PDCA Cycle
The SG.UC promotes the planning, execution, monitoring, assessment and improvement of the activities of the University of Coimbra, in the mission and support areas, organising them in interrelated Processes that work as a coherent system.
Consequently, the SG.UC ensures that the following are well identified:
- the Processes necessary to carry out the UC’s activities, considering its missions, the needs of the PIs, the strategic initiatives and the Quality Policy;
- the risks and opportunities underlying these activities, seeking to avoid or minimise the former and take advantage of the latter;
- the sequence and interaction of these Processes.
The implementation of the UC’s quality policy, with the involvement of various stakeholders, is based on the PDCA cycle - Plan, Do, Check, Act, briefly described in the following points:
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- Plan – establishing the objectives of the SG.UC and its Processes, as well as the resources necessary to obtain results in accordance with the PI requirements, the normative and legal requirements, and the organisation's policies. Identifying risks and opportunities;
- Do – implementing what was planned, using the available resources and managing risks and opportunities;
- Check – monitoring and, where applicable, measuring the Processes and the resulting products and services against planned policies, objectives, requirements and activities. Reporting the results. Evaluating the effectiveness of actions to address risks and opportunities;
- Act – analysing results, reflecting and undertaking actions to improve performance as required.