3. What quality tools are available and
which ones should you use
3. What quality tools are available and
which ones should you use
There are many quality tools but we can only outline them here. Note that those who make improvements without following a scientific process you will no doubt get some improvement. But they will not win an award. The best improvements come from using at least some basic easy to learn quality tools.
a) Fishbone (Ishkawa) Diagram: Also called the Cause–and–Effect Diagram. It is a systematic way of defining what the problem is and what is the most probable cause. This can be learnt in 30 minutes.
b) Pareto Analysis: This collects a series of data to determine what activities (or culprits) cause the major problems or bring in the biggest results. Better known as the 80/20 rule.
c) Scatter Diagram: To project and analyze the dispersion of variables like minutes tardy plotted against shift schedule.
d) Flow Chart: Identifies and eliminates unnecessary steps and combines or simplifies others to increase efficiency.
e) Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA): A structured approach to identify all possible failures in a service or process by studying the consequences, or effects, of those failures; FMEA seeks to eliminate or reduce failures, starting with the highest-priority ones.
f) Common sense data gathering: Often the least used. “What is the problem and what data do I need to gather and study”. It starts with the assumption that if it can’t be measured, it can’t be improved.
There are many websites that can easily be accessed for information on quality improvement tools techniques and processes. Two for example can be found at:
a. BUSINESS EXCELLENCE
http://www.bexcellence.org/Total-Quality-Management-Tools.html
b. AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR QUALITY
http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/quality-tools.html
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