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A Study of Basic 7 Quality Control Tools & Techniques for Continuous

Improvement

Conference Paper · March 2018

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 2nd International Conference on Emerging Trends in Mechanical Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering, TIT (Excellence), Bhopal
March 27-28, 2018

A Study of Basic 7 Quality Control Tools and Techniques for Continuous

Improvement

Josy George1, Anil Singh2, Ashwin Kumar Bhaisare3

1
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, LNCT, Bhopal, MP
2,3
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, LNCTE, Bhopal, MP
*Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract— In this paper a detailed and systematic observation on the production line and statistical tools.
study of old 7 QC tools are presented. The main aim
of this paper is to provide an easy introduction and II. LITERATURE REVIEW
understanding of basic 7 QC for the improvement The goal of any organization was to eliminate all type
the quality level of any manufacturing processes by
of defects and short comings cause any problems and to
applying it. QC tools are the means for Collecting
ensure flawless manufacturing process, for this purpose
data, analyzing data, identifying root causes and
measuring the results. These tools are related to basic seven tools of quality were implemented.
numerical data processing .All of these tools together Following are the basic 7QC tools [1]:
can provide great process tracking and analysis that
can be very helpful for quality improvements. These 1. Pareto Diagram
tools make quality improvements easier to see, 2. Cause & Effect Diagram
implement and track. Furthermore it helps to deals 3. Histogram
with the basic concepts of QC tools of classic and 4. Control Charts
modern arena and show how the basic quality tools 5. Scatter Diagrams
can be used to solve problems and improve quality. 6. Graphs
7. Check Sheet
Index Terms— QC Tools, PDCA, Improvement
Processes III. DETAILING OF BASIC 7 QC TOOLS

I. INTRODUCTION
Pareto Diagram
The Old Seven, the First Seven and the Basic Seven Pareto Diagram is a tool that arranges items in the
quality pros have many names for these seven basic order of the magnitude of their contribution, thereby
tools of quality, first emphasized by Kaoru Ishikawa, a identifying a few items exerting maximum influence.
professor of engineering at Tokyo University and the This tool is used in SPC and quality improvement for
father of “quality circles.” The old 7 QC Tools are prioritizing projects for improvement, prioritizing
simple statistical tools used for problem solving. These setting up of corrective action teams to solve problems,
tools were either developed in Japan or introduced to identifying products on which most complaints are
received, identifying the nature of complaints occurring
Japan by the Quality Gurus such as Deming and Juran.
most often, identifying most frequent causes for
In terms of importance, these are the most useful. Kaoru
rejections or for other similar purposes. The origin of
Ishikawa has stated that these 7 tools can be used to the tool lies in the observation by an Italian economist
solve 95 percent of all problems. For solving quality Mr. Vilfredo Pareto that a large portion of wealth was in
problems seven QC tools used are Pareto Diagram, the hands of a few people. He observed that such
Cause & Effect Diagram, Histogram, Control Charts, distribution pattern was common in most fields. Pareto
Scatter Diagrams, Graphs and Check Sheets. All this principle also known as the 80/20 rule is used in the
tools are important tools used widely at manufacturing field of materials management for ABC analysis. While
field to monitor the overall operation and continuous the purchasing of 20% of the items by a company
process improvement. This tools are used to find out account for 80% of the total value. These constitute the
root causes and eliminates them, thus the manufacturing A were the items on which maximum attention is paid.
Dr. Juran suggested the use of this principle to quality
process can be improved. The modes of defects on
control for separating the "vital few" problems from the
production line are investigated through direct "trivial many" now called the "useful many".

“Journal of Engineering & Technology” TIT (Excellence), Special Issue: ICETME-2018, ISSN No. 2393-9400, Vol.: 05, No.: 01, March, 2018. 115
 2nd International Conference on Emerging Trends in Mechanical Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering, TIT (Excellence), Bhopal
March 27-28, 2018

