Continuous Quality Improvement Tools

CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TOOLS

PDCA Cycle From problem-faced to problem-solved Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once. Among the most widely used tools for continuous improvement is a four-step quality model—the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle, also known as Deming Cycle or Shewhart Cycle: The PDCA Cycle is a checklist of the four stages which you must go through to get from `problem- faced' to `problem solved'. The four stages are Plan-Do-Check-Act, and they are carried out in the cycle illustrated below.

The concept of the PDCA Cycle was originally developed by Walter Shewhart, the pioneering statistician who developed statistical process control in the Bell Laboratories in the US during the 1930's. It is often referred to as `the Shewhart Cycle'. It was taken up and promoted very effectively from the 1950s on by the famous Quality Management authority, W. Edwards Deming, and is consequently known by many as `the Deming Wheel'. Use the PDCA Cycle to coordinate your continuous improvement efforts. It both emphasises and demonstrates that improvement programs must start with careful planning, must result in effective action, and must move on again to careful planning in a continuous cycle. Also use the PDCA Cycle diagram in team meetings to take stock of what stage improvement initiatives are at, and to choose the appropriate tools to see each stage through to successful completion.

Global Star Enterprises is a fictional company created for educational and training purposes only. This document may not be reproduced or distributed, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright © Raw Pixel 2010

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 1 of 9 Plan-Do-Check-Act Here is what you do for each stage of the Cycle:  Plan to improve your operations first by finding out what things are going wrong (that is identify the problems faced), and come up with ideas for solving these problems.  Do changes designed to solve the problems on a small or experimental scale first. This minimises disruption to routine activity while testing whether the changes will work or not.  Check whether the small scale or experimental changes are achieving the desired result or not. Also, continuously Check nominated key activities (regardless of any experimentation going on) to ensure that you know what the quality of the output is at all times to identify any new problems when they crop up.  Act to implement changes on a larger scale if the experiment is successful. This means making the changes a routine part of your activity. Also Act to involve other persons (other departments, suppliers, or customers) affected by the changes and whose cooperation you need to implement them on a larger scale, or those who may simply benefit from what you have learned (you may, of course, already have involved these people in the Do or trial stage). You have now completed the cycle to arrive at `problem solved'. Go back to the Plan stage to identify the next `problem faced'. If the experiment was not successful, skip the Act stage and go back to the Plan stage to come up with some new ideas for solving the problem and go through the cycle again. Plan-Do-Check-Act describes the overall stages of improvement activity, but how is each stage carried out? This is where other specific quality management, or continuous improvement, tools and techniques come into play. The diagram below lists the tools and techniques which can be used to complete each stage of the PDCA Cycle. This classification of tools into sections of the PDCA Cycle is not meant to be strictly applied, but it is a useful prompt to help you choose what to do at each critical stage of your improvement efforts.

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 2 of 9 Global Star Enterprises is a fictional company created for educational and training purposes only. This document may not be reproduced or distributed, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright © Raw Pixel 2010

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 3 of 9 Deming Cycle: The Wheel of Continuous Improvement The essence of continuous improvement lies in employee’s involvement. This happens when they improve their process, product or services by applying their creative faculties on their work related problems and routine jobs. Kaizen (Japanese word meaning continuous improvement) provides these employees a platform to unleash their creativity. Dr. J.Edward Deming, the famous quality guru, provided a simple yet highly effective technique that serves as a practical tool to carry out continuous improvement in the workplace. This technique is called PDCA Cycle or simply Deming Cycle. PDCA is acronym of Plan, Do, Check and Action. Deming Cycle provides conceptual as well as practical framework while carrying out Kaizen activities by the employees. Let’s understand the concept with following illustration:

Deming/PDCA Cycle The four steps Plan, Do, Check and Action should be repeated over time to ensure continuous learning and improvements in a function, product or process. For example if employees want to improve either of the above areas, they should ask themselves about following question during the PLANNING phase of this cycle: 1. What are we trying to accomplish? 2. What changes can we make that will result in improvement? 3. How will we know that a change is an improvement? PLAN stage involves analysing the current situation, gathering data, and developing ways to make improvements. The DO stage involves testing alternatives experimentally in a laboratory establishing a pilot process, or trying it out with small number of customers. The CHECK stage requires determining whether the trial or process is working as intended, whether any revisions are needed, or whether is should be scrapped. The ACT stage focuses on implementing the process within the organization or with its customers and suppliers. Once all this stages are completed to the fullest satisfaction, the improvement is standardized. The standardized work or product is the result of improvement initiative but it is not stopped here. With the changing circumstances or new techniques this standardized work, process, product or service is again subjected to further improvement thus repeating the Deming Cycle again and again.

