Fundamentals of total quality management 76 It can be seen from Table 7.1 that the most important quality technique in Japan is the cause-and-effect diagram and as the Pareto diagram is often used in connection with the cause-and-effect diagram, itis not surprising that this quality technique in Japan is ranked as number 2. In South Korea these two quality techniques are ranked as 4 and 3, whereas the techniques in Denmark are ranked as 6 and $ respectively. ‘The cause-and-effect diagram and the Pareto diagram are examples of two relatively simple quality techniques the use of which does not require any special theoretical education in contrast to the quality technique of ‘sample plans’. This is one reason why these two quality techniques are regarded as extremely effective in quality circle work. ‘This is why these techniques are regarded as the most important in Japan. By inspection and cause analyses it is important that lots from different processes, suppliers ete, are not mixed up. Stratification is the name of this philosophy or procedure. It is interesting that this quality technique in Japan is ranked as number 3 and with an average ranking value equal to the average ranking values of the cause-and-effect, diagram and the Pareto diagram. In South Korea and in Denmark this quality technique is considered quite unimportant. The most important quality technique in Denmark is “sample plans’, typically used to check the failure proportion of purchased lots, own semi-manufactures or finished goods. This is called inspection. At this point, itis worth recalling the well-known sentence: ‘Quality cannot be inspected into a product! ‘The three most important quality techniques in Japan are typically used to find and remove the causes of poor quality. When these causes have been found and removed, the importance of the use of sample plans is reduced. This correlation explains why Japanese companies, in contrast to Danish companies, have given the lowest rank to ‘sample plans’. Japanese companies are simply in the lead when it comes to finding and removing the causes of quality errors. This is an important reason why the quality of Japanese products is regarded as the best in the world, ‘All employees, including management, need training in the use of a number of the basic quality tools. Only through familiarity with these tools can give employees the deep understanding of the concept of variation necessary for total commitment to quality ‘Management and employees in most Western firms have only a superficial knowledge of these tools. Some of them will be familiar from school and college (e.g. with stratification, check sheets, histograms and scatter diagrams) but it is not always fully appreciated that they can actually be used in combination to great effect in the quality improvement cycle (PDCA) in all the firm’s functions and at all levels. ‘The basie principles underlying the methods also are not fully understood. In Japan, quality training courses for managers attach great importance to these basic principles. In the description of the various methods, we will therefore focus on these principles and in section 7.11 we will summarize where in the PDCA eycle the various methods can be used. 7.3 CHECK SHEETS ‘There are two different types of ‘checks’ in the quality improvement cycle (the PDCA eycle). For both types of checks a specifically designed sheet (form) may be very helpful itro”* professionalTools for the quality journey 77 In the ‘do phase’ of the PDCA cycle there are usually some standards (standard operations) which must be followed. Such ‘must-be operations’ were previously described in section 5.4 as ‘constraints on carrying out the work’. ‘These constraints consist of restrictions which must be adhered to in performing the work; items which ensure the safety of employees or assure product quality are the most important of these. ‘To ensure adherence it is advisable to design a check-list check sheet with the constraints (‘must-be operations’) listed. During the process the operator has to document that all the must-be operations have been followed. The documentation may be the signature of the operator or an ‘OK mark’ for each operation listed and a signature at the end of the check-list. It is a good idea that the operators are educated, trained and motivated to use such a check-list check sheet. In many cases it is possible and a good idea to involve the ‘operators in the design or improvement (redesign) of check-lists. An example of a check- list check sheet is shown in Table 7.2 ‘The second type of ‘check’ during the PDCA cycle is done in ‘the check phase". Here the results are compared with the plan and the causes behind any significant gaps are identified and studied. The keywords here are study, lea and understand variations. If, and only if, the variations are understood it is possible to continue