Procedure: 7. Connect the points. If additional bars as suggested

The steps in the preparation of a Pareto Diagram are: in step 6 are drawn this becomes simple. All one
needs to do is - connect the diagonals of the bars
1. From the available data calculate the contribution to the origin.
of each individual item. 8. The chart is now ready for interpretation. The slope
2. Arrange the items in descending order of their of the chart suddenly changes at some point. This
individual contributions. If there are too many point separates the 'vital few' from the 'useful many'
items contributing a small percentage of the like the A, B and C class items in materials
contribution, group them together as "others". It management.
is obvious that "others" will contribute more than
a few single individual items. Still it is kept last Cause & Effect Diagram
in the new order of items. A Cause-and Effect Diagram is a tool that shows
3. Tabulate the items, their contributions in absolute systematic relationship between a result or a symptom
number as well as in percent of total and or an effect and its possible causes. It is an effective tool
cumulative contribution of the items. to systematically generate ideas about causes for
problems and to present these in a structured form. This
tool was devised by Dr. Kouro Ishikawa and as
mentioned earlier is also known as Ishikawa Diagram.

Procedure
The steps in the procedure to prepare a cause-and-
effect diagram are:

1. Agree on the definition of the 'Effect' for which

causes are to be found. Place the effect in the dark
box at the right. Draw the spine or the backbone as
a dark line leading to the box for the effect.
2. Determine the main groups or categories of causes.
Place them in boxes and connect them through
large bones to the backbone.
Fig. 1: Example of Pareto Chart
4. Draw X and Y axes. Various items are represented
on the X-axis. Unlike other graphs Pareto Diagrams
have two Y-axes - one on the left representing
numbers and the one on right representing the
percent contributions. The scale for X-axis is
selected in such a manner that all the items
including others are accommodated between the
two Y-axes. The scales for the Y-axes are so
selected that the total number of items on the left
side and 100% on the right side occupy the same
height.
5. Draw bars representing the contributions of each
item.
6. Plot points for cumulative contributions at the end
of each item. A simple way to do this is to draw the 3. Brainstorm to find possible causes and subsidiary
bars for the second and each subsequent item at causes under each of the main groups. Make sure
their normal place on the X-axis as well as at a that the route from the cause to the effect is
level where the previous bar ends. This bar at the correctly depicted. The path must start from a root
higher level is drawn in dotted lines. Drawing the cause and end in the effect.
second bar is not normally recommended in the 4. After completing all the main groups, brainstorm
texts. for more causes that may have escaped earlier.

“Journal of Engineering & Technology” TIT (Excellence), Special Issue: ICETME-2018, ISSN No. 2393-9400, Vol.: 05, No.: 01, March, 2018. 116
 2nd International Conference on Emerging Trends in Mechanical Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering, TIT (Excellence), Bhopal
March 27-28, 2018

5. Once the diagram is complete, discuss relative

importance of the causes. Short list the important Variability is inherent in all manufacturing processes.
root causes. These variations may be due to two causes:
I. Random / Chance causes (un-preventable).
Histogram II. Assignable causes (preventable).
Histograms or Frequency Distribution Diagrams are
bar charts showing the distribution pattern of Control charts are developed by Dr. Walter A.
observations grouped in convenient class intervals and Shewhart during 1920's while he was with Bell
arranged in order of magnitude. Histograms are useful Telephone Laboratories. These charts separate out
in studying patterns of distribution and in drawing assignable causes, Control chart makes possible the
conclusions about the process based on the pattern. diagnosis and correction of more production troubles
The Procedure to prepare a Histogram consists of the and brings substantial improvements in the quality of
following steps: the products and reduction of spoilage and rework. It
1. Collect data (preferably 50 or more observations tells us when to leave a process alone as well as when to
of an item). take action to correct trouble
2. Arrange all values in an ascending order.
Basic Concepts:

A. Data is of two types:

Variable - measured and expressed quantitatively
Attribute - quantitative

B. Mean and Range:

X - Mean is the average of a sub-group
R - Range is the difference between the minimum and
maximum in a sub-group

C. Control Charts for Variables

Charts are depleting the variations in ⎯X and
variable data when the sample size of the subgroup is
2 to 5. When the subgroup size is larger, s Charts are
Fig.3: Example of Histogram
used instead of R charts where s is the standard
deviation of the subgroup.
3. Divide the entire range of values into a
R with time is known as -X and R charts. -X and R
convenient number of groups each representing
charts are used for
an equal class interval. It is customary to have
number of groups equal to or less than the square
root of the number of observations. However one
should not be too rigid about this. The reason for
this cautionary note will be obvious when we see
some examples.
4. Note the number of observations or frequency in
each group.
5. Draw X-axis and Y-axis and decide appropriate
scales for the groups on X-axis and the number
of observations or the frequency on Y-axis.
6. Draw bars representing the frequency for each of
the groups.
7. Provide a suitable title to the Histogram.
8. Study the pattern of distribution and draw
conclusion.
Fig. 4: Example of Control Chart
Control Charts

