Lesson Proper for Week 1

Quality

 There's a lot more to managing quality than just manufacturing widgets without any defects or getting
trains to run on time – although those things are certainly part of the picture
 What qualifies as an acceptable level of quality for your organisation is ultimately a question for your
stakeholders. And by stakeholders, we mean anyone who has an interest in the success of what your
organisation does.
 Customers will be the most important group of stakeholders for the majority of businesses, but
investors, employees, suppliers and members of our wider society are stakeholders too. Delivering an
acceptable level of quality in your organisation means knowing who your stakeholders are,
understanding what their needs are and meeting those needs (or even better, exceeding expectations),
both now and in the future.
 The CQI believes this comes down to three things: strong governance to define the organisation's aims
and translate them into action, robust systems of assurance to make sure things stay on track and a
culture of improvement to keep getting better.

Dimensions of Quality
Dimension 1: Performance  
  A quality product will perform as expected by the user and as specified by the manufacturer. If products
do not do as buyers expect, users will be disappointed and frustrated. Worse still poor performing
products get negative reviews and lose sales and reputation.

Dimension 2: Features

 What additional benefits will be added to the product? Will they be they tangible or non-tangible
benefits. For example this could be after sales service, or guarantees. Some features will be present in
all products but other features will only be found in "quality" products. For example all cars have wheels,
steering wheel, gears, windows and seats but only some cars have heated seats, assisted parking and
Bluetooth.

Dimension 3: Reliability

 Is the product consistent? Will it perform well over its expected lifetime and perform consistently? Many
brands have developed trust with customers because of their reputation for reliability.  

Dimension 4: Durability  

 How durable is your product? Will it last with daily use?

Dimension 3: Reliability

 Is the product consistent? Will it perform well over its expected lifetime and perform consistently? Many
brands have developed trust with customers because of their reputation for reliability.

Dimension 4: Durability

 How durable is your product? Will it last with daily use?

Dimension 5: Conformance

 Does your product meet with any agreed internal and national specifications? For example, safety
regulations and laws.

Dimension 6: Serviceability

 Is the product easy to service? Does the organization offer enough service suppot?

Dimension 7: Aesthetics

 Is the product appealing to the eye? Design is important for many products; the color picked indicates
certain things.

Dimension 8: Perceived Quality

  What sort of quality perception does the marketing team want to convey in their marketing message?
Will the price charged reflect the quality of the product? What brand name is going to be used and does
this convey any perception of quality?

Quality managementis the act of overseeing all activities and tasks that must be accomplished to maintain a desired
level of excellence. This includes the determination of a quality policy, creating and implementing quality planning and
assurance, and quality control and quality improvement. It is also referred to as total quality management(TQM).

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

 Quality management is the act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level
of excellence. 
 Quality management includes the determination of a quality policy, creating and implementing quality
planning and assurance, and quality control and quality improvement. 
 TQM requires that all stakeholders in a business work together to improve processes, products,
services and the culture of the company itself.

Understanding Quality Management 

  At its core, TQM is a business philosophy that champions the idea that the long-term success of a
company comes from customer satisfaction and loyalty. TQM requires that all stakeholders in a
business work together to improve processes, products, services and the culture of the company itself.

The aim of quality management is to ensure that all the organization’s stakeholders work together to improve the
company’s processes, products, services, and culture to achieve the long-term success that stems from customer
satisfaction.
The process of quality management involves a collection of guidelines that are developed by a team to ensure that
the products and services that they produce are of the right standards or fit for a specified purpose.

 The process starts when the organization sets quality targets to be met and which are agreed upon with
the customer. 
 The organization then defines how the targets will be measured. It takes the actions that are required to
measure quality. It then identifies any quality issues that arise and initiates improvements. 
 The final step involves reporting the overall level of the quality achieved.

The process ensures that the products and services produced by the team match the customers’ expectations.
Lesson Proper for Week 2

Quality Characteristic 

 an inherent characteristic of a product that says something about as aspect of the quality of the product.
The use of a set of quality characteristics is recommended as a way to check for completeness of your
test. It allows you to check that, out of all the aspects or characteristics of a system or package under
test, a careful decision has been made about whether or not to test these.

This is a list of quality characteristics. This is a general list for software development - for specific circumstances
specific quality characteristics can be of importance and the list can be expanded to fit your specific situation. 

 Connectivity 

The ease with which an interface can be created with another information system or within the information system,
and can be changed. 
Connectivity is tested statically by assessing the relevant measures (such as standardisation) with the aid of a
checklist. The testing of connectivity therefore concerns the evaluation of the ease with which a (new) interface can
be set up or changed, and not the testing of whether an interface operates correctly. The latter is normally part of the
testing of functionality. 

