7 TOOLS FOR THE

QUALITY JOURNEY
Dr. Maricel Correa Galang
 Objectives:
• The aim of this lesson is to present the methods (tools
and techniques) which may be used in the quality
improvement process.
• It is also important to understand that some of the tools
which are presented in this lesson may be used by top
and middle management in their planning and checking
activities while other tools have been developed in order
to satisfy the needs of the masses (blue collar workers,
supervisors, employees in administration etc.).
 THE SEVEN+TOOLS FOR QUALITY CONTROL
‘The seven tools of quality control’ is a phrase which originated from
Japan and which is inseparable from quality circles.

A Quality Circle is:

• A small group
• Voluntarily carrying out quality control activities
• Within its own work area.
One of the reasons for the success of the so-called quality circles in Japan is that
in the ‘Deming cycle’ a substantial part of the activities—‘check’, ‘action’ and
‘planning’—have been transferred to the ‘process level’ (operator level). This
‘transfer’ of responsibility and competence is shown in Figure 7.1.
1.CHECK SHEETS
• There are two different types of
‘checks’ in the quality
improvement cycle (the PDCA
cycle). For both types of checks a
specifically designed sheet (form)
may be very helpful.
TYPES OF CHECKS
1. ‘do phase’
2. ‘the check phase’
 ‘Do Phase’
In the ‘do phase’ of the PDCA cycle there are usually some
standards (standard operations) which must be followed. Such
as;
• ‘must-be operations’ –these are the constraints on
carrying out the work.
These constraints consist of restrictions which must be adhered
to, in performing the work; items which ensure the safety of
employees or assure product quality are the most important of
these.
 ‘The Check Phase’

• In this type of check the results are compared with the plan and the
causes behind any significant gaps are identified and studied.
• The keywords in this check are study, learn and understand variations.
• If the variations are understood it is possible to continue the rotation of
the PDCA cycle in an efficient way. But profound understanding is only
possible if meaningful data is available and meaningful data will only be
available if it has been well planned.
• In the plan phase of the PDCA cycle the necessary data collection must
be planned so that the collection can be done in the do phase and so
that the necessary data analysis can be done in the check phase.
• In order to carry out the data collection and analysis effectively it is a
good idea to design a check sheet which simplifies the whole process.
• Such a check sheet must be specifically designed for each PDCA
application because the need for data varies from application to
application.
• As a rule of thumb check sheets need both ‘result data’ and ‘cause data’.
Examples of result data are number of defects/failures, production size
or inspection size. Examples of cause data come from ‘the six Ms’ (men,
machines, materials, methods, management and mileu).
2. THE PARETO DIAGRAM
• The Pareto diagram is a graphic depiction showing both
the relative distribution as well as the absolute distribution
of types of errors, problems or causes of errors.
• It is generally known that in most cases a few types of
errors (problems or causes) account for 80–90% of the
total number of errors in the products and it is therefore
important to identify these few major types of errors. This
is what the Pareto diagram is used for.
• The Pareto diagram indicates the type of error
(problem) to be reduced first to improve the
production process.

