Continuous Improvement and …

The 7 Basic Quality Tools

~
The DMAIC Process

To a hammer, everything’s a nail …

How many tools do you have in your improvement tool kit ?
7 Basic Quality Tools

Cause-and-effect diagram
also called Ishikawa or fishbone chart

Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem and

sorts ideas into useful categories.
7 Basic Quality Tools

Check sheet

A structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data; a

generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of data
gathering purposes.
 100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
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7 Basic Quality Tools

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PVC ppmh

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Control charts

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Graphs used to study how a process changes over time
7 Basic Quality Tools

Flow Chart

Visually shows sequential steps in a process using commonly

accepted symbols.

Opportunity
is Identified

Leadership

Establish Cross
Functional Team

Team

Describe /
Understand
Process

Engineering

Measurement
System Analysis
(MSA)

Team

System OK ? No Improvement
Actions

Yes
7 Basic Quality Tools

Histogram

The most commonly used graph for showing frequency

distributions, or how often each different value in a set of data
occurs.
7 Basic Quality Tools

Pareto chart

Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant.

7 Basic Quality Tools

Scatter diagram

Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to

look for a relationship.

30

20
Result

10

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Rx
 DMAIC
Define Measure Analyze Improve Control Process
Model

DMAIC – What is it?

The Quality Council of Indiana, in the QMC/OE Body of knowledge defines DMAIC
as a process improvement tool and discusses it under management tools.

GE summarized the DMAIC process steps as:

• Define the customer’s critical-to-quality issues and core business process

• Measure the performance of the core business process involved
• Analyze the data and determine root causes or improvement opportunities
• Improve the target process with creative solutions to fix and prevent problems
• Monitor the process to sustain the improvements
 Define Measure Analyze Improve Control
Define
Phase

Define
• Select and define project scope
- what needs fixing
- what are project goals and objectives
• Define customer critical characteristics / features
- who is the customer (internal / external)
- what product or service is provided to the customer
• Select team
- champion
- leader
- members
• Develop improvement / implementation plan
• Create support infrastructure

Some other skills and tools

Brainstorming
Teaming
Planning / Project Management
Action Plans
Run Chart / Trend Chart
 Define Measure Analyze Improve Control
Measure
Phase

Opportunity
is Identified

Measure
• Understand the process
Leadership

Establish Cross
Functional Team

- process map / flow chart Team

- determine current performance Describe /

Understand
Process

- estimate capability of the process Engineering

• Identify critical process / product impacts

Measurement
System Analysis
(MSA)

- Key process input variables (KPIV) – the X’s System OK ? No

Team

Improvement

- Key process output variables (KPOV) – the Y’s

Actions

Yes

• Determine measurement system reliability

- conduct measurement system analysis (MSA)
• Determine key metrics
• Understand Cause and Effect
• Use selective control charting as a diagnostic

PVC ppmh
450

400

350
Some other skills and tools 300

Process Capability Study (Cp, Cpk) 250

200

MSA Studies (GR & R, Anova) 150

100

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Run Chart / Trend Chart
 Define Measure Analyze Improve Control
Analyze
Phase
PVC ppmh
450

400

Analyze 350

• Assess process variation

300

250

• Determine components of variation (multi-var charts)

200

150

• Determine the defect cause 100

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• Identify critical process / control elements
- products
- features
- process
• Assess process capability
• Determine potential improvement actions
- conduct hypothesis tests
- conduct ANOVA

Some other skills and tools

Brainstorming 30

Process Capability Study (Cp, Cpk)

20

Statistical Analysis (e.g. DOE, Anova)

5 Why Root Cause Analysis Result 10

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Rx
Define Measure Analyze Improve Control
Improve
Phase
PVC ppmh
450

400

Improve 350

• Implement improvement actions

300

250

• Optimize the process

200

150

• Implement actions to reduce variability 100

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- target tolerancing
- process controls
- preventive / corrective actions
• Implement actions to eliminate defects
- Special cause variation

Some other skills and tools

Action Plans
Statistical Analysis (e.g. Cpk)
Statistical Analysis (e.g. DOE, Anova)
Sample Plans
Quality Control Plans
 Define Measure Analyze Improve Control
Control
Phase

PVC ppmh
450
Control 400

• Monitor and control the process over time 350

300

- control plans 250

200

- control charts 150

100

• Mistake proof

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• Reduce common cause (random) variation
• Rule of Thumb: Cp  2 , Cpk  1.5

Some other skills and tools

Poka-yoke (mistake proof)
Statistical Analysis (e.g. Cpk)
SPC
Sample Plans
Control Plans
PDCA (PDSA) Cycle
Anything More?

Who said:
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.”

Albert Einstein

How many tools do you have in your quality tool kit ?

References:
• 7 Basic Tools: Excerpted from Nancy R. Tague’s The Quality Toolbox, Second Edition, ASQ Quality Press, 2004, page 15.
• CMQ/OE Primer 2010, Quality Council of Indiana

Learn More:
• The Quality Toolbox, Second Edition, Tague, Nancy R.
• Implementing Six Sigma: Smarter Solutions Using Statistical Methods, 2nd Edition, Breyfogle, Forrest W