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IMPLEMENTATION OF SEVEN TOOLS OF QUALITY IN EDUCATIONAL ARENA:

A CASE STUDY

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 8, Issue 8, August 2017, pp. 882–891, Article ID: IJMET_08_08_096
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=8&IType=8
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

IMPLEMENTATION OF SEVEN TOOLS OF

QUALITY IN EDUCATIONAL ARENA: A CASE
STUDY
V. Jayakumar*, F. Mohammed Ajmal Sheriff, A. Muniappan, G. Bharathiraja
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering,
Saveetha University, Chennai, India

G. Ragul
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Budge Budge Institute of Technology,
Kolkata, India

ABSTRACT
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a very broad continuous improvement
philosophy which has initiated many organizations to jump into the band wagon
aimed to drive their business economically and efficiently, satisfying the customer
needs. The elementary statistical tools have fetched a lot of importance, as the Seven
Indispensable Tools of Quality for any organization to flourish to the zenith of
excellence. Implementation of these seven indispensable tools in Educational Arena
requires the significance of teaching fraternity as the employees or workforce in
general. The customers tend to be the parents, who pay the fees and want quality in
return of the good result of their wards. Our current work is a case study, to highlight
the general principles of TQM involved and to point out how this approach has been
and can be used to improve the quality of an academic institution. This will cover the
whole of an educational institution and the administrative structure, rather than
academic areas and departments. In fact, the way in which an educational institution
is working with quality issues now, will be compared with a TQM approach and the
weaknesses and strengthens of the quality work of an institution will be recognized. In
order to reach the objectives of this case study, we will use primary data in the form of
interviews, brainstorming and secondary data in the form of literatures, scientific
articles, books and web pages. To be succinct, the academic excellence tools carried
out in our work can be effectively implemented in the higher educational institutions
to enhance the quality of education and thereof students’ satisfaction.
Keywords: Seven Tools of Quality, Educational Arena, Case Study
Cite this Article: V. Jayakumar, F. Mohammed Ajmal Sheriff, A. Muniappan,
G. Bharathiraja and G. Ragul, Implementation of Seven Tools of Quality in
Educational Arena: A Case Study, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering
and Technology 8(8), 2017, pp. 882–891.
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 V. Jayakumar, F. Mohammed Ajmal Sheriff, A. Muniappan, G. Bharathiraja and G. Ragul

1. INTRODUCTION
Total Quality Management (TQM), is an enhancement to the traditional way of doing the
business. It is a novel approach to the improvement of product and the service quality in order
to increase the customer’s satisfaction by applying various TQM tools. This is a concept of
overall excellence being derived from people, through creativity, flexibility, teamwork,
participation and ownership quality among them. The wide spectrum of the acceptance of this
philosophy has shown remarkable improvement in the organizations with their increased rate
of productivity and quality of excellence. One of the best technical tools for improving
product and service quality is Statistical Process Control, which not only controls the process
but has the capability to improve it as well.

2. TQM IN EDUCATIONAL ARENA

In an educational institution, colleagues within the institution are customers and rely upon
particular internal services to do their work effectively. The best way of developing the
internal customer focus is to assist individual staff members to identify the people to whom
they provide services. The people next in line are the direct customers and may be internal or
external. Internal customers refer to people within the institution, which includes the teaching,
support and administrative staff, learners, the institution's council and the student
representative council. External customers are "end-users" and include people external to the
institution such as society in general, the government and the labor market (Jonathan Osborne
et. al, 2004).

2.1. Necessity
Ascertaining the standard of education and global benchmarks is the preliminary phase in
quality improvement for educational institution. Western countries have taken initiatives in
improvement processes in both manufacturing and service sectors (Ramsden, 1991;
Raymond, 1994; Spanbauer, 1995). In European continents, Quality improvement has been
instigated for manufacturing industries, but for service sectors like educational institution the
advent of quality improvement is imminent.
Education should strive to achieve the QM paradigm because it enables organizations to
become effective and focused. Thereo f, helping the educational institutions to cope with
quality and beget change by using tools for data analysis and decision-making. The intent of
the Quality improvement in educational arena are increase in learner performance, self-
esteem, motivation and self-confidence, a decrease in learner drop-out, enhanced staff morale;
employee can perform better and can outshine; Creativity and innovations will be infused in
the organization and achieving goals becomes easier.

2.2. Problems
The path to quality, processes must be continuously improved by altering, adding to,
subtracting from and refining them. Achieving quality is a journey and not a destination.
Furthermore, learners' needs and society's needs are ever changing and therefore the products
and service provided must continually change to meet these needs. There is always room for
improvement in educational institutions. Moreover, choosing what to work on is part of the
planning process. Areas for improvement in educational institutions could include improving
educator and learner contact; improving communication between learners and the institution;
improving learning through learners' monitoring of their work; performance evaluation and
the like.

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 Implementation of Seven Tools of Quality in Educational Arena: A Case Study

2.3. Solution Methodology

In education arena, inclusion of this indispensable philosophy is for the overall growth and
excellence of institution in totality. It not only involves polishing the quality of the students
but also covers the participative culture of the members working in the institution, as teachers,
office staff etc. The quest for the continuous improvement by employing various Quality
improvement tools is the core of our paper.

3. QUALITY TOOLS
The elementary statistical tools have fetched a lot of importance, as the Seven Indispensable
Tools of Quality for any organization to flourish to the zenith of excellence. The concept
behind the seven basic tools came from Kaoru Ishikawa, according to whom, 95% of quality-
related problems can be resolved with these basic tools. The key to successful problem
resolution is the ability to identify the problem, use the appropriate tools based on the nature
of the problem, and communicate the solution quickly to others.
The basic seven quality improvement tools used to aid in data collection and consolidation,
problem definition and/or resolution, pattern or trend analysis, and process analysis are:
Konsep dibalik seven basc tools dari Kaoru Ishikawa, menurutnya, 95% hubungan masalah kualitas dapat
(i) Check sheet diselesaikan dengan metoe ini. Kunci keberhasilan masalah ini adalah kemampuan untuk mengidentifikasi masalah,
(ii) Histogram, menggunakan alat yang sesuai berdasarkan masalah alami dan mengkomunikasikan solusinya dengan cepat kepada
orang lain.
(iii) Pareto chart
(iv) Cause and effect/Fishbone diagram
(v) Scatter diagram
(vi) Control charts
(vii) Flow chart/Run chart/Stratification diagram.

3.1. Check Sheet

Check sheet is a mode intended to amass discrete or continuous data from a process in a lucid
and organized manner (Amitava Mitra, 2001). These data can be used as an input data to other
quality tools like Histogram, Pareto diagram and the like, which reveal patterns or trends.
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the difficulties witnessed in library and laboratory. A Tally was
kept on each problem on weekly basis. The main purpose of the check sheet is to ensure that
the data collected is collected carefully and accurately by operating personnel. Data should be
collected in such a manner that it can be quickly and easily used and analyzed.

Problems Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Total

Man Power |||| |||||| ||| |||||| 21
Security System |||||| || |||| |||||| 20
OPAC ||| |||| || |||||| 16
Reservations |||||| ||| |||| |||| 18
Software Update |||| || |||||| ||| 16
Damaged books / Others || |||| |||| || 12
Total 27 22 24 30 103

Figure 1 Check sheet showing various difficulties witnessed in a library

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 V. Jayakumar, F. Mohammed Ajmal Sheriff, A. Muniappan, G. Bharathiraja and G. Ragul

Problems Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Total

Software access |||| ||| |||||| || 16
Network Problem || |||| |||||| ||| 16
Insufficient Memory ||| |||||| ||| |||||| 20
E-mail |||||| ||| || |||| 16
Server Problems ||| |||| |||||| |||| 18
Others |||| ||| || ||| 12
Total 23 24 28 23 98

Figure 2 Check sheet showing problems stumbled upon in a network laboratory

3.2. Histogram
Histogram is vital graphing tool that exhibits the relative frequency or occurrence of
continuous data values, revealing where the most recurrent values are located and the data is
distributed (Besterfield, 2001). It displays large amounts of data that are difficult to interpret in their raw
form by providing a visual summary of the data. It reveals whether the process is centered on a target value, the
degree of variation in data, and whether the data meets specification.
The histograms employ the data from check sheet as input and display the frequency
distribution of those numerical data, which are illustrated below in the figure 3.

Figure 3 Histogram revealing the distribution of complaints encountered in library

3.3. Pareto Diagram

A Pareto diagram, also called 80/20 rule, is used to graphically abridge and display the
relative significance of the differences between clusters of data i.e., separating the vital few
causes (20%) that account for a dominant share of quality loss (80%) (Besterfield, 2001). The
Pareto diagram is based on Pareto principle, which states that few of the defects accounts for
most of the effects.

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 Implementation of Seven Tools of Quality in Educational Arena: A Case Study

Pareto diagram can be used to depict various difficulties stumbled upon in an educational
institution and are used for prioritizing the difficulties according to their relative importance,
few of which are illustrated below in the figures 4 and 5.

Figure 4 Pareto diagram used to prioritize the security issues

Figure 5 Pareto diagram used to prioritize the problems encountered in laboratory

3.4. Cause and Effect Diagram

The cause and effect (CE) diagram, also known as fish-bone diagram, developed by Dr.
Kaoru Ishikawa, explore possible causes of problems, with the intention being to discover the
root causes. It is useful for identifying and organizing the known or possible causes of quality,
or the lack of it. Some of the benefits of CE diagram are: helps determine the root causes of a
problem or quality characteristic using a structured approach; indicates possible causes of
variation in a process; and identifies areas where data should be collected for further study
(Raymond, 1994).
The CE diagram depicting the various causes that results in quality teaching and poor
student performance are illustrated below in the figures 6 and 7.

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 V. Jayakumar, F. Mohammed Ajmal Sheriff, A. Muniappan, G. Bharathiraja and G. Ragul

Figure 6 Cause and effect diagram showing the potential causes that contributes to bring about
effective teaching

Figure 7 Cause and effect diagram showing the causes contributing to poor learner performance

3.5. Scatter Diagram

Scatter diagrams are used to study and identify the probable liaison between the changes
observed in two distinct sets of variables (Amitava Mitra, 2001). In other words, it is used to
prove over how strong a relationship exists between two variables.

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 Implementation of Seven Tools of Quality in Educational Arena: A Case Study

Figure 8 Scatter diagram showing relationship between marks obtained and hours spent
The above figure 8, is an illustration depicting the relationship between marks obtained in
examination and hours spent on the subject. The use of Scatter diagrams can also be extended to
determine the potential relationships between the following: (a) Percentage of mark in academics and
placement; and (b) Number of years' teaching experience and teaching effectiveness.

3.6. Control Chart

A control chart shows the sequential or time-related performance of a process and is used to
determine when the process is operating in or out of statistical control using the upper and
lower limits defined on the chart (Oakland, 1991). They are used to determine whether a
process will produce a product or service with consistent measurable properties. They are
used to monitor and control a process on an enduring basis.

Figure 9 Control charts depicting the observations made on the performance of a set of students after
a new subject has been introduced in the curriculum

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 V. Jayakumar, F. Mohammed Ajmal Sheriff, A. Muniappan, G. Bharathiraja and G. Ragul

A typical control chart (X-bar R chart) illustrated in the figure 9, has plots of a selected
quality characteristics, observations on subgroups of students’ performance, after a new
subject has been introduced in the curriculum, as a function of sample number.

3.7. Stratification Analysis/ Flow Chart/Run Chart

3.7.1 Stratification Analysis
Stratification is a simple and effective QC tool used for the study of data by grouping it in
different ways. It determines the extent of the problem for relevant factors. However, flow
charts and run charts are preferred under many circumstances to stratification analysis
depending on the need for analysis of the problem (Jenny Waller, 1995).

3.7.2 Flow Chart

A flow chart shows the sequence of events in a process. A pragmatic flowchart can be
constructed by using knowledge of the personnel who are directly involved in the particular
process. Valuable process information is usually acquired through construction of flow chart.
Flowcharts are used in analyzing, designing, documenting or managing a process or program
in various fields (Amitava Mitra, 2001). A typical flow chart illustrated in the figure 10
depicts steps involved in processing students’ complaint.

Figure 10 Flow chart depicting the steps involved in processing students’ complaint

3.7.3 Run Chart

Run charts give a picture of a variation in some process over time and help detect special
causes of that variation. They make trends or other non-random variation in the process easier
to see and understand. This chart is useful when there is a system or process important enough
to warrant incessant monitoring (Amitava Mitra, 2001). With the understanding of patterns
and trends of the past, groups can then use run charts to help envisage imminent performance.
Figure 11 illustrates the run chart depicting the number of complaints registered after
implementing quality improvement process in the educational institution. The uses of run
charts in educational institutions can be extended for (a) absenteeism of students each month
over a year; (b) arranged contact sessions with learners each month over a year, etc.

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 Implementation of Seven Tools of Quality in Educational Arena: A Case Study

Figure 11 Run chart depicting the number of complaints registered after implementing quality
improvement process in the educational institution

4. CONCLUSION
In this case study, we have highlighted the general principles of TQM involved and have also
pointed out how this approach has been and how it is used to improve the quality of an
academic institution. Moreover, the ways in which an educational institution is working with
quality issues is compared with a TQM approach and the weaknesses and strengthens of the
quality work of an educational institution are recognized. Strong ethics are deeply entwined
with TQM principles. Commitment and perseverance are necessary when embarking on this
journey. Understanding processes is essential before attempt is made to improve them. This is
a central aspect to Total Quality Management. The seven traditional QC tools are employed in
this case study. TQM prides itself that there is always room for improvement. Further process
improvement can be acquired by employing other quality tools to measures the quality
problems that already exist.1 The seven new QC tools make it possible for managers to plan
wide-ranging and detailed TQC objectives throughout the entire organization. They aid in
developing a more optimal and perhaps even a break-through solution by a rigorous
consideration of a variety of factors in objectively developing requirements and
specifications. QFD leads to rapidly developing collaboration, teamwork, and commitment to
2
the product strategy and plan. These tools help us to expand the scope of quality efforts of the
institution and anticipate potential quality problems and actually eliminate imperfections
before they ensue. 1. The seven new tools memungkinkan manajer untuk merencanakan merencanakan tujuan TQC yang luas dan terperinci
di seluruh organisasi.
2. Alat alat ini membantu kami memperluas ruang lingkup dalam upaya meningkatkan kualistas dan mengantisipasi potensi
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 V. Jayakumar, F. Mohammed Ajmal Sheriff, A. Muniappan, G. Bharathiraja and G. Ragul

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