TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

RESEARCH TOPIC

The Seven Tools of Total Quality Management

Vikram Seshadri

Student number : 0719005921

Professor : Prof. Harish

Date of submission : September 30, 2007

Declaration

Unless mentioned this report has not been submitted or been copied from any
other work anywhere in the world and has been an individual research work.
 Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….... 3

Why are tools so important?..........................................................................4

What is the various quality tools discussed in this report?....................... 5

Pareto charts……………………………………………………………………….. 6

Histograms …………………………………………………………………………. 9

Check sheets………………………………………………………………………..12

Scatter diagrams…………………………………………………………………...15

Flow charts………………………………………………………………………….17

Ishikawa diagram ………………………………………………………………….19

Control charts………………………………………………………………………21

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….28

References………………………………………………………………………….29

2
 Introduction

Total quality management is also known as management by data. It is highly

improbable that a process can be stabilized and kept under control if there is no
data available to analyze and verify the correctness of the procedures followed.
In the present day world and working atmosphere, people maker more and more
decisions based on only facts and especially in the western countries the
decisions are no longer made by using basic intuition or gut feelings as we term
it. Once we get past the small business concept, into the realms of a big
business or a multinational company then data becomes critical and vital for
controlling of the internal and external procedures and processes that they lead
to.
There are many ways to collect and analyze data that are required by the
company. However carrying out this process of collecting enough data and then
analyzing it can be tedious and a painful job in some situations. Hence, in this
report I would like to look at some of the basic tools that are used in companies
everywhere today and are extremely popular. These tools facilitate the process
of collecting and then analyzing the data that we collect so as to arrive at a
rational solution. Writing about the use of statistical methods in Japan, Dr Kaoru
Ishikawa has said that “There are 7 indispensable tools of quality that are used
by everyone: company presidents, company directors, middle management,
foremen and line workers. These tools are also used in a variety of departments,
not only in the manufacturing department but also in the departments of planning,
design, marketing, purchasing and technology” (Goetsch, 2005).
No matter where we work at what level in the organization, there is always going
to be some or the other avenue by which we are going to use these tools like
bread and butter in our work schedules. This report will take the reader through
some commonly used quality tools and their interlinking and applications. It also
deals with the involvement of the management in the process of control.

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 Why are tools so important?
To explain this point lets think of an example. A construction worker when he
works uses a few tools. He uses the drills, generators, planers, routers, sanders,
saws, all power tools, hand tools, clamps, and hammers, all for different
purposes but with a common mission and that is to make his job easier. All tools
that we just read about are called as physical tools. These tools help him to work
better and with more precision. However, total quality management tools are
known as intellectual tools. These tools are used to simulate and improve human
judgments. These tools are used to get better solutions and decisions in large
firms and are applied in problem solving and decision making processes.

A tool like a hammer exists to help do a job (Goetsch, 2005). If the job includes
continuous improvement, problem solving or decision making then these tools fit
the bill. Each of these tools is in some form or the other charts for the collection
and display of data. Through the collection and display system of data, these
data become important and can be used to solve problems and enhance
decision-making. These tools can also be used to keep track of work done and
can even help in predictions of future trends and problems. This would all but be
impossible without these charts, given the mountain of data that one encounters
in today’s work place (Goetsch, 2005).

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 What is the various quality tools discussed in this

report?

This report will actually handle an assortment of tools, some developed by quality
experts whereas some are adaptive tools. They provide the means for making
quality management decisions based on facts. It depends upon the situation,
which tool will be used. Only one of them might be used or a combination of them
might be used in some cases. There are a number of software’s available today
to aid us in using these tools

Total Quality Management (TQM) and Total Quality Control (TQC) literature
make repeated mention of seven basic tools. Kaoru Ishikawa contends that 95%
of a company's problems can be solved using these seven tools. The tools are
designed for simplicity. Only one, control charts require any noteworthy working
out. The tools are:

