Free template
Updated
PDCA template
A PDCA template is a one-page form for running one plan-do-check-act cycle: you plan a change from the problem and its cause, try it on a small scale, check the result against the goal, and act by standardizing what worked or adjusting and starting another cycle. This one puts the plan on the left (problem, goal, analysis and an action plan with owners and dates) and do, check and act on the right, with a results table that compares baseline, goal and result. The Excel version has the same cycle on one sheet, with a results table that works out the change, the share of the gap to the goal closed and whether the goal was met, a filled-in example, and a cycle log of one row per cycle.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
A Plan box on the left with problem, goal, analysis and an action table, and Do, Check with a results table, and Act boxes on the right.Plan: problem, goal, analysis, actionsDoCheck: baseline, goal, resultAct: standardize or adjustCycle numberCycle log
When to use it
When to use a PDCA template
- For a small improvement you can test quickly, such as a new layout, a changed setting or a revised check.
- When you want to test an idea on one line or shift before rolling it out everywhere.
- To coach a team through structured problem solving without the full weight of an A3 or an 8D.
- When a problem needs several tries: number each cycle and keep the sheets together.
How to fill it in
- 1
Fill in the header
Title, owner, team, start date and the cycle number, starting at 1.
- 2
Describe the problem
What is wrong, where, since when and how big, as a fact rather than a cause or a solution.
- 3
Set the goal
A measurable target with a date: from what to what, by when.
- 4
Analyze the cause
The current condition and the root cause, using data, a sketch of the process, the 5 Whys or a fishbone diagram.
- 5
Plan the change and the measure
What you will try, who does it and by when, and how you will measure the result. Record the baseline now.
- 6
Do it on a small scale
Run the change as planned on one line, shift or machine first. Note anything that went differently and collect the data.
- 7
Check against the goal
Fill in baseline, goal and result for each measure, and ask whether the change caused the result.
- 8
Act
If it worked, update the standard, train people and share it with similar areas. If not, write what you will change and start the next cycle.
The four stages
What happens at each PDCA stage
What each stage is for, what it produces and who usually does it. Check is the stage where the result is compared with the goal; act is where the change becomes the standard or the next cycle is planned.
| Stage | What happens | Output | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | Describe the problem with facts, set a measurable goal, find the root cause, choose the change to try and decide how the result will be measured. Record the baseline. | Problem statement, goal with a date, root cause, action plan with owners and dates, the measure and its baseline. | The owner and the people who do the work; the supervisor agrees the plan. |
| Do | Try the change as planned, on a small scale first: one line, shift or machine. Note what went differently and collect the data. | The change in place in the trial area, notes on what happened, the data. | The team in the trial area, led by the owner. |
| Check | Compare the result with the goal and the baseline, and ask whether the change caused it or something else did. | Baseline, goal and result for each measure, and what was learned. | The owner and the team, reviewed with the supervisor or manager. |
| Act | If it worked, update the standard, train every shift and share it with similar areas. If not, decide what to change and start the next cycle. | An updated standard and training records, or the plan for the next cycle. | The owner, the supervisor and whoever owns the standard. |
Plan
- What happens
- Describe the problem with facts, set a measurable goal, find the root cause, choose the change to try and decide how the result will be measured. Record the baseline.
- Output
- Problem statement, goal with a date, root cause, action plan with owners and dates, the measure and its baseline.
- Who
- The owner and the people who do the work; the supervisor agrees the plan.
Do
- What happens
- Try the change as planned, on a small scale first: one line, shift or machine. Note what went differently and collect the data.
- Output
- The change in place in the trial area, notes on what happened, the data.
- Who
- The team in the trial area, led by the owner.
Check
- What happens
- Compare the result with the goal and the baseline, and ask whether the change caused it or something else did.
- Output
- Baseline, goal and result for each measure, and what was learned.
- Who
- The owner and the team, reviewed with the supervisor or manager.
Act
- What happens
- If it worked, update the standard, train every shift and share it with similar areas. If not, decide what to change and start the next cycle.
- Output
- An updated standard and training records, or the plan for the next cycle.
- Who
- The owner, the supervisor and whoever owns the standard.
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkA PDCA cycle on a label printer that keeps jamming on a packing line. The Excel version has the same example filled in.
The example's one cycle, stage by stage
- 1PlanAbout 6 jams a shift; goal 3 or fewer. 37 of 48 came after a roll change.
- 2DoA threading diagram at the printer, tried on day shift for two weeks.
- 3Check2.5 jams a shift on the trial shift; other shifts stayed near 6.
- 4ActMade standard, shown to every shift, copied to other lines.
