Task 12.- . Improve the slides about Managing Quality tool with the - PDF document

Task 12.- . Improve the slides about Managing Quality tool with the suggested Internet resources The 6 quality management tools 6QC tools are fundamental instruments to improve the quality of products. They are used to analyse the production process, identify major problems, control fluctuations of product quality and provide solutions to avoid future defects.These tools use statistical techniques and knowledge to accumulate data and analyse them. They help organise the collected data in a way that is easy to understand. Moreover, by using 7QC tools, specific problems in a process can be identified. 1. The check sheet , which shows the history and pattern of variations. This tool is used at the beginning of the change process to identify the problems and collect data easily.The team using it can study observed data (a performance measure of a process) for patterns over a specified period of time. It is also used at the end of the change process to see whether the change has resulted in permanent improvement. 2. The Pareto chart is named after Wilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist who determined that wealth is not evenly distributed. The chart shows the distribution of items and arranges them from the most frequent to the least frequent, with the final bar being miscellaneous. The Pareto chart is used to define problems, to set their priority, to illustrate the problems detected and determine their frequency in the process. It is a graphic picture of the most frequent causes of a particular problem. Most people use it to determine where to put their initial efforts to get maximum gain. 3. The cause and effect diagram is also called the "fishbone chart" because of its appearance and the Ishikawa chart after the man who popularised its use in Japan. It is used to list the cause of particular problems. Lines come off the core horizontal line to display the main causes; the lines coming of the main causes are the subcauses. This tool is used to figure out any possible causes of a problem. It allows a team to identify, explore, and graphically display, in increasing detail, all of the possible causes related to a problem or condition to discover its root cause(s). 4. The histogram is a bar chart showing a distribution of variables. This tool helps identify the cause of problems in a process by the shape as well as the width of the distribution. It shows a bar chart of accumulated data and provides the easiest way to evaluate the distribution of data. 5. Then there's the scatter diagram , which shows the pattern of relationship between two variables that are thought to be related. The closer the points are to the diagonal line, the more closely there is a one-to-one relationship. The scatter diagram is a graphical tool that plots many data points and shows a pattern of correlation between two variables. 6. Graphs are among the simplest and best techniques to analyse and display data for easy communication in a visual format. Data can be depicted graphically using bar graphs, line charts, pie charts and control charts. While the first three are commonly used, the last is a line chart with control limits. By mathematically constructing control limits at three standard deviations above and below the average, one can determine what variation is due to normal ongoing causes (common causes) and what variation is produced by unique events (special causes). By eliminating the special causes first and then reducing common causes, quality can be improved. Control chart provides control limits that are three standard deviations above and

below average, whether or not our process is in control. This tool enables the user to monitor, control and improve process performance over time by studying variation and its source. 7. A Checklist contains items that are important or relevant to a specific issue or situation. Checklists are used under operational conditions to ensure that all important steps or actions have been taken. Their primary purpose is for guiding operations, not for collecting data. Generally used to check that all aspects of a situation have been taken into account before action or decision making. Simple, effective. Other resources: The following links are other sources for important quality mangement tools http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SGFblW07CQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d298pYNnrtM Four Tools are explained below in more detail: v Pareto charts Vilfredo Pareto, a turn-of-the-century Italian economist, studied the distributions of wealth in different countries, concluding that a fairly consistent minority – about 20% – of people controlled the large majority – about 80% – of a society's wealth. This same distribution has been observed in other areas and has been termed the Pareto effect. The Pareto effect even operates in quality improvement: 80% of problems usually stem from 20% of the causes. Pareto charts are used to display the Pareto principle in action, arranging data so that the few vital factors that are causing most of the problems reveal themselves. Concentrating improvement efforts on these few will have a greater impact and be more cost- effective than undirected efforts. Ø Things to look for: In most cases, two or three categories will tower above the others. These few categories which account for the bulk of the problem will be the high-impact points on which to focus. If in doubt, follow these guidelines: 0. Look for a break point in the cumulative percentage line. This point occurs where the slope of the line begins to flatten out. The factors under the steepest part of the curve are the most important. 0. If there is not a fairly clear change in the slope of the line, look for the factors that make up at least 60% of the problem. You can always improve these few, redo the Pareto analysis, and discover the factors that have risen to the top now that the biggest ones have been improved. 0. 0. If the bars are all similar sizes or more than half of the categories are needed to make up the needed 60%, try a different breakdown of categories that might be more appropriate. 0. Ø Often, one Pareto chart will lead to another:

• before and after charts • charts that break down the most important factors discovered in an earlier chart • charts that use different scales, such as number of complaints and the cost to respond, with the same categories. Ø Pareto chart statistics: For the Pareto chart, the following overall statistics are calculated: Mean: the average of all the values in the series, i.e. the average bar height. Sum: the sum of all the values in the series. Total: The number of items in that class (bar). Percentage: The percentage of the whole data set which that bar accounts for. Ø An example Paint Nonconformities Number Category Freq. Percent Cumulative % 2 Lt. Spray 582 30.9 30.9 7 Runs 434 23.1 54.0 3 Drips 227 12.1 66.1 1 Blister 212 11.3 77.4 5 Splatter 141 7.5 84.8 6 Bad Paint 126 6.7 91.5 4 Overspray 109 5.8 97.3 8 Other 50 2.7 100.0 v Brainstorming It is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem. In 1953 the method was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in a book called Applied Imagination. Osborn proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming.