ONE GOOD IDEA BY WILLIAM A.

LEVINSON

The 3-D Pareto Chart

A better graph to improve visualization and error response
THE TRADITIONAL Pareto chart is a
vertical bar graph that provides a static
picture of nonconformance categories
and their relative importance. Pareto
charts also have been used to track
considerations such as profits, sales and
operating expenses over time.
A version called a trending Pa-
reto chart shows variance over time
by providing one bar per unit of time
(for example, month or quarter) per
category. The format is still, however,
1
two-dimensional.
Extending the data from a trending
Pareto chart to a 3-D format, on the
other hand, can illustrate not only the
relative impact of trouble sources, but
also the effect of closed-loop corrective
action to mitigate those categories. Fig-
ure 1 shows an example with six noncon-
formance sources, categories A through
F, over four months.
Trending or 3-D Pareto chart
15
The results from the first month,
January, look similar to a traditional Pa-
reto chart and indicate that category B
is the biggest source of nonconformities,
which makes it the first choice for closed
loop corrective action.
The drastic decline of nonconformi-
ties in category B from January to Febru-
ary shows that the closed-loop correc-
tive action was successful.
The 3-D Pareto chart’s only drawback
is that the nonconformance categories
cannot be re-ranked in each time period,
but the Pareto principle is still apparent
in the successive periods.
For February, focus should turn to
category C, not only because it has the
highest rate of nonconformity for Febru-
ary, but also because its rate for January
stands out, as is evident in the chart.
Successful closed-loop corrective
action for category C causes category F
/ FIGURE 1
0-15 = Number of nonconformities
A-E = Source of nonconformities
January
February
to stand out clearly in March. Suppres-
sion of the problem in category F leaves
no obvious major contributor for April,
although it may be desirable to address
the minor number of defects in catego-
ries A and D.
The 3-D Pareto chart supports ISO
9001:2015, clause 7.3, which indicates
that all people doing work under the or-
ganization’s control are aware of “their
contribution to the effectiveness of the
quality management system, including
the benefits of improved performance.” 2
That is, workers can immediately see
the history of improvement activities in
which they may have participated.
As a final note, it is possible to insert
a hyperlink into any cell of the spread-
sheet that generates the 3-D chart,
which means that the spreadsheet can
reference electronic quality records such
as in-progress or completed closed-
loop corrective action projects. If, for
example, after corrective and preven-
tive action (CAPA) was taken on defect
category B in January, the cell could link
to the CAPA report. QP
REFERENCES
1. Pareto Charts, “Showing Improvement,” http://tinyurl.
com/trendingparetochart, April 29, 2015.
2. International Organization for Standardization, ISO/FDIS
9001:2015—Quality Management Systems—Require-
ments, Clause 7.3.

10 March
WILLIAM A. LEVINSON is principal
April consultant at Levinson Productivity
5 April Systems P.C. in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He
has a master’s degree in engineering
from Cornell University in Ithaca,
March
0 NY, and an MBA from Union College
in Schenectady, NY. An ASQ fellow,
B February Levinson is an ASQ-certified quality
C manager, auditor, reliability engineer and Six Sigma Black
F January Belt. He is the coauthor of The Expanded and Annotated My
A
D Life and Work: Henry Ford’s Universal Code for World-Class
E Success (Productivity Press, 2013).

May 2016 • QP 71