the rotation of the PDCA cycle in an efficient way. But profound understanding is only possible if ‘meaningful data is available and meaningful data will only be available if it has been well lanned. Pivin the plan phase ofthe PDCA cycle the necessary data collection must be planned so that the collection can be done in the do phase and so that the necessary data analysis can be done in the check phase. ‘Table 7.2 An example ofa check-list check sheet Prepare car for vacation T. Check parts important for salety Lights oO Tyre tread depth 0 Bumpers 0 Steering 0 Brakes 0 2. Clean ear Interior oO Windshield oO Lights 0 3. Cheek, fill Brake, uid 0 Battery water 0 Coolant oO Windshield washer system 0 Frost protection 0 Fuel o itro”* professionalFundamentals of total quality management 78 Tyre pressure 0 Maps oO Music cassettes o ‘Table 7.3 An example of a check sheet Machine Number of failures 1 TT 2 mu mH 3 u In order to carry out the data collection and analysis effectively itis a good idea to design ‘a check sheet which simplifies the whole process. Such a check sheet must be specifically designed for each PDCA application because the need for data varies from application to application. ‘As a ule of thumb check sheets need both ‘result data’ and ‘cause data’. Examples of result data are number of defects /failures, production size or inspection size. Examples of cause data come from ‘the six Ms” (men, machines, materials, methods, management and, mileu). An example ofa check sheet is shown in Table 7.3, 7.4 THE PARETO DIAGRAM The Pareto diagram is a graphic depiction showing both the relative distribution as well as the absolute distribution of types of errors, problems or causes of errors. It is generally known that in most cases a few types of errors (problems or causes) account for 80-90% of the total number of errors in the products and itis therefore important to identify these few major types of errors. This is what the Pareto diagram is used for. An example will show how the diagram is constructed, Table 7.4 shows data collected from a given production process. The table shows that the process functions with a failure rate of about 19% and that almost half of the errors stem from error type 1, whereas error types 1 and 3 account for about 72% of all errors. The Pareto diagram is constructed on the basis of Table 7.4, ranking the error types according to their failure percentage, thus giving a better overview of the same distributions, of Figure 7.2 Table 7.4 Absolute distribution and relative distribution of errors on different error types (number of components inspected=2165) Error type Number of errors Failure percentage (04) Relative failure percentage (2) 198) 92 417 u 2s 2 60 u 103 48 27 v Is os 43 v n 33 13 Total 416 193 1000 itro”F professionalTools for the quality journey 79 y axis % 100 = oo _% 100 g 100 2 80 5 20 8 60 2 80. ] 40 2 40. 20 0. | oO Tv a Error ype ig. 7.2 The Pareto diagram. It should be noted that the relative failure percentage expresses the failure percentage in proportion to the total failure percentage. It can be seen from Figure 7.2 that the Pareto diagram consists of a bar chart showing the error distribution measured in absolute terms (left axis) as well as relative terms (right axis). Furthermore, the Pareto diagram consists of a broken curve showing the accumulated number of errors and the accumulated relative failure proportion ‘The Pareto diagram indicates the type of error (problem) to be reduced first to improve the production process. Judging from Figure 7.2, one should concentrate on reducing, error type I first, then error type Ill etc. If this procedure is to be economically optimal, the greatest reduction in quality costs is obtained by first concentrating on error type I, then error type Ill etc, The Pareto diagram is often used as the first step of a quality improvement programme. A precondition for using the Pareto diagram in the first steps of a quality improvement programme is of course that data has been collected, i. the PDCA cycle has rotated at least once. Otherwise more soft data must be used to identify “the vital few’ causes. ‘When quality improvement programmes are initiated, important that: 1 all those involved co-operate; 2. a concrete goal is chosen (the problem); 3. the programme has a great effect. fall the persons involved try to bring about improvements individually, the result will often be that much energy is wasted and only modest results are achieved. ‘The Pareto diagram has proved to be useful for establishing co-operation around the solution of common problems as simply looking at the diagram tells the persons involved what the greatest problems are, When this is known to everybody, the next step is to find and remove the causes of these problems. The cause-and-effect diagram may be useful in further quality improvement work. itro”F professional