• Flow Charts
• Ishikawa Diagrams
• Checklists
• Pareto Charts
• Histograms
• Scatter grams
• Control Charts

5
 Pareto charts

The Pareto chart is a very useful chart, which is used in most of the industries
today. It helps us separate the important data from the trivial bit of information.
The Pareto chart is named after the Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo
Pareto (1848-1923) and was widely propagated and used by Dr. Joseph Juran.
The Pareto principle is very simple. It recognizes the fact that in the world, in all
processes, a majority of the issues that crop up are due to a minority of causes.
This concept can be understood better with the help of a simple example.
Consider in a factory, if we analyze the situation we find that 80% of the defects
are due to 20% of the problems that exist in the factory. The remaining 20% of
the product defects are caused due to the remaining 80% of the problems that
exist. Examining the cost defects, we can analyze and see that 80% of the total
defect costs will be raised thanks to only 20% of the cost elements.

This fact is true in any other industry, considering the classic case of a
classroom; we would find that 80% of the problems caused in the school would
be due to only 20% of the students. The remaining 20% of the problems is
caused by the other 80% of the students. An example of this case is given below
in the form of a Pareto chart, which the author has himself designed and
conceptualized. In the chart below, we have two sets of data. One is the total
number of children, which are 200 and the distribution of the characteristics of
these children. We can observe from the chart that nearly 160 students are
falling into just two categories of the chart that is the talkative and dull groups.
160 students comprise 80% of the total strength but two categories are just 20%
of the total categories that the chart has.

This shows us and reinforces the fact that 80% of the defects are caused by just
20% of the problems. If we can handle our resources in such a manner that we

6
concentrate on eliminating the talkative and dull behavior in class then we would
have solved the problems of 80% of the students.

Number of students versus problems in schools

Talkative dull weak naughty others

In studies

Therefore, what a Pareto chart does is that it shows us our main reasons for
concern or the main areas wherein we need to focus most of our resources to get
corrective action carried out immediately. It helps us prioritize our resource
expenditure in a very orderly manner.

Coming to another variety of Pareto charts, we need to talk about the cascading
Pareto charts. Say in case we do successfully find out that “too talkative
students” is the main problem then we need to get to solving that. Therefore,
what we do is we take this one factor, draw a separate Pareto chart on its

7
elements, and divide this one factor into many small factors so that we can
allocate our resources more carefully and precisely. For example, take a look
below at the Pareto chart that has been drawn and observe that if that one factor,
“too talkative students” is divided, and then it will still follow the 80-20 rule.

As we can infer from the diagram above the 90 students who were the major
problem are now divided into smaller groups to find out what are the main causes
of them been so talkative. In addition, from the Pareto we can make out that
almost 80% of the students are again from just two problems that are 20% that is
they are just too active or are just very clever.

Hence, in this section we saw the uses of Pareto and its various applications.
Now let us see the next tool that is used very commonly and that is the
“Histograms.”

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 Histograms

The first statistical process control tool that is usually used is the histogram. The
histogram graphically estimates the variation and identifies the gaps in a process.

When we have a set of process data, a histogram maybe used to graphically

display the process and its variables. A histogram can be built by dividing the
range of the data into equal sized portions. For example, if your data ranges from
1 to 7, you could have equal partitions of 0.5 consisting of 1 to 1.5, 1.5 to 2.0, 2.0
to 2.5, and 2.5 to 3.0 and so on.
The procedure is very simple. Collect at least 50 samples for plotting and then
calculate the range of the values, which is the largest value minus the smallest
value. Then determine the number of classes for the X-axis and then calculate
the size of each class. The class interval can be obtained by dividing the range
by number of classes. Note down the data class lines (the maximum and
minimum values that can be plotted in any class value). Finally calculate the
frequency of each class and plot the histogram.
The histogram would answer various questions such as what is the shape of the
distribution, what the most favorable response is given by the system, does the
data contain outside restriction points, does the data take a symmetric form or is
it skewed to the sides and so on.
What we do is we take the frequency values that are tabulated and then we
display them graphically. The major difference of a histogram from a bar chart is
that in a histogram it is the area of the bar that gives us the value and not the
height where as in a bar graph it is the height of the bar that gives us the value.
This is very important for us when the categories are not of uniform width
(Lancaster, 1974).
Variation in a pattern always exists and this variation is usually captured by a
histogram. Histograms provide clues about the characteristics of the population
from which its sample is taken. While a fixed and clearer picture can be seen by
using a histogram, it is also important to note that the same data in numerical

