Plan-Do-Check-Act and the PDCA Deming Cycle

Today is Walter Deming’s birthday.

Who the heck is Walter Deming?

William Edwards Deming was born on October 14, 1900. He is most famous for Deming PDAC Cycle, otherwise known as the Shewhart cycle, or the Deming Wheel’s “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (modified to “Plan-Do-Study-Act”). Deming is widely credited with improving production in the United States in the 1940’s and then later in Japan in the 1950’s.

Before the Deming Cycle was implemented in Japan, consumer products with the label “Made in Japan” was considered a joke: cheap, flimsy and just plain garbage.

Deep Purple was the first to use this phrase in the music industry for their live album “Made in Japan“. Iron Maiden later had a live EP called “MAIDEN JAPAN“.

Today, we all love our Sony electronics and Honda automobiles, just to name a few. We no longer think of Japan as trash consumer products.

What is the Plan-Do-Check-Act Deming Cycle?

In short, the PDCA is an acronym for:

PLAN
Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the specifications.

DO
Implement the processes.

CHECK
Monitor and evaluate the processes and results against objectives and Specifications and report the outcome.

ACT
Apply actions to the outcome for necessary improvement. This means reviewing all steps (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and modifying the process to improve it before its next implementation.

How is this related to Track and Field Training?

If you plan to copy the Clyde Hart Training manual, and copy it word for word, you will NOT run 43.18 or 19.32 for the 400 and 200 meters respectively. Sorry to break the bad news to you.

You have to take a general program, and adjust to every athlete. You have to tweak and modify what works, and of course, what doesn’t work. Sometimes this is done weekly, sometimes monthly, and sometimes every year.

If it all goes well, you will improve with time, as shown on this uphill chart, with “up” denoting quality or improving performance. Sadly, an injury will set you back and you will slide down on the ramp.