• The Pareto diagram is often

used as the first step of a
quality improvement
programme.
• The Pareto diagram has proved to be useful for
establishing co-operation around the solution of common
problems as simply looking at the diagram tells the
persons involved what the greatest problems are.
• When this is known to everybody, the next step is to find
and remove the causes of these problems.
• The cause-and-effect diagram may be useful in further
quality improvement work.
 3.THE CAUSE-AND-EFFECT DIAGRAM
• The cause-and-effect diagram is also called an Ishikawa diagram
because the diagram was first introduced by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa
in 1943 in connection with a quality programmed at the
Kawasaki Steel Works in Japan.
• Sometimes the diagram is also called a fishbone diagram.
• Cause-and-effect diagrams can be extremely useful tools for
hypothesizing about the causes of quality defects and problems.
• The diagram’s strength is that it is both simple to use and
understand and it can be used in all departments at all levels.
• Returning to the underlying connection between quality tools, when
the first cause-and-effect diagram has been drawn, it is necessary to
identify the most important causes, including the eventual testing of
some of them.
• Most causes can be put down to men, materials, management,
methods, machinery and milieu (the environment), cf. Figure 7.3
• On completion of the data analyses and with the most
important causes identified, quality planning can begin.
• Quality planning involves both determining which
preventive methods to use in controlling identified
causes and setting goals for ‘planned action’.
• Since it is not such a good idea to ‘attack’ all the causes
at the same time, the Pareto diagram may be a valuable
tool.
4.HISTOGRAMS  
• A histogram is a graphic summary (a bar chart) of
variation in a specific set of data.
• The idea of the histogram is to present the data
pictorially rather than as columns of numbers so that the
readers can see ‘the obvious conclusions’ which are not
always easy to see when looking more or less blindly at
columns of numbers. This attribute (simplicity) is an
important asset in QC circle activities.
5. CONTROL CHARTS
• may be used partly to control variation and partly in the
identification and control of the causes which give rise to
these variations
Shewhart (1931)
• Shewhart defined a production process as, in principle, a specific
mixture of causes. Changing just one of the causes, e.g. change of
operator, results in a completely different production process.

Causes Of Quality Variation ( Shewhart)

• Random Causes (System Causes)
• Specific Causes
RANDOM CAUSES
•‘Random’ causes are characterized by the fact that there are many of them and
that the effect of each of these causes is relatively small compared to the
special causes.
•Shewhart’s prefer system causes instead.
•Deming (1982) uses the designation ‘common causes’ and emphasizes that it is
these causes which must be ‘attacked’ if the system is to be improved. This is
our justification for calling them system causes.

SPECIFIC CAUSES
• there are only a small number of specific causes and the effect of each specific
cause may be considerable.
An example of a specific cause is when new employees are allowed to start
work without the necessary education and training.
ATTRIBUTE CONTROL CHARTS
In many cases the data are not a result of measuring a continuous variable, but are the result of counting how often a specific event or attribute

FOUR TYPES OF ATTRIBUTE CONTROL CHART

■ P CHART is a control chart to analyze and control the proportion of
failures or defects in subgroups or samples of size n.
■ NP CHART is a control chart to analyze and control the number of
failures or defects in subgroups or samples of size n.
■ C CHART is a control chart to analyze and control the number of
non-conformities (defects, failures) with a constant sample size.
■ U CHART is a control chart to analyze and control the proportion of
non-conformities (defects, failures) with a varying sample size.
6. SCATTER DIAGRAMS AND THE CONNECTION WITH
THE STRATIFICATION PRINCIPLE

• Stratification principle was discussed in relation

to the cause-and-effect diagram and the Pareto
diagrams.
• Stratification - it enables an effective causal
analysis to be carried out and so improves the
design of effective prevention methods.
Effective causal analysis will only be effective if
measurements of production results are supplemented by
data on the most important causes

EXAMPLES
• by data on people (which operator)
• materials (which supplier)
• machines (type, age, factory)
• time (time of day, which day, season)
• environment (temperature, humidity)
7. FLOW CHARTS
• Last tool in ‘the seven+tools for quality control’.
John T.Burr (Costin, 1994) said:
• Before you try to solve a problem, define it.
• Before you try to control a process, understand it.
• Before trying to control everything, find out what is important.
• Start by picturing the process.
• Making and using flow charts are among the most important actions
in bringing process control to both administrative and manufacturing
processes.
• The easiest and best way to understand a process is to draw a picture
of it—that’s basically what flow charting is.

Quality tools are only effective if they are used in the right way and
the basic rules to follow are:

1. Educate your people in understanding the aims and principles of

the different tools.
2. Train your people in applying the tools.
3. The best training is ‘on the job training’.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TOOLS
AND THE PDCA CYCLE
■ As a conclusion to this chapter we present Table
7.10 which gives the reader an overview of the
seven+tools for quality control and their
potential application in the PDCA cycle.
■ The seven+tools for quality control can be
applied in different parts of the PDCA cycle.
Three of the methods may be applied in the
planning phase (P), all of them may be applied in
the Do and Check phases while three of the
methods may be applied in the Action phase.
Only one of the methods—flow charts—may be
applied in all the phases of the PDCA cycle.