While most companies are seeking six sigma training and lean training, in practice most of what will be needed initially is just a basic knowledge and experience with the 7 Quality Tools, also known as the 7 QC Tools.
The 7 Quality Tools are:
- Scatter Plot: Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship.
- Cause and Effect Diagram: (also called Ishikawa or fishbone chart) and Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem and sorts ideas into useful categories.
- Pareto Chart: Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant. It is a sorted Histogram, but focuses on saperation in the data.
- Check Sheet: A structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data; a generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes.
- Histogram: The most commonly used graph for showing frequency distributions, or how often each different value in a set of data occurs.
- Control Charts: Graphs used to study how a process changes over time.
- Flow Chart: Shows a picture of a process in a visual representation – a process map.
In fact, I’d argue that for even the most experienced practitioners of process improvement, the tools that are used most are probably one of the above.
Below is a movie that shows an overview of the 7 Quality Tools and how they might be used.
What is your experience?
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This post was written by Pete Abilla | ||||
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
At the call center I work for, we do deep dive analysis to cases, in which every action gets documented on an activity log on the software we use for case creation. We can select the cases through their case number and analyze the activity log to find root causes. After deep diving a good amount of cases, and determine root causes, I do a Pareto Chart which helps me to focus solutions on common few.
Also I´ve been assigned a couple of projects which I would like to develop using a these tools. One project consists of setting targets to the specific metric our teams get measured by. I´m thinking an Control Chart could work here. The second project is reduce Average Handle Time for call by 10%. I´m still not sure what tool could be applied.
I argue strongly in my organization that Lean is NOT the tools and even to divorce ourselves of the name, mostly to no avail. What we call “lean” is simply fact-based decision making, to call the toolset “Lean” is to create an illusion that if we use the tools, we will be lean. The mental model is important: Gather facts, use them to improve processes, communicate simply and visually and improve whenever you can. The tools are largely irrelevant. If you were put in a place with only the mental model, you would come up with usable tools. The tools are for information gathering, visualization and analysis. The mental model is the science.
Yes, I agree. In fact, the mental model you describe is what I discuss in my article on the Toyota Business Practice.
Yes, the tools are impotent – they’re just tools. Under the control of a masters craftsman, magic can happen.
Yes, I completely agree.
I agree with the structured problem solving mind set mentioned.
Here’s the reason I came across this post as well as reviewed my Shingijutsu material this evening:
Someone from a traditional organization asked me today if I could list the “Lean Quality tools” I’ve used – which confused me, as I realized I haven’t heard a lean practitioner reference a “Lean Quality Tool” – the entire business system is designed to identify abnormalities.
While they were looking for analysis terms like pareto and fishbone diagram;
mistake proofing seems more applicable in my mind, but then I think continuous flow improves quality by enabling the immediate detection of defects so they are not passed on, and mistake proofing is part of jidoka – but are these tools, or a business system which identifies abnormalities?