Quality Control

(MANE 4045 )
Instructor: Dr. Sayyed Ali Hosseini
Winter 2015
Lecture #2
With many figures and definitions from Introduction To Statistical Quality Control ,7th Edition by Douglas C. Montgomery
Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Learning Objectives
Understand the importance of selecting good projects for
improvement activities.
Explain the five steps of DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze,
Improve, and Control.
Explain the purpose of tollgate reviews.
Understand the decision-making requirements of the
tollgate review for each DMAIC step.
Know when and when not to use DMAIC.
Understand how DMAIC fits into the framework of the sixsigma philosophy.
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What is DMAIC?
DMAIC is a structured problem-solving technique consisting of
the following steps:
Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Control
DMAIC is usually associated with six sigma, but it can be used
with any business or process improvement effort.
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DMAIC Process

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Projects
Essential part of DMAIC
Breakthrough opportunity
Financial systems integration
Value opportunity of a project must be clear
Project selection
Project management

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Why Projects Are Important?

Suppose that a company is operating at the level (that is, about 6,210
ppm defective. The objective is to achieve the performance level (3.4
ppm).
Assume that the criterion is a 25% annual improvement in quality level. Then to
reach the six-sigma performance level, it will take x years, where x is the solution
to

3.4 = 6210 1 0.25

= 26

If annual project goal is set to 50% then the objective can be achieved in
about 11 years.
If annual project goal is set to 75% then the objective can be achieved in
about 5 years.
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The Define Step

Identify the project opportunity
Verify or validate that it represents legitimate breakthrough
potential
A project must be important to customers (voice of the
customer) and important to the business.
Stakeholders who work in the process and its downstream
customers need to agree on the potential usefulness of the
project.

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Project Charter
Project charter is one of the first items that must be completed
in the define step.
It is a short document (typically about up to about two pages)
that contains:
A description of the project and its scope
The start and the anticipated completion dates
An initial description of both primary and secondary metrics
that will be used to measure success
How those metrics align with business unit and corporate goals
The potential benefits to the customer, and the potential
financial benefits to the organization
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Project Charter
Milestones that should be accomplished during the project
The team members and their roles
Any additional resources that are likely to be needed to
complete the project.

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A Project Charter for a Customer Returns Process

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The SIPOC Diagram

The SIPOC diagram is a high-level map of a process. SIPOC diagrams
give a simple overview of a process and are useful for understanding
and visualizing basic process elements. SIPOC is an acronym for
Suppliers, Input, Process, Output, and Customers.
1. The suppliers are those who provide the information, material, or
other items that are worked on in the process.
2. The input is the information or material provided.
3. The process is the set of steps actually required to do the work.
The output is the product, service, or information sent to the
customer.
5. The customer is either the external customer or the next step in the
internal business.
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An Example of SIPOC Diagram

A SIPOC diagram developed by a company for their internal coffee service process. The
team was asked to reduce the number of defects and errors in the process and the cycle
time to prepare the coffee.

A process map or value stream map may also be prepared. These

should be completed by at least the end of the Measure step.
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The Define Tollgate

Does the problem statement focus on symptoms, and not on possible
causes or solutions?
Are all the key stakeholders identified?
What evidence is there to confirm the value opportunity represented
by this project?
Has the scope of the project been verified to ensure that it is neither
too small nor too large?
Has a SIPOC diagram or other high-level process map been completed?
Have any obvious barriers or obstacles to successful completion of the
project been ignored?
Is the teams action plan for the measure step of DMAIC reasonable?

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The Measure Step

Purpose is to evaluate and determine the present process state
Identify key process input variables (KPIV) and key process
output variables (KPOV)
Acquiring data from historical records, sampling, or
observational studies
Histograms, box plots, Pareto charts, scatter diagrams, stemand-leaf diagrams may all be useful
In some businesses, the measurement system must be
developed
Measurement systems capability may be important

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The Measure Tollgate

There must be a comprehensive process flow chart or value stream map.
All major process steps and activities as well as suppliers and customers
must be identified. If appropriate, areas where queues and work-inprocess accumulate should be identified and queue lengths, waiting
times, and work-in-process levels reported.
A list of KPIVs and KPOVs must be provided, along with identification of
how the KPOVs related to customer satisfaction or the customers CTQs.
3. Measurement systems capability must be documented.
4. Assumptions that were made during data collection must be noted.
5. The team should be able to respond to requests such as, Explain
where that data came from, and questions such as, How did you decide
what data to collect? How valid is your measurement system? and Did
you collect enough data to provide a reasonable picture of process
performance?
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The Analyze Step

Determine cause-and-effect relationships using data from
measure step
Sources of variability common cause versus assignable cause
Tools control charts, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals,
regression models, failure modes and effects analysis
Discrete event simulation
FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis)

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The Analyze Tollgate

What opportunities are going to be targeted for investigation in the
improve step?
What data and analysis supports that investigating the targeted
opportunities and improving/eliminating them will have the desired
outcome on the KPOVs and customer CTQs that were the original
focus of the project?
Are there other opportunities that are not going to be further
evaluated? If so, why?
Is the project still on track with respect to time and anticipated
outcomes? Are any additional resources required at this time?
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The Improve Step

In the measure and analyze steps, the team focused on deciding
which KPIVs and KPOVs to study, what data to collect, how to analyze
and display the data, identified potential sources of variability, and
determined how to interpret the data they obtained. In the measure
step, the followings are performed:
Process redesign to reduce bottlenecks
Mistake-proofing
Statistical tools particularly designed experiments
Designed experiments can be applied to either the physical
process or a computer model of the process
Pilot test the solution to confirm that it will solve the problem
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The Improve Tollgate

Adequate documentation of how the problem solution was
obtained.
Documentation on alternative solutions that were considered.
Complete results of the pilot test, including data displays, analysis,
experiments, and simulation analyses.
Plans to implement the pilot test results on a full-scale basis.
Analysis of any risks of implementing the solution, and appropriate
risk-management plans.

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The Control Step

Complete all remaining work on project
Provide the process owner with a process control plan
Training documents (if appropriate) should be provided
Methods and metrics for future audits
Transition plan to the new process might include a validation
step

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The Control Tollgate

Data illustrating that the before and after results are in line with the
project charter should be available. (Were the original objectives
accomplished?)
Is the process control plan complete? Are procedures to monitor the
process, such as control charts, in place?
Is all essential documentation for the process owner complete?
A summary of lessons learned from the project should be available.
A list of opportunities that were not pursued in the project should be
prepared. This can be used to develop future projects; it is very
important to maintain an inventory of good potential projects to keep
the improvement process going.
A list of opportunities to use the results of the project in other parts of
the business should be prepared.
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DEMAIC Conclusions
Define appropriate metrics key process output variables
Determine how these metrics will be tracked over time
Determine the current baseline performance of project / process
Determine key process input variables that drive the key process
output variables
Determine what changes need to be made to the key process input
variables in order to positively affect the key process output variables
Make the changes
Determine whether the changes have positively affected the key
process output variables
If the changes made result in performance improvements, establish
control of the key process input variables at the new levels
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