4.

TQM Tools and Techniques

4.1 Process variation

4.2 Statistical tools
4 .3 Management tools
 4.1 Process Variation
Process variation happens when processes fail to
follow a precise pattern. It’s a leading cause of
quality issues both in transactional and production
processes.
Process variation is important in the Six Sigma
methodology, because the customer is always
evaluating our services, products and processes to
determine how well they are meeting their critical
to qualities (CTQs); in other words, how well they
conform to the standards.
 Process Variation
Process variation happens when processes fail to
follow a precise pattern. It’s a leading cause of
quality issues both in transactional and production
processes.
Process variation is important in the Six Sigma
methodology, because the customer is always
evaluating our services, products and processes to
determine how well they are meeting their critical
to qualities (CTQs); in other words, how well they
conform to the standards.
 Process Variation
Process variation happens when processes fail to
follow a precise pattern. It’s a leading cause of
quality issues both in transactional and production
processes.
Process variation is important in the Six Sigma
methodology, because the customer is always
evaluating our services, products and processes to
determine how well they are meeting their critical
to qualities (CTQs); in other words, how well they
conform to the standards
Special Causes comes from
• Abnormal traffic ( Click- Fraud) on web ads
• Operator falls asleep
• Computer crashes
• Machine Malfunction
• Faulty Controllers
• Poor batch of raw materials
• Poor adjustment of equipment
Any Process that operates with special cause
process is said to be “Out of Control”
 Process Variation
II. Common cause variation
Variation that are inherent in the process hour after
hour, day after day, and affect every occurrence of
the process.

Common Causes comes from

• Inappropriate Procedures or Poor design
• Ambient temperature and humidity
• Computer response time
• Substandard raw materials
• Lack of clearly defined standing operating
procedures
• Variability in setting
• Normal wear and tear
• Poor working conditions, eg. Lighting, noise, dirt,
temperature, ventilation etc.

Once a process is in control adjustments can be

made to reduce the random variation so the
process will be improved.
 Sources of process variation
I. Raw Material: If the raw materials change,
that change can create variations in the
overall process.
II. Equipment: Variations occur with the use of
more than one piece of equipment to
complete the same task because even two
pieces of equipment bought at the same time
from the same company will not always
behave exactly the same over time.
 Process Variation
III.Human Actions: Even with the best controls,
an individual operator can have a bad day and
introduce variations from one day to the next.
Two different operators trained in the same way
might have slightly different actions or criteria
for decision making, which causes variation.
IV. Environment: Changes in temperature and
humidity affect various processes. Also, some
manufacturing processes require a clean room
environment, and the introduction of particles
from outside the clean room can cause variation.
 Process Variation
V.Method: Variation can be introduced if the
time between the execution of the steps
changes, the order of the steps changes, one is
missed or a change is made in carrying out the
step
 4.2 Statistical tools
For the Control and Assurance of quality, seven
basic quality management tools are being used
in the organizations.
These tools can provide much information about
problems in the organization assisting to derive
solutions for the same.
 Statistical Tools of TQM
 Tools for Generating Ideas
Check sheets
Scatter diagrams
Cause
Cause--and
and--effect diagrams
 Tools to Organize the Data
Pareto charts
Flowcharts
 Tools for Identifying Problems
Histogram
Statistical process control chart
(1) Check Sheet
• A Checklist contains items that are important
or relevant to a specific issue or situation.
• -Checklists are used under operational
conditions to ensure that all important steps
or actions have been taken.
(2) Scatter Diagram
3) Cause-and-Effect Diagram
(Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram
 Cause-and-Effect Diagram
• Illustrates multiple levels of potential causes
(inputs), and ultimate effects (outputs), of
problems or issues that may arise in the
course of business.
• -May be confusing if too many inputs and
outputs are identified.
• -An alternative would be a tree diagram,
which is much easier to follow.
Cause-and-Effect Diagram
4) Pareto Chart
Pareto Chart
Pareto Chart
 Pareto Chart
• A Pareto chart is usually used to identify the
principle drivers to a problem.
• -A check sheet is used to count how often a
particular item occurs usually as a cause to a
problem (e.g. missing account number on
check leads to miss-filing).
• -The items are then charted by the percentage
of the occurrences in decreasing order.
 Pareto Analysis
• Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique in
decision-making used for the selection of a
limited number of tasks that produce significant
overall effect. It uses the Pareto Principle (also
known as the 80/20 rule) the idea that by doing
20% of the work you can generate 80% of the
benefit of doing the entire job. In terms of quality
improvement, a large majority of problems (80%)
are produced by a few key causes (20%). This is
also known as the vital few and the trivial many.
• The value of the Pareto Principle for a project
manager is that it reminds you to focus on the
20% of things that matter. Of the things you
do during your project, only 20% are crucial.
Those 20% produce 80% of your results.
Identify and focus on those things first, but
don't entirely ignore the remaining 80% of
causes.
5) Flowchart (Process Diagram)
- Assist in the definition and analysis of each
step in a process by illustrating it in a clear and
comprehensive manner.

- Identify areas where workflow may be blocked,

or diverted, and where workflow is fluid.

• - Identify where steps need to be added or

removed to improve efficiency and create
standardized workflow
(6) Histogram
• - Bar chart showing the number of occurrences
of some event often derived from the results of a
check sheet.

• - It could be a real world event, like late deliveries

by month for a year, or it could be the number of
time a proposed solution is suggested.

