When Edward Deming constructed the plan-do-check-act cycle (PDCA) in the 1950's, the fundamental principles centered on the concept of quality.

Although many decades have passed since the birth of this conceptual model, the principles that served as the foundation of the PDCA are still pretty relevant in today's environments, and when used can offer many benefits to businesses.

Since quality is a primary consideration when it comes to business, the PDCA cycle can be a very useful managerial tool to monitor and ensure quality.

As a part of this philosophy, through plan-do-check-act, businesses can consider their processes and revisit them in order to evolve and ensure their present practices and processes are efficient and effective.

The PDCA cycle model is built as a continuous loop and this loop ensures that processes are frequently revisited. This is very beneficial to organizations because if something changes or isn't working to satisfaction it can be changed.

The 'plan' segment of the cycle is relates to designing or revising business processes, and this can help organizations shape and plan for the future. For instance technology plays a primary role in businesses today and through using the PDCA philosophy, organizations can plan and integrate technology with their offline processes.

The 'do' segment of the PDCA cycle suggests implementation of the plan and then subsequently measures results. This provides businesses an advantage because they can then determine whether or not benchmarks can be met and performances are where they are expected to be.

When considering the 'check' segment of the PDCA cycle, the benefits of the cycle are obvious. This segment follows up on 'do' and evaluates the measurements that were taken earlier in the cycle.

If a process or initiative seems to not be succeeding, the business can quickly revisit and see why the measurements aren't showing success, see whether or not the processes are running as they should, and if not, the issues can be rectified in the 'act' cycle.

During the PDCA's 'act' segment of the cycle, the word act means just what it says, take action. The opportunity for improvement lies within this portion of the cycle and gives businesses the ability to rapidly respond to any changes in technology or even legislation.

In today's business environment, laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and HIPAA have a significant impact on how a company conducts business and the PDCA cycle can be very beneficial because it keeps a business reevaluating and revisiting operations and processes.

Whenever any action can be made to update, improve or adjust issues in the company, the PDCA can be pretty useful to help identify problems that may exist. Of course, if no deficiencies emerge in a particular area, the cycle can help confirm that it's running well and working as it should.

Despite its age, Deming's PDCA cycle can be pretty beneficial to businesses who decide to use it to help monitor quality. Since quality is a primary component in successful business, the cycle is useful to ensure quality standards are met. Without quality, businesses are going to have an awful time trying to succeed.

Learn more about this author, Leigh Goessl.
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