PDCA Percentages

In this blog, we are going to cover the percentage of each of the steps, why planning must be your largest percentage, and how you can really get this wrong and get yourself into trouble.

I am still on my way to San Diego, heading to LCI Congress, and just loving life. We have a lot of exciting things coming up next year with two SuperPM bootcamps, two tact production sets, tact planning courses, and new combined Takt and Last Planner courses. We also upgraded our Foreman board with more resources for training and development, because most foremen do not realize all that is available to them.

Leanville is also moving forward. I recently reviewed the design development set of drawings for our first project. While redlining them, I realized that my ability to see and anticipate issues comes from my background as a field engineer. I mastered layout, survey control, lift drawings, work packaging, and quality at the ground level. That field engineering foundation made me a far more effective superintendent. Every construction professional should have at least 18 months to three years of field engineering experience. Without it, they miss critical skills that are essential to leadership on site.

Now let us turn to today’s topic. PDCA stands for plan, do, check, and act or adjust. I saw a chart showing how Toyota applies PDCA. Their pie chart dedicated about 80 percent to planning, while do, check, and act occupied much smaller slices. In contrast, the Western approach often flips this with minimal planning and too much emphasis on doing. That imbalance is what gets teams into trouble.

When I saw this, it struck me deeply. Success is built on planning. It is not about rushing into the work and hoping it comes together. It is about planning deliberately, then executing, checking results, and adjusting. At Muster with Jocko Willink, I saw this principle in action. The Navy SEALs and other branches of the military spend an extraordinary amount of time planning. They involve subordinates, review multiple iterations, prepare ahead of time, and always follow the one third two thirds rule for planning and execution. All the glory and grandeur of operations comes from planning, not from winging it.

In construction, planning goes beyond the activity itself. It means designing to make execution easier, preparing trades, setting up logistics, establishing clear visuals, and anticipating alternatives. By the time you actually do, 80 percent of the effort should already be complete. The check and adjust stages only work if there is a plan to measure against. Without a plan, continuous improvement is impossible.

This concept is why I am so excited about installation work packages. We are building them into our process, starting from bid instructions and inclusions, updating them through pre mobilization and pre construction meetings, and finalizing them with field engineers and foremen before work begins. These packages cover sequences, takt times, space utilization, logistics, drawings, and quality requirements. They give us the benchmark for checking and adjusting. They are the pre kit and the gate that must be passed before starting work.

If the military relies on deep planning and iteration, why should construction do less. Proper planning is what makes execution remarkable. When we embrace PDCA percentages the way Toyota does, dedicating most of our effort to planning, we set ourselves up for smoother projects, fewer surprises, and continuous improvement.

Having a plan is not optional. It is the very foundation of building right.

Key Takeaway

The PDCA cycle only works if planning takes the largest share. I learned that success comes from investing most of our effort into planning so we can check, adjust, and truly improve.