QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TOOLS

Featuring: The Memory Jogger

Goal/QPC (800 643-4316)

Creative Problem Solving

• Messes - Russell Ackoff. "System of conditions that produce dissatisfaction."

• Problem - Kepner & Tregoe. "Perceived deviation between what is and what should be. Problem must have: 1) alternative courses of action; 2) choices must have impact; and 3) doubt must exist.

• Decision-Making is selecting among alternative.

• Problem-Solving is changing what is to what should be.

Problem Solving - Herbert Simon

• Intelligence

• Design

• Choice

• Implementation

Problem Classification

• Structured

• Semistructured

• Ill-structured

Deming Cycle - PDCA
Shewhart Cycle

• Plan

• Do

• Study (check)

• Act
  -education: why
  -training: how
  -action: implementation

Quality Improvement Tools

Flowcharts

Flowcharts are useful for generating understanding and buy-in.

General rules:

1. define process boundaries precisely

2. use simple symbols

3. make sure every feedback loop has escape

4. each process block usually has one output arrow

Check sheet

Data-gathering tool - enables quick and easy analysis, very often the starting point in any analysis. This focuses on finding the problem

Simple rules:

1. Agree on what to observe

2. Decide on time period for data collection

3. Design a simple, easy to use form

4. Collect data consistently and honestly

Check sheets continued

Examples of three kinds of check sheets:

1. Attributes

2. Variables

3. Defect-location

Tips for construction/use

1. make sure data is representative

2. make data collection easy

3. be sure data is homogenous

Pareto Analysis - Vilfredo Pareto
"vital few vs trivial many"
"80/20 rule"

• Pareto chart is a bar chart with the bars representing the frequency of the problem

• Useful in problem finding

• Construction tips
  -establish categories
  -specify time period
  -construct frequency (cost) table ordered in decreasing order of frequency (cost)

Pareto chart uses

• Identify most important problems - frequency or cost (note that most frequent may not be most costly)

• Analyze different groupings - note that if clear differences don’t appear be creative

• Measure the impact of change to a process - i.e. before and after comparisons

• Break down broad causes into more details

Cause and Effect Diagrams

• Useful in idea finding

• Two major types
  -dispersion analysis
  -process analysis

• General procedure
  -use template based on 6 m’s
  -identify major causes
  -brainstorm for root causes
  -verify causes

Example: Fishbone diagram

Run chart

• don’t over-interpret

• focus on important CHANGES in process

• 9 in a row on one side of average

• 6 in a row increasing or decreasing

Other Charts

HISTOGRAM- Graphical representation of data to reveal underlying distribution

Scatter Diagram- used to study the relationship between one variable and another

Control Charts - run chart with statistically determined limits

Brainstorming - Alex Osborn

• Uses
  -way to elicit large number of ideas
  -determine problems
  -find possible causes
  -find possible solutions
  -find implementation ideas

Brainstorming - procedure

• Select topic

• Each member generates list of ideas

• each member reads, leader records

• leader requests new ideas

• when impasse is reached - leader asks for ‘wildest’ ideas

Brainstorming - idea generation tools

• put to other uses

• modification

• minification

• magnification

• substitution

• rearrangement

• reverse

• combination

Brainstorming rules

• Don’t criticize

• Don’t discuss during idea generating session

• Don’t hesitate

• One idea at a time

• Don’t let session be dominated by one or two

• After session, each member studies list

• Meet again to rank ideas and develop action plans