9
form or in a table would have been very hard to understand and comprehend
(Evans and Dean, 2004). An example of a histogram is shown below.

The mathematical explanation of a histogram can be given by stating three

terms. The first one is ‘n’ which is the number of observations. The second is ‘k’,
which is the number of bins as they are called (also known as samples). The
third term and the final one is ‘mi’, which is the mapping of the histogram. These
three factors are interrelated so as to give us a formula as below

10
An additive histogram is a plot that counts the summation number of
observations present in all of the bars until the present bar. That is, the
cumulative histogram Mi of a histogram mi is defined as: (Besterfield, 2005).

(Besterfield, 2005)

Now that we have taken a look at how the histogram works lets take a look at the
next quality tool and that is one of the most commonly used tools in quality,
namely the ‘Check Sheet’.

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 Check Sheet

Many companies in today's world have a rich access to data and with the advent
of powerful desktop and palmtop computers are able to collect much information.
Nevertheless, sometimes this information itself is too much to comprehend and
can actually drown the company in confusion. In such cases, it is important for a
company to distinguish and segregate the useful data from the trivial data
available. Check sheets help us do exactly that. The check sheet is a valuable
tool that can be used for a series of applications. Its only restriction is the
imagination of the person noting down the data. In addition, one more important
advantage of a check sheet is that it can give us the data that we can use to
prepare more complex tools like Pareto diagrams and so on.

There are four different kinds or ways in which we can prepare check sheets and
they are –

• Defective item check sheet –

In this kind of check sheet, we look for a kind of defect in a product. In this check
sheet usually there will already be a list of defects and as and when we check the
samples if in case we do find a defect then we put a check against that defect.
This is a countable kind of data check sheet where the results can be counted
and tabulated (http://class.et.byu.edu/mfg340/lessons/, referred on 22 September
2007).

In the following page, the author has given an example of the defective item
check sheet used in a sand casting process. It can be observed that every time a
defect is observed, a check or a cross is put in the column. The total number of
checks will give us the variation.

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Types of
defects Cracks Blow holes Porous Hard finish /
castings brittle
Frequency xxxxxxxx xxxxx xx xx xx xx xxx
xxxxx
Total 8 5 13 3

• Defective location check sheet –

This kind of check sheet is usually used in processes wherein the exterior finish
of the product is vital. Usually these check sheets have pictures or diagrams of
the product and checks are put on these pictures to indicate where exactly the
defect is occurring.

• Defective cause check sheet –

This kind of check sheet takes into account the reasons or causes for a defect to
occur. It can actually be used to measure and compare two or more variables
through the same check sheet. For example, consider the check sheet given
below. Machine 2 has more defects running in the afternoon session than the
morning session; hence, it needs to be looked at.
Machine 1 Machine 2

Operator A Morning X X

Afternoon XX XXXXXX

Operator B Morning X XX

Afternoon XX XXXXXXXXX

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 • Checkup confirmation check sheets –
This is the most common kind of check sheets used in industries today. These
check sheets usually have a list of jobs to be done and as these jobs are
completed one by one there are going to be a check mark put against it. This
kind of check sheets are usually used in maintenance schedules and service
industries.