• - It allows a quick prioritisation based on

frequency.
7) Statistical Process Control Chart
 Statistical Process Control
- A Process is the value-added transformation of
inputs to output.
Statistical process control (SPC) is a method
of quality control which uses statistical methods.
- SPC is applied in order to monitor and control a
process.
- Monitoring and controlling the process
ensures that it operates at its full potential.
- At its full potential, the process can make as
much conforming product as possible with a
minimum (if not an elimination) of waste
(rework or Scrap).

- SPC can be applied to any process where the

"conforming product" (product meeting
specifications) output can be measured.
 Process Control Chart
• Control charts, also known as Shewhart
charts (after Walter A. Shewhart) or process-
behavior charts, in statistical process
control are tools used to determine if a
manufacturing or business process is in a state
of statistical control.
Control charts are based on the theory that even
in perfectly designed processes, a certain
amount of variability in output measurements
is inherent.
- Control charts determine if there is a
controlled or uncontrolled variation in a
process.
- Control charts are intended to determine the
presence of special causes.
To measure variations, statisticians and analysts
use a metric known as the standard deviation,
also called sigma.
Sigma is a statistical measurement of variability,
showing how much variation exists from a
statistical average.
Sigma measures how far an observed data
deviates from the mean or average;
What Is Variance?
Variance (σ2) in statistics is a measurement of
the spread between numbers in a data set.
That is, it measures how far each number in
the set is from the mean and therefore from
every other number in the set
 What is Process Capability?
• Process capability compares the output of
an in-control process to the specification limits
by using capability indices. The comparison is
made by forming the ratio of the spread
between the process specifications (the
specification "width") to the spread of the
process values, as measured by 6 process
standard deviation units (the process
"width").
Process Capability Indices
 Capability Index (Cpk)
• In process improvement efforts, the process
capability ratio (Cp) or process capability
index (Cpk) is a statistical measure of process
capability: the ability of a process to produce
output within specification limits.
Note
• For the centered process the Cp = Cpk
• Cp will always be greater than or equal to Cpk
• If Cp=Cpk=1, then the process is operating at center
line
• Higher the Cp and Cpk value, higher the sigma level
• If Cp=Cpk=1, it is said 3ϭ level process
• If Cp=Cpk=2, it is said 6ϭ level process
Industry Average is 4 ϭ. 99.38
6 ϭ = Zero Defect (99.9997)
 Example
• Consider the capability of a process that puts
pressurized grease in an aerosol can. The design
specs call for an average of 60 pounds per square
inch (psi) of pressure in each can with an upper
tolerance limit of 65psi and a lower tolerance
limit of 55psi. A sample is taken from production
and it is found that the cans average 61psi with a
standard deviation of 2psi.

• Is the process capable at the 3s level?

 4.3 Management Tools
• The tools and techniques most commonly
used in Quality management and process
improvement are:
• Cause and effect diagram
• Control Charts
• Histogram
• Pareto Charts
• Flow chart
 Cause and effect diagram

• Cause and effect diagram

• Cause and effect diagram is very helpful to find the
root cause of the defect. Cause-and-effect diagrams
show the relationship between the results of problems
and the root cause of these problems. This diagram
shows all the primary and secondary causes of a
problem and the effect of all the proposed solutions.
This Ishikawa diagram is also called fishbone diagram
due to its fish-like shape. In the above diagram: poor
training, old equipment, funds are the causes and
“Excessive downtime” is the e
 Control Charts

• Control Charts
• Control charts measure the results of processes over time and display the
results in the form of a graph. By using control charts one can determine
whether process variances are in control or out of control. A control chart
is works on sample variance measurements, from the samples chosen and
measured, the mean and standard deviation are determined.
• Let’s assume from a sample you have determined the measurement that
mean is 300 and the standard deviation equals 44.72. Three standard
deviations on either side of the mean become your upper and lower
control points on this chart. In this case 3 standard deviations is equal to
300 +- (134.16). Therefore, if all control points fall within plus or minus
three standard deviations on either side of the mean, the process is in
control. If points fall outside the acceptable limits, the process is not in
control and corrective action is needed. UCL and LCL are Upper control
limit and lower control limit respectively. USL and LSL are upper
specification limit and lower specification limit.
 Histograms
• Histograms are a type of bar charts that depict the
distribution of variables over time. This represents the
distribution by mean. This graph may take different
shapes based on the condition of the distribution.
Histogram can be used to measure something against
time i.e. the graph is plotted with a variable on x-axis
and time on the y-axis.
• Consider the following example: The following
histogram shows number of hits on the company’s
website in different time of the day. The x-axis shows
the number of users or customers active on the
website and the y-axis shows the time of the day.
 Pareto chart

• Pareto observed that 80 percent of issues occur due to

20% reasons. Over the years, others have shown that
the 80/20 rule applies across many disciplines and
areas. So it was a good idea to identify and focus on
that category of defects which covers the maximum
portion. It is a special form of vertical bar chart and
used to identify the first few major sources responsible
for the problem. In the figure below the total no. of
defects are plotted against the reasons for those
defects. The problems are rank-ordered according to
their frequency and percentage of defects. By doing
this ordering it is easier for you to identify the primary
areas for corrective action.
 Flowchart

• Flowcharts are logical steps in a logical order so as to

accomplish an objective. Flow charts are drawn with the
use of geometrical objects like rectangular, rhombus,
parallelogram, activities, decision points to in a process.
Flowcharting can help identify where quality problems
might occur on the project and how problems happen.
There are different software tools in the market today for
drawing flow charts, such as MS Visio.
• The quality policy is a guideline created by the top
management that describes what quality policies should be
adopted by the project team, in line with other companies.
These tools and techniques are very helpful for a project
manager to understand it and incorporate it and deliver a
quality product.