Improving Quality with Methodologies

Many of today's problem solving and quality improvement tools

Control charts Lot sampling Process capability Value nalysis !V "

were first used e#tensively in $orld $ar II in response to the need for tremendous volumes of high quality% lower cost materials& More recently% Quality Circles% 'QM% and (ai)en have demonstrated the power of team*base process improvement& Process Capability and +esign of ,#periments !+-," have come to the fore in .i# .igma& /rec0er ssociates has combined Value nalysis and Q.1222 techniques with .i# .igma in a more powerful Process Improvement methodology&

Control Charts
.tatistical Quality Control !.QC" or .tatistical Process Control !.PC" for repetitive% high volume production began in the 3142's when .hewhart developed control charts& .mall production samples were measured periodically to monitor quality& .ample mean !5bar" and range !6" charts were used to detect when a process was going out of 7economic control&7

'he causes of variations that e#ceed the upper and lower control limits !8CL and LCL respectively"% such as at 7 7% must be eliminated in order to bring the process bac0 into statistical control&

Deming PDCA
'he +eming 9 .hewhart Cycle was especially useful in solving these quality problems& 'he P+C Circle denotes continuous improvement by repeating the basic cycle of

Plan
o o o

:et the data naly)e the problem Plan the solution Measure the change Modify as needed

7+o7 It Chec0 ** ct **

as long as significant improvements are obtained& .ince 31;<% engineers at Carnegie 'ech !now Carnegie Mellon 8niversity" have been trained to apply the Carnegie problem solving methodology in design& 'his methodology parallels the +eming P+C cycle with the addition of an initial step to 7+efine the Problem&

In the last =2 years% many companies have adopted similar problem*solving models ** often with <*32 steps or more& .pecial attention is given to solving process problems ** problems that occur repetitively& Process improvement models add such steps as assigning process owners% forming teams% and establishing process measures&

Juran
>uran focused on quality control with the 7trilogy7 quality planning quality control

quality improvement&

n .PC representation of the trilogy is used in the figure at the right& spec is developed ** usually with a ? tolerance& control chart is used to get the process under control& s special causes are removed to improve the process % variation is reduced& 'hese are the basic steps in .i# .igma process improvement&

$hen the total quality management movement !'QM" gained prominence in the 31<2's% the product planning step was e#panded to include a broader evaluation of customer needs !similar to V and Q@+ "&

Value Analysis Teams

In Value nalysis% developed by Larry Miles at :, during $$II% multi*functional teams !design% production engineering% purchasing% quality" use a formali)ed process to identify alternative materials% manufacturing processes% and designs to improve function while reducing costs& 'he 7>ob Plan7 for a Value nalysis study of a specific product or process has the following format

Pre*.tudy o Collect customer data o Collect product and process data o /uild product and process models o @orm the multi*functional team .tudy o Information Phase ** analy)e data o @unction nalysis Phase ** identify and cost functions o Creative Phase ** brainstorm ideas

,valuation Phase ** ran0 then develop ideas +evelopment Phase ** quantify benefits and plan actions Presentation ** ma0e oral report and prepare written reports Post*.tudy !added more recently" o Complete changes o Implement changes o Monitor changes
o o o

'he very structured function diagramming and costing techniques provide data for quantified !cost and value" decision*ma0ing& 'he whole V process is a precursor of the M I ** Measure% naly)e% Improve ** in the broad based .i# .igma improvement process& .i# .igma adds the C or Control step& 'he brainstorming methodology in V has been widely emulated in process improvement teams& Ideas are generated in a non*critical% free*flowing process& 'hen% ideas are grouped using affinity diagramming techniques and refined as needed for practicality&

Teams
>apanese Quality Circles demonstrated the effectiveness of wor0er teams in identifying and solving process problems in their wor0 area& Aowever% most serious quality problems in non*manufacturing !as well as manufacturing" organi)ations arise in activities that involve more than one department 9 function& Quality Circles has evolved into (ai)en% which utili)es multi*functional wor0er and production engineering teams to improve quality and productivity in a given process& 'he teams use 'QM techniques in implementing 7Lean7 manufacturing methods&

