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 ?
Paul Prunty
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.
Paul Prunty
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.
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Paul Prunty
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7 Basic Quality Tools
Control charts
Graphs used to study how a process changes over time
450
PVC ppmh
400
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200
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100
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 ?
Yes
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No
Improvement
Actions
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.
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7 Basic Quality Tools
Pareto chart
Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant.
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7 Basic Quality Tools
Scatter diagram
Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to
look for a relationship.
30
Result
20
10
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Rx
Paul Prunty
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Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Control
DMAIC
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
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Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
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
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Control
Define
Phase
Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Measure
Phase
Control
Opportunity
is Identified
Measure
• Understand the process
- process map / flow chart
- determine current performance
- estimate capability of the process
• Identify critical process / product impacts
- Key process input variables (KPIV) – the X’s
- Key process output variables (KPOV) – the Y’s
• Determine measurement system reliability
- conduct measurement system analysis (MSA)
• Determine key metrics
• Understand Cause and Effect
• Use selective control charting as a diagnostic
Leadership
Establish Cross
Functional Team
Team
Describe /
Understand
Process
Engineering
Measurement
System Analysis
(MSA)
Team
System OK ?
No
Improvement
Actions
Yes
PVC ppmh
450
400
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Some other skills and tools
Process Capability Study (Cp, Cpk)
MSA Studies (GR & R, Anova)
Run Chart / Trend Chart
Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Analyze
Phase
Control
PVC ppmh
450
Some other skills and tools
Brainstorming
Process Capability Study (Cp, Cpk)
Statistical Analysis (e.g. DOE, Anova)
5 Why Root Cause Analysis
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Result
Analyze
• Assess process variation
• Determine components of variation (multi-var charts)
• Determine the defect cause
• Identify critical process / control elements
- products
- features
- process
• Assess process capability
• Determine potential improvement actions
- conduct hypothesis tests
- conduct ANOVA
400
Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Improve
Phase
Control
PVC ppmh
450
Some other skills and tools
Action Plans
Statistical Analysis (e.g. Cpk)
Statistical Analysis (e.g. DOE, Anova)
Sample Plans
Quality Control Plans
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Improve
• Implement improvement actions
• Optimize the process
• Implement actions to reduce variability
- target tolerancing
- process controls
- preventive / corrective actions
• Implement actions to eliminate defects
- Special cause variation
400
Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Control
Phase
Control
PVC ppmh
Some other skills and tools
Poka-yoke (mistake proof)
Statistical Analysis (e.g. Cpk)
SPC
Sample Plans
Control Plans
PDCA (PDSA) Cycle
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Control
• Monitor and control the process over time
- control plans
- control charts
• Mistake proof
• Reduce common cause (random) variation
• Rule of Thumb: Cp  2 , Cpk  1.5
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
Paul Prunty