Quality & Performance

Excellence, 8th Edition

Chapter 4

Tools and Techniques for

Quality Improvement

S
 Learning Outcomes

S Explain the philosophy and approaches to

continuous improvement
S Describe systematic improvement processes

S Illustrate the application of a variety of tools for

process improvement
S Discuss breakthrough improvement and the
importance of creativity and innovation.

2
Control vs. Improvement

3
 Process Improvement

S To improve a process, it must be

S Repeatable
S Measurable

S Many organizations use a variety of approaches,

including formal problem-solving methodologies
to identify potential improvements, analyze data,
and implement solutions.

4
 Kaizen

S Kaizen – a Japanese word that means gradual

and orderly continuous improvement
S Focus on small, gradual, and frequent
improvements over the long term with
minimum financial investment, and
participation by everyone in the organization.

5
 Structured Improvement
Processes

S Redefine and analyze problems

S Generate ideas

S Evaluate ideas and select a solution

S Implement the solution

6
Example: Eastman Chemical
Improvement Process

❖ Focus and pinpoint

❖ Communicate
❖ Translate and link
❖ Create a management action plan
❖ Improve processes
❖ Measure progress and provide feedback
❖ Reinforce behaviors and celebrate results
7
 The Deming Cycle

S What are we trying to

accomplish?

S What changes can we make

that will result in
improvement?

S How will we know that a

change is an improvement?

8
 Plan (1 of 2)

1. Define the process: its start, end, and what it does.

2. Describe the process: list the key tasks performed and sequence of
steps, people involved, equipment used, environmental conditions,
work methods, and materials used.

3. Describe the players: external and internal customers and suppliers,

and process operators.

4. Define customer expectations: what the customer wants, when, and

where, for both external and internal customers.

5. Determine what historical data are available on process performance,

or what data need to be collected to better understand the process.
9
 Plan (2 of 2)

6. Describe the perceived problems associated with the process;

for instance, failure to meet customer expectations, excessive
variation, long cycle times, and so on.
7. Identify the primary causes of the problems and their
impacts on process performance.
8. Develop potential changes or solutions to the process, and
evaluate how these changes or solutions will address the
primary causes.
9. Select the most promising solution(s).

10
 Do

1. Conduct a pilot study or experiment to test

the impact of the potential solution(s).
2. Identify measures to understand how any
changes or solutions are successful in
addressing the perceived problems.

11
 Study

1. Examine the results of the pilot study or

experiment.
2. Determine whether process performance has
improved.
3. Identify further experimentation that may be
necessary.

12
 Act

1. Select the best change or solution.

2. Develop an implementation plan: what needs
to be done, who should be involved, and
when the plan should be accomplished.
3. Standardize the solution, for example, by
writing new standard operating procedures.
4. Establish a process to monitor and control
process performance.
13
 Flowcharts

S A flowchart or process map identifies the

sequence of activities or the flow of materials
and information in a process. Flowcharts help
the people involved in the process understand
it much better and more objectively by
providing a picture of the steps needed to
accomplish a task.

14
 Benefits of Flowcharts

❖ Shows unexpected complexity, problem areas,

redundancy, unnecessary loops, and where
simplification may be possible
❖ Compares and contrasts actual versus ideal flow of a
process
❖ Allows a team to reach agreement on process steps and
identify activities that may impact performance
❖ Serves as a training tool

15
 Check Sheets

S Check sheets are special types of data

collection forms in which the results may be
interpreted on the form directly without
additional processing.

16
 Benefits of Check Sheets

S Creates easy-to-understand data

S Builds, with each observation, a clearer picture
of the facts
S Forces agreement on the definition of each
condition or event of interest
S Makes patterns in the data become obvious
quickly

17
 Histograms

S Histograms provide clues about the

characteristics of the parent population
from which a sample is taken. Patterns that
would be difficult to see in an ordinary table
of numbers become apparent.

18
 Benefits of Histograms

❖ Displays large amounts of data that are difficult to

interpret in tabular form
❖ Shows centering, variation, and shape
❖ Illustrates the underlying distribution of the data
❖ Provides useful information for predicting future
performance
❖ Helps to answer “Is the process capable of meeting
requirements?”
19
 Pareto Diagrams

S A Pareto distribution is one in which the

characteristics observed are ordered from
largest frequency to smallest.
S A Pareto diagram is a histogram of the data
from the largest frequency to the smallest.

20
 Benefits of Pareto
Diagrams

❖ Helps a team focus on causes that have the greatest

impact
❖ Displays the relative importance of problems in a
simple visual format
❖ Helps prevent “shifting the problem,” where the
solution removes some causes but worsens others

21
 Cause-and-Effect Diagrams

S A cause-and-effect diagram is a simple

graphical method for presenting a chain of
causes and effects and for sorting out causes
and organizing relationships between
variables.

