Session 11: Tools for Continuous Quality

Improvement
 7 Quality Tools for Continuous Improvement
• To make decisions using data obtained on a product, process, service or
from a consumer, organizations use certain graphical and analytical
tools which are listed below:
• Check Sheets
• Histogram/Bar Chart
• Pareto Chart
• Flowcharts
• Scatterplots (Matrix and 3D plots)
• Cause and Effect Diagrams (Ishikawa or Fishbone)
• Quality Circles
Check Sheets
• A structured form of collecting and analyzing data.
• Generally when the data can be collected repeatedly by the same person or at the same
location.
• It can be used to assess the probability distribution of a process, to quantify defects by
type, location and cause.
Name of the Check Sheet
• The data can be quantitative Name of the Data Recorder: XYZ
Location: ABC
or qualitative. Date: 12/05/2015 to 12/06/2015
 
Event Occurrence

Monday Wednesday Friday Total

X1 I   II 3
X2   III   3
X3   IIII IIIII I 10
X4 IIII     4
X5 IIIII IIII   IIII I 14
Total 14 7 13 34
Histogram, Bar Chart & Scatter plot
• Often displays fundamental properties of the data.
• The intervals are on the X-axis and the frequencies are represented by the
height of a rectangle on the Y-axis.
• Histogram is used for continuous data while bar chart is used for discrete
data.

• The simplest form of scatterplot consists of plotting bivariate data to examine

the relationship between two variables.
• Usually in quality control one might be interested to identify the relationship
between the controllable variable and a desired quality level.
• Often used as follow-ups to a Cause and Effect analysis.
Matrix and 3D plots
• Matrix plot is a graphical option for situations with more than two variables.
• Depicts two-variable relationships between a number of variables in one plot.
• It enables us to conceptualize the relationships among the variables.

• 3D plot gives the joint relationship of a dependent variable with two independent variables.
• 3D plot is useful in identifying optimal process parameters based on a desired level of an output
characteristics as interactions do occur between variables.

Bar Chart Figure-1 Linear Scatter Plot

45 70 65 250
40
60 200
35
30 50 45 150

Sales
25 40 35
20 30 100
30 25
15 18 50
10 20 12 0
5 10 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0
40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 0 Population
0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70
Pareto Chart (80-20 rule)
• Wealth is concentrated in the hand of a few people (by Alfredo Pareto-an
Italian economist) leads to Pareto Principle.
• Majority of the wealth is held by a disproportionately small segment of the
population.

• Pareto Principle: “Vital few -Trivial many”

• Critical or most significant or important (vital) are always few in number,
whereas the unimportant (trivial) are many in general and vice versa.
• 80% of the nonconformities (problems) are created by 20% of causes.

• Pareto chart help in prioritizing problems by arranging them in descending

order of their importance.
An example
• The following data represents the customer dissatisfaction in airlines:
Reason Lost Delay in Quality of Attitude of attendant
s Baggage Arrival Meals
Count 15 40 20 25

Reasons DA AA QM LB
Fr. 40 25 20 15
Cum. Fr. 40 65 85 15
% 40 6 85 100
Cum.Fr.

• Excel: Insert Chart- Histogram--Pareto Chart

Flowcharts
• Used to document a process, a pictorial representation (using symbols) showing all steps of a
process.
• Heavily used in manufacturing and service operations.
• It can identify bottlenecks, redundant steps and non-value-added activities.
• It can be constructed by using the knowledge of the personnel who are directly involved in
the particular process.
TV Installation

Is cable N
TV Connect Power
connectio
n Cable
available?

Y
Is power N
cable is
connected TV Installation
?

Y
Switch on
Cause and Effect Diagram (Fishbone/Ishikawa)
• Developed by Kaoru Ishikawa in 1943 and hence Ishikawa diagram.
• Used to identify and systematically list various causes that can be attributed to a
problem.
• It can help in identifying the reasons why a process goes out of control or to decide
which causes to investigate for process improvement.

• It links up the quality characteristics and technical factors.

