials for your target audience.

Check – Review your performance. What are the results of the new strategy?

Act – Respond to the feedback and make changes for an improved course of action.

Once you’ve made it through the cycle, you can do it all over again. A Plan, Do, Check, Act example usually contains various rounds, each building on insights from the last.

A Plan, Do, Check, Act example is also known as a Shewhart cycle or a Deming cycle after Walter Shewhart and Edward W. Deming—the statisticians who pioneered and promoted the model.

Deming, who himself referred to the process as the Shewhart cycle, incorporated one fundamental shift in his methodology. To emphasize the learning that occurs in a planning cycle, Deming principles for PDCA cycle include the word “study” in place of the word “check.”

Is there a notable difference between a Plan-Do-Check-Act example and a Plan-Do-Study-Act example? With his change to the PDCA template, Deming encouraged a shift from the black-and-white framework of success and failure toward an open process that promotes discovery.