Next cycle on the other lines
- Plan: jams stop the line about 6 times a shift. Goal: 3 a shift or fewer on the trial shift within four weeks. Analysis: 37 of 48 jams logged in two weeks came within ten minutes of a label roll change, and operators threaded the roll three different ways. Action: a threading diagram at the printer and a short demonstration for each operator.
- Do: tried on the day shift for two weeks; operators asked for the diagram to be moved to the printer door, which was done on day two.
- Check: jams on the trial shift averaged 2.5 a shift against the goal of 3, which closes 117% of the gap ((2.5 − 6) ÷ (3 − 6)), while the other shifts stayed near 6.
- Act: the diagram became part of the printer's standard, every shift was shown it, and it went up at the printers on the other lines.
One cycle on one page: the problem, the evidence, what was tried and whether it worked, ready to copy to other lines.
Common mistakes
Skipping the plan
Going straight to a fix means you cannot tell whether it worked or why. Write the problem, the goal and the cause first.
No measure in the plan
Decide how you will check the result before you start, and record the baseline.
Rolling out before checking
Test on a small scale first. A change that fails everywhere at once is harder to undo.
Stopping at check
If it worked, standardize it and train people; if not, adjust and go round again. Without the act step, gains fade.
Treating one cycle as the end
PDCA is a cycle. Many problems need several turns, each learning from the last.
In LeanSuite
Use this as a Lean Studio board
The same method is one of the 30 ready-made board templates in Lean Studio, LeanSuite's whiteboard: PDCA Cycle, continuous improvement cycle for iterating on a change through Plan, Do, Check, Act.
- Start from the PDCA Cycle template: four quadrants around a circle, one per step.
- Put the plan on stickies in the first quadrant, then move through Do, Check and Act as the cycle runs.
- Use a Line Graph or Single Data widget in Check to show the result against the target.
Worked example · sample data
The sample cycle is a changeover trial on press 2. Plan: cut the changeover from 42 to 30 minutes by moving die pre-heating off-line. Do: a pre-heat stand was built and used on 12 changeovers in week 36. Check: the average came down to 31 minutes, close to target, but two runs went over 35 minutes because the single stand was in use on another press. Act: the team ordered a second stand and updated the changeover standard to include the off-line pre-heat. The one-minute miss against target was not treated as failure; the check told the team exactly which condition broke the result, and that became the next plan.
Open this board in LeanSuite
PDCA Cycle is one of the 30 ready-made boards in Lean Studio, LeanSuite's whiteboard. Try LeanSuite in your browser, or run it on your own lines for 90 days.
What Lean Studio isHow to run a PDCA Cycle session
- 1Plan: state the problem with a number, set the target and the date, and decide exactly what will change and how you will measure it.
- 2Do: run the change on a small scale first, one line or one week, and record what happened, including what went wrong.
- 3Check: compare the measured result with the target, not with a feeling. Put the numbers on the board.
- 4Act: if the target was met, write the change into the standard and train it. If not, keep what worked, adjust the plan and start the next cycle.
- 5Keep the cycles short. A PDCA that takes six months is a project; a PDCA that takes two weeks is how a team learns.
Common mistakes
- Skipping Check. Most teams plan and do; few measure the result against the target before declaring success.
- A plan without a number, so Check has nothing to compare against.
- Changing five things at once in Do, then not knowing which one worked.
- Treating Act as 'done'. Act means updating the standard and training it, or starting the next cycle.
- Running the first cycle on the whole plant instead of one line.
Where it goes next in LeanSuite
- PDCA is one of the ready-made methodologies for a Kaizen project, with phases, due dates per phase and savings tracked against plant targets. Kaizen & Projects
- The result in Check can be a KPI with a target and RAG ranges, so the trend after the change is visible on the dashboard. KPI Dashboards
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
LeanSuite's continuous improvement software has built-in PDCA, A3 and DMAIC templates, suggests a method for the type of loss you are tackling, from a simple PDCA cycle to a full DMAIC project, and tracks projected and actual savings for each project.
See it in a 45-minute demoIn the lean glossary
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FAQ
PDCA template: common questions
Plan, do, check, act: plan a change, try it, check the result against what you expected, and act by standardizing it or by adjusting and going round again. It is also called the Deming or Shewhart cycle.
PDSA replaces check with study, to stress learning from the results rather than only checking them. The steps are otherwise the same, and this template works for either.
PDCA is the cycle; an A3 is one way of writing it down, with more room for background and root cause analysis. This PDCA template is lighter and suits smaller improvements. Use an A3 when the problem needs a fuller analysis or agreement from several people.
Both are structured improvement cycles. DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) comes from Six Sigma and is usually used for larger, data-heavy projects. PDCA is simpler and suits quick, small-scale tests.
Long enough to see whether the change works, and no longer. Some tests on the floor take days; others need weeks of data. Set the check date when you write the plan.