 Continuity 

The certainty that the information system will continue without disruption, i.e. that it can be resumed within a
reasonable time, even after a serious breakdown. 
The continuity quality characteristic can be split into characteristics that can be applied in sequence, in the event of
increasing disruption of the information system:

 Reliability: 
o the degree to which the information system remains free of breakdowns 
 Robustness: 
 o the degree to which the information system can simply proceed after the breakdown has
been rectified 
 Recoverability: 
o the ease and speed with which the information system can be resumed following a
breakdown 
 Degradation factor: 
o the ease with which the core of the information system can proceed after a part has shut
down 
 Fail-over possibilities: 
o the ease with which (a part of) the information system can be continued at another
location. 
 Continuity can be tested statically by assessing the existence and setup of measures in the context of
continuity on the basis of a checklist. Dynamic implicit testing is possible through the collecting of
statistics during the execution of other tests. The simulation of long-term system usage (reliability) or
the simulation of breakdown (robustness, recoverability, degradation and fail-over) are dynamic explicit
tests.
 Data controllability 

The ease with which the accuracy and completeness of the information can be verified (over time). 
Common means employed in this connection are checksums, crosschecks and audit trails. Verifiability can be
statically tested, focusing on the setup of the relevant measures with the aid of a checklist, and can be dynamically
explicitly tested focusing on the implementation of the relevant measure in the system.

 Effectivity

The degree to which the information system is tailored to the organisation and the profile of the end users for whom it
is intended, as well as the degree to which the information system contributes to the achievement of the company
goals. 
A usable information system increases the efficiency of the business processes. Will a new system function in
practice, or not? Only the users’ organisation can answer that question. During (user) acceptance tests, this aspect is
usually (implicitly) included. If the aspect of usability is explicitly recognised in the test strategy, a test type can be
organised for it: the business simulation. During a business simulation, a random group of potential users tests the
usability aspects of the product in an environment that approximates as far as possible the “real-life” environment in
which they plan to use the system: the simulated production environment. The test takes place based on a number of
practical exercises or test scripts. In practice, the testing of usability is often combined with the testing of user-
friendliness within the test type of usability.

 Data controllability 

The ease with which the accuracy and completeness of the information can be verified (over time). 
Common means employed in this connection are checksums, crosschecks and audit trails. Verifiability can be
statically tested, focusing on the setup of the relevant measures with the aid of a checklist, and can be dynamically
explicitly tested focusing on the implementation of the relevant measure in the system.

 Effectivity 

The degree to which the information system is tailored to the organisation and the profile of the end users for whom it
is intended, as well as the degree to which the information system contributes to the achievement of the company
goals. 
A usable information system increases the efficiency of the business processes. Will a new system function in
practice, or not? Only the users’ organisation can answer that question. During (user) acceptance tests, this aspect is
usually (implicitly) included. If the aspect of usability is explicitly recognised in the test strategy, a test type can be
organised for it: the business simulation. During a business simulation, a random group of potential users tests the
usability aspects of the product in an environment that approximates as far as possible the “real-life” environment in
which they plan to use the system: the simulated production environment. The test takes place based on a number of
practical exercises or test scripts. In practice, the testing of usability is often combined with the testing of user-
friendliness within the test type of usability.

 Efficiency 

The relationship between the performance level of the system (expressed in the transaction volume and the total
speed) and the volume of resources (CPU cycles, I/O time, memory and network usage, etc.) used for these. 
Efficiency is tested with the aid of tools that measure the resource usage and/or dynamically implicitly by the
accumulation of statistics (by those same tools) during the execution of functionality tests. This aspect is often
particularly evident with embedded systems. 

 Flexibility 

The degree to which the user is able to introduce enhancements or variations on the information system without
amending the software. In other words, the degree to which the system can be amended by the user organisation,
without being dependent on the IT department for maintenance. Flexibility is statically tested by assessing the
relevant measures with the aid of a checklist. Testing can take place during the (user) acceptance test, by having the
user create, for example, a new mortgage variant (in the case of mortgages) or (in the case of credit cards), change
the way of calculating the commission, by changing the parameters in both cases. It is often tested in this way first,
before the change is actually implemented in production.

 Functionality 

The degree of certainty that the system processes the information accurately and completely. 

The quality characteristic of functionality can be split into the characteristics of accuracy and completeness:  

o Accuracy: the degree to which the system correctly processes the supplied input and
mutations according to the specifications into consistent data collections and output  
o Completeness: the certainty that all of the input and mutations are being processed by
the system. 

With testing, meeting the specified functionality is often the most important criterion for acceptance of the information
system. Using various techniques, the functional operation can be dynamically explicitly tested. 

 (Suitability of) Infrastructure 

The appropriateness of the hardware, the network, the system software, the DBMS and the (technical) architecture in
a general sense to the relevant application and the degree to which these infrastructure elements interconnect. 
The testing of this aspect can be done in various ways. The tester’s expertise as related to the infrastructural
elements concerned is very important here. More on infrastructure testing can be found in InfraTesting with TMap.