“Journal of Engineering & Technology” TIT (Excellence), Special Issue: ICETME-2018, ISSN No. 2393-9400, Vol.: 05, No.: 01, March, 2018. 117
 2nd International Conference on Emerging Trends in Mechanical Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering, TIT (Excellence), Bhopal
March 27-28, 2018

D. Control Charts for Attributes preference of the audience. The different types of
The control charts for attributes are p-chart, np-chart, graphs used are as shown in figure 6.
c-chart and u-chart. Control charts for defectives are p
and np charts. P charts are used when the sample size is Check Sheets
constant and np charts are used when the sample size is
variable. In the case where the number of defects is the 1. As measurement and collection of data forms the
data available for plotting, c and u charts are used. If the basis for any analysis, this activity needs to be
sample size is constant, c charts are used and u charts planned in such a way that the information
are used for variable sample sizes. collected is both relevant and comprehensive.

Scatter Diagram

When solving a problem or analyzing a situation one

needs to know the relationship between two variables. A
relationship may or may not exist between two
variables. If a relationship exists, it may be positive or
negative; it may be strong or weak and may be simple
or complex. A tool to study the relationship between
two variables is known as Scatter Diagram. It consists
of plotting a series of points representing several
observations on a graph in which one variable is on X
axis and the other variable in on Y-axis. If more than
one set of values are identical, requiring more points at
the same spot, a small circle is drawn around the
original dot to indicate second point with the same Fig. 6: Example of Charts
values. The way the points lie scattered in the quadrant
gives a good indication of the relationship between the 2. Check sheets are tools for collecting data. They
two variables. are designed specific to the type of data to be
collected. Check sheets aid in systematic
collection of data. Some examples of check
sheets are daily maintenance check sheets,
attendance records, production log books, etc.

Fig.5: Example of Scatter Diagram

Fig. 7: Example of Check-sheet
Graphs
3. Data collected using check sheets needs to be
meaningfully classified. Such classification helps
Graphs of various types are used for pictorial
gaining a preliminary understanding of relevance
representation of data. Pictorial representation enables
and dispersion of the data so that further analysis
the user or viewer to quickly grasp the meaning of the
can be planned to obtain a meaningful output.
data. Different graphical representation of data is
Meaningful classification of data is called
chosen depending on the purpose of the analysis and
stratification. Stratification may be by group,

“Journal of Engineering & Technology” TIT (Excellence), Special Issue: ICETME-2018, ISSN No. 2393-9400, Vol.: 05, No.: 01, March, 2018. 118
 2nd International Conference on Emerging Trends in Mechanical Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering, TIT (Excellence), Bhopal
March 27-28, 2018

location, type, origin, symptom, etc. V. CONCLUSION

From the case study it has been concluded that basic
IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF 7QC TOOLS THROUGH seven tools of quality are very useful and effective in
PDCA-CYCLE identifying and removal of defects from the
For successful implementation of quality tools the manufacturing process. These tools are helpful in every
quality management principles is required. The PDCA- stage of defect removal process. The famous statement
cycle is an integral part of process management and is of quality expert Dr. Ishikawa that “95% of quality
designed to be used as a dynamic model because one related industrial problems can be solved simply by
cycle represents one complete step of improvement. The applying seven basic tools of quality”.
PDCA-cycle is used to coordinate continuous
improvement efforts. It emphasizes and demonstrates REFERENCE
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Fig. 8: Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle

Check - Control and measurement of processes and

products in accordance to changes made in previous
steps and in accordance with policy, goals and
requirements on products. Report on results.
Act - Adoption or reaction to the changes or running the
PDCA-cycle through again. Keep improvement on
going.

“Journal of Engineering & Technology” TIT (Excellence), Special Issue: ICETME-2018, ISSN No. 2393-9400, Vol.: 05, No.: 01, March, 2018. 119

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