7 Quality Tools for Quality Management

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SEVEN TOOLS FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT Quite simply, quality is defined as giving the customer the right thing right in the first time. When quality is implemented, it yields increased market share and reduced scrap and rework. Thus many companies have adopted different methods to gain quality improvement One of many methods to ease the quality improvement process was introduced by Kaoru Ishikawa. It was called Seven Tools of Quality. Ishikawa believed that 95% of a company’s problems can be solved using these seven tools. The tools are designed for simplicity so average person can have less complicated statistical analysis. The seven tools are: 1. Flow Charts 2. Cause and Effect Diagrams 3. Check Sheets 4. Histograms 5. Pareto Diagrams 6. Scatter Diagrams 7. Control Charts Flow Charts Flow charts describe sequence of activities graphically in accomplishing a task. It must reflect the actual process rather than what the process owner wants it to be. By generating flow charts, process owner can understand the process and working relationship between people and organization will be clarified. Furthermore, flow charts will show the duplicated effort and other non value added steps. So process owner can identify the target specific steps in order to make continuous improvement. Cause and Effect Diagrams Cause and effect diagrams are also called Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagrams. These diagrams show a relationship between the effect of the problem and the causes. Although cause and effect diagrams can be developed by individual, but it is better to be brainstormed by a team. To help in identifying the causes, people used to take 5 potential factors which are man, machine, material, method, and environment as the guidance.Cause and effect diagrams consist of 2 sides. The right side lists the effect or the problem, while the left side lists the causes

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