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 4 of 9 Pareto Chart Also called: Pareto diagram, Pareto analysis Variations: weighted Pareto chart, comparative Pareto charts Description A Pareto chart is a bar graph. The lengths of the bars represent frequency or cost (time or money), and are arranged with longest bars on the left and the shortest to the right. In this way the chart visually depicts which situations are more significant. When to Use a Pareto Chart  When analysing data about the frequency of problems or causes in a process.  When there are many problems or causes and you want to focus on the most significant.  When analysing broad causes by looking at their specific components.  When communicating with others about your data. Pareto Chart Procedure 1. Decide what categories you will use to group items. 2. Decide what measurement is appropriate. Common measurements are frequency, quantity, cost and time. 3. Decide what period of time the Pareto chart will cover: One work cycle? One full day? A week? 4. Collect the data, recording the category each time. (Or assemble data that already exist.) 5. Subtotal the measurements for each category. 6. Determine the appropriate scale for the measurements you have collected. The maximum value will be the largest subtotal from step 5. (If you will do optional steps 8 and 9 below, the maximum value will be the sum of all subtotals from step 5.) Mark the scale on the left side of the chart. 7. Construct and label bars for each category. Place the tallest at the far left, then the next tallest to its right and so on. If there are many categories with small measurements, they can be grouped as “other.” Steps 8 and 9 are optional but are useful for analysis and communication. 8. Calculate the percentage for each category: the subtotal for that category divided by the total for all categories. Draw a right vertical axis and label it with percentages. Be sure the two scales match: For example, the left measurement that corresponds to one-half should be exactly opposite 50% on the right scale. 9. Calculate and draw cumulative sums: Add the subtotals for the first and second categories, and place a dot above the second bar indicating that sum. To that sum add the subtotal for the third category, and place a dot above the third bar for that new sum. Continue the process for all the bars. Connect the dots, starting at the top of the first bar. The last dot should reach 100 percent on the right scale.

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 5 of 9 Pareto Chart Examples Example #1 shows how many customer complaints were received in each of five categories. Example #2 takes the largest category, “documents,” from Example #1, breaks it down into six categories of document-related complaints, and shows cumulative values. If all complaints cause equal distress to the customer, working on eliminating document-related complaints would have the most impact, and of those, working on quality certificates should be most fruitful.

Example #1

Example #2

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 6 of 9 "5 on 5" The 5 Step Continuous Improvement Cycle

For companies that want to improve and succeed. A business team needs to work well together, utilise the strengths of each of the team members and use a process that is repeated over and over. The following continuous improvement cycle used repeatedly will lead to a new "chemistry" within the organisation so that the culture begins to change to one of continuous improvement. Define 1. Identify the target process 2. Organize an improvement team 3. Describe the issues, concerns or opportunity 4. Collect current performance data 5. Create a process map Identify 1. Identify the process customers and suppliers 2. Define the process inputs and outputs 3. Identify wastes and value added activities 4. Define the process requirements 5. Generate a list of potential improvements Select 1. Establish desired performance goals 2. Prioritize the potential solutions 3. Establish the selection criteria 4. Select the best solution(s) 5. Define the desired process

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 7 of 9 Implement 1. Develop an action plan 2. Develop process performance metrics 3. Document the solutions(s) 4. Test the changes 5. Implement per the action plan Evaluate 1. Measure progress as per the developed action plan 2. Compare results with desired performance goals 3. Establish ongoing feedback 4. Determine corrective actions that need to be taken 5. Repeat the cycle to define new opportunities

Fishbone Diagram Also Called: Cause-and-Effect Diagram, Ishikawa Diagram Variations: cause enumeration diagram, process fishbone, time-delay fishbone, CEDAC (cause- and-effect diagram with the addition of cards), desired-result fishbone, reverse fishbone diagram Description The fishbone diagram identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem. It can be used to structure a brainstorming session. It immediately sorts ideas into useful categories. When to Use a Fishbone Diagram  When identifying possible causes for a problem.  Especially when a team’s thinking tends to fall into ruts. Fishbone Diagram Procedure Materials needed: flipchart or whiteboard, marking pens. 1. Agree on a problem statement (effect). Write it at the center right of the flipchart or whiteboard. Draw a box around it and draw a horizontal arrow running to it. 2. Brainstorm the major categories of causes of the problem. If this is difficult use generic headings: o Methods o Machines (equipment) o People (manpower) o Materials o Measurement o Environment 3. Write the categories of causes as branches from the main arrow. 4. Brainstorm all the possible causes of the problem. Ask: “Why does this happen?” As each idea is given, the facilitator writes it as a branch from the appropriate category. Causes can be written in several places if they relate to several categories.

Continuous Quality Improvement Tools V:2:July10 Page 8 of 9 5. Again ask “why does this happen?” about each cause. Write sub-causes branching off the causes. Continue to ask “Why?” and generate deeper levels of causes. Layers of branches indicate causal relationships. 6. When the group runs out of ideas, focus attention to places on the chart where ideas are few. Fishbone Diagram Example This fishbone diagram was drawn by a manufacturing team to try to understand the source of periodic iron contamination. The team used the six generic headings to prompt ideas. Layers of branches show thorough thinking about the causes of the problem.

Fishbone Diagram Example For example, under the heading “Machines,” the idea “materials of construction” shows four kinds of equipment and then several specific machine numbers. Note that some ideas appear in two different places. “Calibration” shows up under “Methods” as a factor in the analytical procedure, and also under “Measurement” as a cause of lab error. “Iron tools” can be considered a “Methods” problem when taking samples or a “Manpower” problem with maintenance personnel.

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