• The purpose is route identification of the root cause of the problem.
• These diagrams are structured with the central bone as problem statement, side
bones as major categories of causes and sub-bones as detailed causes.
• After drawing the Fishbone diagram, quality circles are formed and brainstorming
sessions may be organized to generate ideas to solve the problem.
Construction of Cause and Effect Diagram
• Step1: Problem Statement-The definition of a situation becomes the problem
statement and becomes the root effect arrow.
• Step2: Major Causes-Identify the major categories of Causes. These are drawn at
an angle to the root effect arrow.
• Step3: Detailed Sub-causes-List all the detailed causes as sub-branches on the
major categories i.e. within each angled bone.
• Step4: Principal Causes-Identify the principal causes among the detailed causes.

The
Main Problem Statement Effect
Types of Cause-and-Effect Diagrams
• Cause enumeration: developed through brainstorming in which all possible types of causes are
listed to show their influence on the problem.
• Similar to the idea of brainstorming.
• It is difficult to single out any one cause from may others.
• Dispersion analysis: each major causes is analyzed thoroughly by investigating the sub- causes
and their impact on the quality characteristics.
• The causes are grouped under structured categories.
• The common categories for manufacturing process are: Men (people), Machine, Materials,
Methods, Measurements and Mother Nature.
• The common categories for service process are: People, Process, Conditions and Work
Environment.

• Process analysis: emphasis is on listing the causes in the sequence in which the operations are
actually conducted.
• It is embedded in flow chart and check sheet.
Fishbone Diagram: Dispersion Analysis
Process Analysis: Pizza Home-Delivery System using Cause-and-Effect Diagram

• Increased complaints from the customers about wrong/late deliveries.

Call Center
Receptionist Outlet Salesman Customer/Environment

Language Packages
Problem less items Weather
Problems
Wrong Address Customer not at
Assign order to
home
wrong address

Receive order Cooking Packaging Delivery Others

Improper Traffic Jams

Cooking
Insufficient number of cooks
Delivers at
wrong address

Kitchen Team Delivery Boy

Quality Circles (Ishikawa)
• An informal group of people (generally 10 members) that consist of operators, supervisors,
mangers etc. who get together occasionally to improve ways to make a product or deliver a
service.
• Formed after cause-and-effect analysis.
• Persons closest to an operation are in a better position to contribute ideas leading to an
improvement.

• Can be an effective productivity improvement tool as its generates new ideas.

• Participative style of management.
• Active participation of members: strengthen the team spirit, improves morale and
communication and promote initiatives and develops the ability to solve problems.

• Suggestions by the quality circles is examined by the management for feasibility.

Management Tools
• Problem Solving:
A non statistical tool
group ideas and findings
prioritize ideas or projects
effective for teams and individuals
do not use hard data and rely on subjective information

• Why-Why Analysis (5 Whys)

iterative question-asking technique to explore cause-and-effect relationship
underlying a particular problem.
key to root cause finding
focus on process rather than people
asking “why” 5 times will uncover the root cause (high chance)
“people do not fail, processes do”
Management Tools
• Nominal Group Technique:
a structured method for brainstorming, encourage contributions from everyone
each member of the team write their ideas on a piece of paper (salient
generation of ideas) and then all ideas are listed on a chart (sharing of ideas)
discuss on ideas-no idea is left out
prioritize the ideas by each member and rank them (using some scale)
the idea having highest score is considered
• Force Field Analysis:(Lewin, 1951)
decision making technique, widely used in planning and implementing change
management
carried out in a small group ranging 6-8 people
agree on the area of change required
list all factors (forces) in support of change (driving force)
list all forces which are working against the change (hindrances/restraining forces)
these forces are ranked(1 week and 5 strong)
An Example
• Change Proposal: Stop Smoking
Driving Change Proposal Restraining
Score
Forces Score & Goals Forces

 Poor health 5   Habit 4 

 Smelly  3  Addiction 5 
Stop Smoking 
 Cost 4   Taste  3

 Impact on Others  2  Stress 5 

 Fear 4   Advertisement  1