22
 Benefits of Cause and Effect
Diagrams

S Enables a team to focus on the content of a

problem, not on the history of the problem or
differing personal interests of team members
S Creates a snapshot of collective knowledge and
consensus of a team; builds support for solutions
S Focuses the team on causes, not symptoms

23
 Scatter Diagrams

S A scatter diagram is a plot of the

relationship between two numerical
variables.

24
 Benefits of Scatter Diagrams

S Supplies the data to confirm a hypothesis that

two variables are related
S Provides both a visual and statistical means to
test the strength of a relationship
S Provides a good follow-up to cause and effect
diagrams

25
 Control Charts

S Control charts show the performance and

the variation of a process or some quality or
productivity indicator over time in a
graphical fashion that is easy to understand
and interpret. They also identify process
changes and trends over time and show the
effects of corrective actions.

26
 Benefits of Control Charts

❖ Monitors performance of one or more processes over

time to detect trends, shifts, or cycles

❖ Distinguishes special from common causes of variation

❖ Allows a team to compare performance before and after

implementation of a solution to measure its impact

❖ Focuses attention on truly vital changes in the process

27
 Lean Thinking

S Lean is often used to refer to approaches initially

developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation that
focus on the elimination of waste in all forms,
including defects requiring rework, unnecessary
processing steps, unnecessary movement of
materials or people, waiting time, excess
inventory, and overproduction.

28
Principles of Lean Thinking

S Reduce handoffs

S Eliminate steps

S Perform steps in parallel rather than in

sequence
S Involve key people early

29
 Lean Tools

❖ The 5S’s: seiri (sort), seiton (set in order), seiso (shine),

seiketsu (standardize), and shitsuke (sustain).
❖ Visual controls
❖ Efficient layout and standardized work
❖ Pull production
❖ Single minute exchange of dies (SMED)
❖ Total productive maintenance
❖ Source inspection
30
 Breakthrough Improvement

S Discontinuous, rather than gradual, change

S Breakthrough improvements result from

innovative and creative thinking; often these are
motivated by stretch goals
S Facilitated by benchmarking and reengineering

31
 Benchmarking

❖ Benchmarking – “the search of industry best

practices that lead to superior performance.”
❖ Best practices – approaches that produce
exceptional results, are usually innovative in
terms of the use of technology or human
resources, and are recognized by customers or
industry experts.

32
 Types of Benchmarking

❖ Competitive benchmarking - studying products,

processes, or business performance of competitors in the
same industry to compare pricing, technical quality,
features, and other quality or performance characteristics
of products and services.
❖ Process benchmarking – focus on key work processes

❖ Strategic benchmarking – focus on how companies

compete and strategies that lead to competitive
advantage

33
 Benchmarking Process

1. Determine what to benchmark

2. Identify key performance indicators to measure
3. Identify the best-in-class companies
4. Measure the performance of best-in-class and
compare to your own performance
5. Define and take actions to meet or exceed the best
performance

34
 What what is benchmarking and what is not.

S Organisations may benchmark for many different reasons, but

the strongest driver should be to improve organisational
performance.

S Benchmarking can be classified in may different ways, but the

same principles and processes must be applied for benchmarking
to be successful

S Benchmarking can have direct input to the strategic planning

process by providing factual foundations to frame the vision,
goals, and plans to for world-class leadership
Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
 What what is benchmarking and what is not.

Benchmarking is not what we would term “industrial tourism” in

which superficial industrial visits

It is impossible to acquire detailed knowledge after only a quick

glance or one short visit.

In the absence of prior benchmarking, it is also difficult to identify

which organisations should be visited, and so there is real risk…

Nor should benchmarking be a momentary glimpse, but rather it

should be considered a continuous process.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Objectives of benchmarking and
phases.

1) Determine superior performance levels

2) Quantify any performance gaps

3) Identify leading practices

4) Evaluate reasons for superior performance

5) understand performance gaps in key business areas

6) Share knowledge of working practices that enable superior
performance
7) Enable learning to build foundations for performance
improvement Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Objectives of benchmarking and
phases.

Three phases

1) Phase one is a positioning analysis aimed at identifying gaps in

performance

2) Phase two is focused upon learning from those leading practices

that enable superior performance

3) Phase three relates to adapting and adopting the learning to

transform to a leadership position.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Classification of Benchmarking

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Juran’s Benchmarking Cycle

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Organizational Issues in Process
Improvement

S Resistance to change

S Top management support

S Diversity of human resources

S Methodological rigor

S Payoffs and benefits

41
 Fostering Creativity

❖ Remove or reduce obstacles to creativity.

❖ Match jobs to individuals’ creative abilities.
❖ Tolerate failures and establish direction.
❖ Improve motivation to increase productivity and solve problems
creatively.
❖ Enhance the self-esteem and build the confidence of organization
members.
❖ Improve communication so that ideas can be better shared.
❖ Place highly creative people in special jobs and provide training to
take advantage of their creativity.

42