The Deming Cycle
Plan, Do, Check, Act
The Deming Cycle is a proposal for handling changes. It includes four steps that repeat in a cyclical pattern:
- Plan a change
- Do the change
- Check the results
- Act on the results
In other words, incremental changes are planned, tested in some way, studied to verify the results, and either implemented permanently (until something better replaces it) or thrown out based on the reuslts. Wash, rinse, repeat.
When a successful change is made, policy should be updated to reflect it, so that the change is made permanent.
The Deming Cycle is also known as the Shewhart Cycle, or the PDCA cycle (plan, do, check, act).