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 Scatter Diagrams

This is one of the simplest and most common quality tools used. It is non-
mathematical and is so simple that anyone can do it. In scatter diagrams, we
take two variables, which are dependent on each other and plot their values with
respect to each other. This plot will then give us the kind of interrelationship that
these two factors share. Depending upon the kind of interrelationship that the two
variables can share, there are three different kinds of scatter diagrams and they
are –
• Positive relationship scatter diagram
• Negative relationship scatter diagram
• No relationship scatter diagram
All the three types of scatter diagrams have been shown below in fig 1, fig 2, and
fig 3 respectively.

Fig 1: positive relationship

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 Fig 2: negative relationship

Fig 3: no relationship

As you can see from the above three graphs X is the driving factor such as time
of boiling or heating and Y is the performance factor like the temperature and so
on which depend on X in some cases and do not depend on it in some cases.
This was about check sheets. Now let us see the next quality tool and that is the
flow charts.

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 Flow charts
For many processes which have a number of sub processes present within them,
we can have a process flow diagram, which will give us who the next customer of
the process is. These diagrams facilitate the understanding of the entire process
and what should be the guidelines that need to be followed.

Let us consider the example of an incoming call router and its process flow
diagram.

(Source: http://www.mindtools.com/media/Diagrams/flowchart.GIF, referred on

20th September 2007).

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At the beginning of the call we need to answer the call and ask them how can we
help the caller. If the caller has a problem, we enquire about the problem and
then we take down the company name and the callers name and transfer to help
desk and then that stream of the process ends.

Another stream that the same process can take is if the caller wants to place a
new order or wants help doing it then we transfer the call from the second stream
itself that is we do not go ahead to ask them if they have a problem and so on.

In today's world many companies such as the Coca Cola company, Colgate
Palmolive , Columbia pictures and Antz corporation use the flow chart
extensively to explain their company processes and procedures to new
employees and changes in it to current employees.

The advantage with this tool is its simplicity and its ease of use. It can be
understood by anyone and can always give the correct interpretation of the
process. What’s more, since everyone can understand the process so well it is
open for improvements at any given time by any employee.

Now that we have understood how a flow chart works, let us look at how the next
quality tool works and that is the cause and effect diagram or the Ishikawa
diagram.

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 Cause and Effect Diagrams/Ishikawa Diagrams

The cause and effect diagram is the most commonly used analysis tool to find
out the main reasons for the final effect that has happened. A cause and effect
diagram is also known as the fish bone diagram or the Ishikawa diagram named
after the founder and promoter Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa. The cause and effect
diagram is used to either get to know the reasons for the bad effect or the causes
for the good effects. Causes might be many and for ease will usually be broken
into six categories of man, material, methods, machines, measurement and
environment. There might be other cause sectors in industries like the service
industry, which can also be put up. Each major cause is further divided in minor
causes. For example under methods we might have ability, training, physical
characteristics and so on.
For explaining and visually understanding, the cause and effect diagram better,
let us look at the illustration given below

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The above fish bone diagram is for a quality problem in a sand casting industry.
We have taken the six major causes as work force, machines, environment,
measurement, working methods and materials. These major causes are again
divided into smaller minor causes such as arrogant managers, demotivated
workers, and pressure to perform improper calibrations and so on. All these
causes lead to the one bad effect and that is the hard and porous casting.

Finally, the author would like to say that even though the cause and effect
diagram is a very simple diagram yet very effective as it gives us a diverse view
and also fosters teamwork and can actually be used in any issue arising n the
business and it can be fun.

Now that we have had a view of six of the quality tools that are used let us look at
the last and most important quality tool and that is the control charts.

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 Control charts

This is the last of the tools but certainly one of the most widely used and most
important tools in the workplace today. The development of total quality
management by taking into account the usage of statistics and theories has been
well documented and infact this has been the cornerstone for an improvement in
any process. Using statistical process control an organization can continuously
monitor, control and analyze the process so that they can detect any variation
and correct it early in the process. The meaning of variation in a process is the
degree to which there are errors moving away from the control limits specified or
from the nominal value specified. Variation always affects the output of the
process largely.