TQM
'otal Quality Management !'QM" emphasi)ed using multi*functional teams !professional staff and wor0ers from all departments involved" to solve problems& 'he teams were trained to use basic statistical tools to collect and analy)e data&

Chec0 sheets Pareto diagrams Aistograms 6un charts @low charts Cause and effect diagrams @orce field analysis .catter diagrams

@low charts or process maps were used to visuali)e the flow of product or documents through a series of process steps& 'he predominant goal of Process Improvement 'eams was to eliminate the non*value adding steps and to resolve quality problems in order to reduce the !cycle" time needed to complete the process&

ISO / QS9000
I.-1222 was developed as a standard for business quality systems& 'o be certified% businesses needed to document their quality system and insure adherence to it with reviews and audits& 0ey element was the identification of non*conformances and a Corrective ction .ystem to prevent reoccurences& .pecific quality improvement methodologies were not prescribed& 'he automotive industry adopted the Q.1222 standard for their suppliers to require the use of specific practices in quality planning and in production operations&

dvanced Product Quality Plans +esign 9 Process @ailure Mode and ,ffects nalysis !@M, " Production Part pproval Process Control Plans !for production" Measurement .ystems nalysis

'he >uran methodology was central to maintaining control of special product and process characteristics !C'Qs"&

Design of !"eriments #DO $

.i# .igma process improvement emphasi)es getting quantitative data on the effect of 0ey variables in production% service% or administrative processes& Many process improvement efforts go astray because people assume they 0now all of the 0ey variables ** 0ey variables and especially interactions between variables are not always obvious& .imple statistical data gathering or testing can be used to verify or determine these 0ey variables&

In +-,% a series of e#periments !tests" are conducted to determine the relative importance of the 0ey variables and to assist in selecting optimum operating values& 'he number of variables is usually limited so that the time% effort% and cost of testing is not e#cessive& fter the array of tests !e#periments" are complete% graphical techniques ** such as at the right ** can be used to illustrate the results& +-, is especially useful in simplifying the improvement process for comple# technical and administrative processes&

%re&'er Pro&ess Im"ro(ement

/rec0er ssociates integrated the

'eam*based Process Improvement of 'QM +ata gathering and brainstorming of V Quality methodologies of Q.1222 .tatistical process control of >uran Process capability analysis and +-, techniques of .i# .igma

into a more powerful Process Improvement methodology that gets better results% faster% and with less effort& Identifying the most promising and rewarding process improvement opportunities and re*designing the products and processes involved are the focus of wor0shops in Phases = and 4 of the /rec0er .i# .igma Improvement Methodology&

Phase )* Pro&ess im"ro(ement solutions are i+entifie+ an+ ,uantifie+Value nalysis techniques are used to collect business% product% and process data on productivity% quality% and costs& $or0shop participants include mar0eting% design% operations% quality% purchasing% service personnel as well as suppliers% wor0ers% and customers as appropriate& Customer requirements are determined and quantified using Q@+ techniques& Process mapping !from 'QM" is used to develop an understanding of the product 9 service and the processes used to produce and deliver it& Quality issues are raised and root causes are sought& V brainstorming is used to identify potential

improvements& Ideas are refined and the benefits of the most promising improvements are quantified& .pecific product and process re*design proBects are selected for .i# .igma Leaders and 9 or teams to underta0e in Phase 4&

Phase .* Multi/fun&tional teams im"ro(e 'ey "ro+u&ts an+ "ro&esses+esign and operations teams !with other members as appropriate" are charged with re* designing specific components and 9 or processes& 'hey e#amine the product and process information in detail& Critical*'o*Quality parameters are determined for products and for processes& +-,s may be run to identify C'Q parameters and assign target values& Process capability data is obtained& dditional productivity and quality tools% such as

+esign for Manufacturability Lean thin0ing +esign for ssembly .et*up reduction

are used as appropriate to identify specific improvement opportunities& V brainstorming may be used to identify and refine specific design changes& .pecific re*design recommendations are quantified& $hen approved% implementation plans are made and e#ecuted& 'he P+C cycle is used until the desired improvements are obtained&