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- Weekly maintenance schedule templateNext week's maintenance jobs, scheduled only when ready, loaded against each craft's hours by day, with schedule compliance and break-ins at week end.
- Operational excellence assessment templateThe ten principles of operational excellence as 30 behaviors and practices you can see, scored 1 to 5 by several people, with the spread, the three lowest principles and an action plan.
- Scrum meeting agenda templateTimed agendas for the five scrum meetings, a sprint planning sheet, a retrospective sheet, and an Excel sprint backlog with a burndown.
- Toyota Production System (TPS) house templateThe TPS house for one plant or value stream: roof, two pillars and foundation, with what you do today, the evidence, a status and the next step for each element.
- EPEI and batch size calculatorHow often each part can come round on a shared machine (EPEI) and how big each batch must be, from demand, cycle times and changeovers, now and after SMED.
- People, process, technology (PPT) assessmentCheck one change before go-live: 18 people, process and technology statements scored 1 to 4 by the people who will use it, the lowest element and the actions.
- Process capacity sheet templateEach machine in a part's routing with manual, auto and tool change time, its capacity per shift, and the step that limits the cell against demand.
- Jidoka worksheet (stop at abnormality)For one line or cell, every abnormality that should stop the work: how it is detected, how the work stops, who is called, the immediate fix and the root cause step, plus a log of real stops.
- Team charter templateA one-page charter for a standing team: purpose, scope, roles, the KPIs it owns, which decisions it makes itself, norms and cadence.
- Chaku-chaku line plannerPlan a load-load cell: time each machine, load and walk, check that every machine is ready when the operator comes back, compare the cell cycle with takt and size the crew.
- Standard operating procedure (SOP) templateA full SOP in the hierarchical step format, from purpose and scope to the steps, records, revision history and approvals, with review checks and an SOP register.
- X-bar and R control chart template25 subgroups with means and ranges, control limits from A2, D3 and D4, signal flags, both charts and a reaction log.
- Gage R&R study sheet10 parts, 2 or 3 appraisers, 2 or 3 trials: EV, AV, GRR, PV, %GRR and ndc by the average and range method.
- Safety pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the incident pyramid to safety standards on one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Quality control pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the QA matrix to the QM matrix on one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Autonomous maintenance 90-day model area planAM steps 0 to 3 on one model machine in 13 weeks, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves for months 4 to 12.
- Professional maintenance (PM) 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from breakdown analysis to a running PM calendar on one model machine, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Environment and energy pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from waste and energy maps to area standards on one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Focused improvement 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the loss Pareto to standardized fixes on one model line, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Logistics and customer service pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the current-state map to pull on one model value stream, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- People development pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the skills matrix to trained cover on critical tasks in one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Early equipment management 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from lessons on current machines to a tracked start-up on one model equipment project, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Cost deployment pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the loss map to costed, ranked projects in one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Moving from Excel to one system checklistA 34-point checklist and a file inventory for moving trackers from spreadsheets to one system: keep, move, connect or retire, clean, pilot, run both, retire.
- Cost per unit worksheet (manufacturing cost per good unit)One product's cost per good unit by materials, labor, machine and overhead, the gap to target, and which cost lever is worth most a year.
- Digital manufacturing readiness assessmentScore 24 statements on process, technology and people from 0 to 4, check the balance between them and rank the gaps by what matters in your plant.
- Manufacturing KPI dashboard templateWeekly plant numbers in, 14 KPIs out: OEE and its parts, first pass yield, scrap, on-time delivery, recordable rate, cost and absence, each against a target.
- RCM worksheet (failure mode and task selection)Failure modes classed as hidden, safety, operational or non-operational, then a task chosen for each: condition-based, discard, failure-finding, redesign or run to failure.
- Error-proofing verification log (daily master-sample check)Each poka-yoke device proved every day or week with a known-bad sample, with missed checks counted and the hours and parts at risk worked out when one fails.
- Training matrix template with expiry datesPeople by required trainings with expiry dates, OK, due, expired and missing flags, compliance by person and area, cover per training and a renewal list.
- Downtime reason codes template26 starter codes mapped to the six big losses, a log with drop-downs, a Pareto by code and by loss, and a code card for the line.
- Defect catalogue template with boundary samplesEvery defect with a definition, a class and the reason for it, measured accept and reject limits by zone, boundary samples, a defect log with DPU and Pareto, and an inspector agreement check.
- I-MR chart template (individuals and moving range)Up to 100 single readings with moving ranges, limits from a baseline, five run-rule flags, both charts, a second phase and a reaction log.
- Kaizen event preparation checklistEverything that has to be ready before a kaizen event and done after it: 44 items with owners and due dates from 6 weeks before day 1 to 30 days after, five go or no-go gates and a day-by-day agenda.