Variation in a process may be due to special causes or local causes/system

causes. Local causes/system causes are the ones that regularly cause a
variation to occur. Examples of system causes would be the improper training of
staff or workers, poor design of workplace, supplier credibility problems, and so
on. Special causes are those causes, which usually tend to happen in a periodic
manner and are mostly not expected when they happen. These causes are
usually dealt with by the machine operator himself or by the net level worker in
the organization. Some examples would be material slipping, machine
breakdown, oil leakage, and tool broken and so on. What we can see from the
above two causes is that special causes are the ones that do not always cause a
worry for production as such things happen. However, it is the system causes,
which the management should look at as these causes are the ones, which
usually lack knowledge about and will continue to produce defects if left
unattended. Infact Dr. Deming rightly noted that it is the system causes which are
the root to 80 -85% of the process variations whereas special causes would only
contribute to around 15-20% of the actual variation in the process.

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 The control charts were developed by Dr. Walter Shewhart in the early
nineteenth century. Today it is the most widely used quality tools largely. The
major advantage of a control chart is not only does it indicate variation but also
shows us where the variation occurred so that we can immediately attend to the
problem area. In order to understand and plot a control chart a user might have
to have a basic understanding of how the math works the chart, but the chart can
easily be interpreted by any worker in the organization.

Today in the organization, we use mainly two kinds of control charts and they
are the r-chart (or the range chart) and the average (or x-bar chart). The average
chart or x-bar chart gives us the total variation of the sample points from the
actual mean line or mean value that we designate. The r-chart gives us the range
at which these sample points are distributed around the nominal mean.

Let us first look at the various components in a control chart. There are three
main lines and these are the upper control limit line (UCL), the lower control limit
line (LCL), and finally the control line or the mean line (CL). In order to plot a
control chart we need to take into account at least 30-50 sample values, which
will be represented in the form of a point on the control chart.

In order to understand the control charts better, we shall look at the example
given below and as to how we can construct a control chart from the data given.
This example will also show us as to how we need to measure and plot variation
in a process. In this process we consider a tool room operator taking
measurements of a carton box being manufactured. He takes a sample size of
four that is n = 4 and checks on the measurements every hour. The main
measurement that he is focusing on is the thickness of the carton box and its
variation in the production process. Let us see how to plot a x-bar chart and r-
chart from the data collected.

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 First we need to tabulate our values, which we get by taking the samples out for
measurement.

Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 x-bar or Range or

average ‘r’
8am 1.0 1.09 1.02 1.02 1.0325 0.09

9am 1.01 1.03 1.04 1.01 1.0225 0.03

10am 1.03 1.06 1.03 1.01 1.0325 0.05

11am 1.0 1.06 1.04 1.05 1.0375 0.06

12pm 1.08 1.02 1.05 1.07 1.0550 0.06

1pm 1.05 1.08 1.03 1.02 1.0450 0.06

2pm 1.05 1.06 1.03 1.07 1.0525 0.04

3pm 1.08 1.03 1.03 1.05 1.0475 0.05

4pm 1.04 1.05 1.03 1.06 1.0450 0.03

5pm 1.06 1.04 1.03 1.07 1.0500 0.04

6pm 1.0 1.08 1.04 1.08 1.0500 0.08

7pm 1.06 1.07 1.03 1.04 1.0500 0.04

X- Bar is just the average of the value of the four sample point values noted
down. That is

X-bar = sum of all 4 values of sample points

Number of samples taken (n)

In addition, range ‘r’ is the difference between the largest value and the
smallest value of the sample points taken. That is
Range or ‘r’ = highest value out of ‘n’ sample points – smallest value out of the sample
points

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 After we calculate the range and x-bar for all the sample batches then we calculate x-
double bar, which is the average of all the x-bars calculated. That is,

X-double bar = sum of all x-bars calculated earlier

Number of sample batches taken

Therefore, in this case

X-double bar = 12.52
12

Therefore, X-double bar = 1.043333 which can be rounded off to 1.0434.

R-bar is the next step to be calculated and it is the average of the values of
ranges that we have calculated. That is

R-bar = sum of all the ranges calculated

Number of sample batches taken

In this example the value of r-bar is,

R-bar = 0.63 = 0.0525

12

Now the next calculations are as follows,

For the R-chart, the centre line will be R-bar that is 0.0525
Upper control limit or UCL = D4*(R-Bar) = 2.283*0.0525 = 0.1198
Lower control limit or LCL = D3*(R-Bar) = Zero*0.0525 = Zero

24
 For the X-bar chart, the centre line would be X-double bar that is 1.0434
Upper control limit or UCL = X-double bar + A2*(R-bar)
=1.0434+ (0.729*0.0525) = 1.0870
Lower control limit or LCL = X-double bar - A2*(R-bar)
=1.0434- (0.729*0.0525) = 1.0051

D3, D4, and A2 are constants that are mentioned in any quality handbook and
are constant for a given sample size around the world. Now with all these values
calculated we can go ahead and draw our control charts. First let us draw the X-
bar chart.

1.0870= UCL

1.0870

1.0434= CL

1.0051
1.0051= LCL

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Sample number

25
 Now that we have seen the plotting of an X-bar chart, let us look at how to plot an
r –chart or range chart. Using the data calculated above,

0.1198= UCL

0.1198

0.0525= CL

0.0000
0.0000= LCL

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Sample number

What we could observe from both the graphs is the fact that none of the points
taken are crossing the control limits. What ever we can make out from the chart
is that there is a pattern of flow among the points. The process is said to be
under control and under the influence of only system causes if all the points lie
within control limits. If there are any points outside the control limits, then the

26
process is said to be under the influence of special causes and the process
needs to be verified and the special cause should be eliminated.

Continuous improvement of a process can be achieved by control charts only if

the process is under control first. When we observe the control charts in factories
and other industries we can observe various point patterns among them and a
few of them are runs, trends, cycles, jumps, hugging points. Cycles are said to
occur when there are a number of sample points following the same value or
pattern of movement. Jumps are said to occur when there is a huge shift
between the location of one point and the next point. Hugging points are when
there are two or more points that are very close to the UCL or LCL or even the
control line. Trends are a dangerous situation that indicate tool or machine
damage and this can be perceived to be happening when there are many points
occurring on one side of the CL and also sharply falling and rising on one side
only. Finally runs are said to occur when there are a number of points occurring
on the same side (http://class.et.byu.edu/mfg340/lessons, referred on 20
September 2007).

27
 Conclusion

Quality is the responsibility of not just one person in the organization, but the
responsibility of each member of the organization. To ensure that quality
products are coming out the management has to be actively involved in
propagating quality control and its concepts.

When there is an abundant quantity of quality data available, companies can

some times go wrong in analyzing what is not required and leaving out what was
of utmost importance to the process. For example, consider a bank where there
are thousands of customers carrying out different kinds of transactions at any
given time all around the world. The data that is collected is scary to any one
individual. Nevertheless, when a problem arises the bank should be in a position
to collect the relevant data and analyze them to arrive at the solution at the
earliest. Thanks to the efforts of pioneers of quality like Juran, Taguchi, ishikawa,
Deming and so many others, we have a few tools in the world today that reduces
the burden on us so much.

The author just hopes that the information found in this report will help the reader
get a clear understanding of the various tools of quality and their degree of
helpfulness in case of a problem. A few more tools need special mention like the
Deming’s cycle, house of quality, failure mode effective analysis and so on.
These concepts are not tools but institutions of quality by themselves. Hence,
these topics have not been handled in this report. Again hoping and wishing that
these simple tools could help any aspiring quality worker in his/her job to attain
quality work. Thank you.

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control, 3rd edition, CRC press.

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2nd edition, CRC Press.

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International Edition.

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of Quality and Reliability Management, Vol 12, Bradford publications.

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• Rogers E Rolf, 1997, Implementation of Total Quality Management, The
Haworthe press.

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• http://www.asq.org

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