- Attribute control chart template (p, np, c and u charts)p, np, c and u charts in one workbook: a chart selector, a sample size check, limits for each subgroup, signal flags and four worked examples.
- Critical spare parts list and stocking levelsAssets ranked by consequence, each part classed and given a stocking policy, and min and max worked out from usage and lead time, with the downtime each stock-out would cost.
- Tier 2 meeting agenda and escalation sheetA 15-minute tier 2 agenda in ten timed blocks, fixed roles and rules, escalation triggers with time limits, and a log that ages every escalation and sends the answer back down.
- HACCP plan template: hazard analysis and CCP worksheetThe Codex 12 steps in one workbook: team and product, process steps checked on site, hazard analysis with the CCP decision tree, the CCP table with completeness checks, an allergen matrix and a verification schedule.
- Forklift operator training and evaluation recordPer-operator training and evaluation record, a register with three-year due dates and refresher triggers, and a weighted practical evaluation scoresheet.
- REBA worksheet (Rapid Entire Body Assessment)Score up to six postures with REBA: body-part drop-downs, Tables A, B and C as lookups, final score and action level, and a before and after comparison.
- Mock recall template: traceability exercise worksheetTrace a finished lot back to every input lot and forward to every first customer, reconcile the quantities against a tolerance and time it against your target.
- ISO 9001 internal audit checklist (production area)46 audit questions for the production floor in 11 processes, each with its ISO 9001:2015 clause, what evidence to look for and the sample to take, plus five defined grades, a findings log, a finding report and a summary by clause.
- ISO 45001 internal audit checklist44 audit questions for the plant floor in 16 safety topics, each with its ISO 45001:2018 clause, the evidence to look for and the sample to take, plus 12 worker interview prompts, a findings log and a summary by clause.
- Plan for every part (PFEP) templateOne row per part: supplier, pack, container, usage, lead time and locations, with ABC classes, market and line kanban counts and a lineside space check.
- Food plant GMP inspection checklist (21 CFR 117 subpart B)55 checks in the order of 21 CFR 117 subpart B, each citing its paragraph and saying what to look at, with a grade, finding, owner and due date; results by section and grade, a walk route and a bakery example.
- Master sanitation schedule with pre-op verificationA master list of cleaning tasks by area and equipment with frequency, chemical, lockout, who and next due date, a weekly on-time count, and the pre-operational verification log with a release step.
- Changeover matrix templateA from-to matrix of changeover minutes with the clean each transition needs (allergen, colour, format), and a weekly planner that totals the order and suggests a shorter one.
- Overhead crane inspection checklist: frequent and periodic34 crane checks tied to OSHA 1910.179: an operator's pre-shift card, frequent and periodic inspections with signed records, a deficiency and tag-out log, and a register of next due dates.
- Measurement uncertainty budget templateA GUM uncertainty budget: Type A and B rows, divisors by distribution, sensitivity coefficients, uc, νeff, k from the t-table, U, TUR and a guard band check.
- Maintenance job plan templateOne job planned on one sheet: steps and craft hours, parts checked against stock, tools, lockout and permits, documents, a ready check for the schedule, and technician feedback.
- Video time study filming checklistA pre-shoot checklist and shot log for filming a time study on video: camera, light, people, settings, power and review.
- Reorder point and safety stock sheet (many parts)Safety stock, reorder point, order quantity and an order list for up to 500 parts, worked out from each part's own demand and lead time history.
- OSHA compliance calendar (general industry)37 recurring federal OSHA duties with the paragraph, interval, owner, next due date and an overdue flag, plus a 12-month view and counts by owner.
- TRIR and DART rate trackerMonthly hours, OSHA 300 case counts and near misses in; rolling 12-month TRIR and DART rate, a case budget against your target and a trend chart out.
- Energy use and EnPI trackerMonthly electricity, gas and fuel in one unit, a 12-month regression baseline, expected against actual energy for each month, an EnPI ratio, the running saving and the tests that say whether the model can be trusted.
- FIFO lane sizing sheetThe maximum for a FIFO lane from the stop it must cover, in whole containers, with length, refill and wait checks for up to eight lanes.
- Machine guarding inspection sheetA machine register with due dates and a status per machine, 21 checks tied to OSHA 1910.212, .219 and .147, a guard opening check against Table O-10, and an action log.
- Condition monitoring route sheetA route of measuring points with baselines, alert and alarm limits, a check interval from the P-F interval, readings with rising and overdue flags, and an exceptions list worst first.
- Fire extinguisher inspection logOne row for every portable extinguisher: hydro test interval from OSHA Table L-1, annual and 6-year due dates, a 12-month check grid and open issues.
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A shift handover sheet, a red tag log, a changeover checklist for one machine: if your team uses it on the floor, ask.