 Maintainability 

The ease with which the information system can be adapted to new requirements of the user, to the changing
external environment, or in order to correct faults. 
Insight into the maintainability is obtained, for example, by registering the average effort (in the number of hours)
required to solve a fault or by registering the average duration of repair (Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)).
Maintainability is also tested by assessing the internal quality of the information system (including associated system
documentation) with the aid of a checklist. Insight into the structuredness of the software (an aspect of
maintainability) is obtained by carrying out static tests, preferably supported by code analysis tools. 

 Manageability 

The ease with which the information system can be placed and maintained in an operational condition. 
Manageability is primarily aimed at technical system administration. The ease of installation of the information system
is part of this characteristic. It can be tested statically by assessing the existence of measures and instruments that
simplify or facilitate system management. Testing of system management takes place by, for example, carrying out
an installation test and by carrying out the administration procedures (such as backup and recovery) in the test
environment.

 Performance 

The speed with which the information system handles interactive and batch transactions. More on performance
testing in the building block. 

 Portability 

The diversity of the hardware and software platform on which the information system can run, and the ease with
which the system can be transferred from one environment to another. 

 Reusability 

The degree to which parts of the information system, or of the design, can be used again for the development of other
applications. If the system is to a large extent based on reusable modules, this also benefits the maintainability.
Reusability is tested through assessing the information system and/or the design with the aid of a checklist. 

 Security 

The certainty that consultation or mutation of the data can only be performed by those persons who are authorised to
do so.

 Suitability 

The degree to which the manual procedures and the automated information system interconnect, and the workability
of these manual procedures for the organisation. In the testing of suitability, the aspect of timeliness is also often
included. Timeliness is defined as the degree to which the information becomes available in time to take the
measures for which that information was intended. Suitability is tested with the aid of the process cycle test. 

 Testability 

The ease and speed with which the functionality and performance level of the system (after each adjustment) can be
tested. 
Testability in this case concerns the total information system. The quality of the system documentation greatly
influences the testability of the system. This is measured with the aid of the “testability review” checklist during the
Preparation phase. Also for the measuring of the testability of the information system a checklist can be used. Things
that (strongly) benefit the testability are: 

o Good system documentation. 

 o Having an (automated) regression test and other test ware. 
o The ease, with which interim results of the system can be made visible, assessed and
even manipulated. 
o Various test-environment aspects, such as representativeness and an adjustable system
date for purposes of time travel.
 User-friendliness 

The ease of operation of the system by the end users. Often, this general definition is split into: the ease with which
the end user can learn to handle the information system, and the ease with which trained users can handle the
information system. It is difficult to establish an objective and workable unit of measurement for user-friendliness.
However, it is often possible to give a (subjective) opinion couched in general terms concerning this aspect. User-
friendliness is tested within the test type of Usability
Service Quality matters.

 How do you manage the quality of your services? 

Service quality management encompasses a variety of procedures to assess the quality of services according to
customer expectations. It also includes the maintenance and long-term monitoring of all services offered to
customers, in order to track developments in quality and measure the efficiency of improvement efforts. By measuring
the size of the gap between expectations and reality, companies are delivered with actionable insights for targeted
improvements. Moreover, companies profit from the additional benefit of getting to know their target audiences much
better along the way. Lastly, continuous service quality management enables companies to identify and reduce
sources of errors and customer complaints.
Unlike measuring product quality, determining the concrete value of services is less based on tangible facts. If a
product breaks, there’s an indisputable problem with its construction. The quality of services, however, can only truly
be determined by analyzing a substantial amount of customer opinions over time, enabling the establishment of
correlations and overlapping trends.
To therefore measure service quality in a way that will produce actionable and meaningful results, companies require
a continuous source of specific information describing individual service interactions. This enables the specific
analysis of individual customer service touch points and provides companies with the data they need to make
targeted improvements in the areas that matter most to customers.
Quality of Service
Service has quality that if can satisfy the customer's needs and demands, and the provided service consistent with
customer expectations or will be beyond it. The common factors of service quality are as follows :

 1. Process Quality: Refers to processes and production methods quality and provide services to
customers.  
 2. Product Quality: is evaluated after the provide service. In fact, product is what the customer gets
from organization.  
 3. Physical Quality: Refers to goods or services the product support cases. (Grace & Ocass 2008)  
 4. Interactive Quality: Refers to interactions between customers and service providers.  
 5. Organization Quality: Is related to mental image and perception total from organization. Generally,
The organization quality is an intangible dimension. (Evans &Lindsay 2009)
 Dimensions of Services Quality 

Dimensions of services quality included: 

o 1. Available 
 o 2. Communications 
o 3. Competencies 
o 4. Humility 
o 5. Reliability 
o 6. Trust 
o 7. Responding 
o 8. Security 
o 9. Understand 
o 10. Tangible factors (Saei Asri et al. 2010)
 The reasons for the provided high quality services by the organizations included : 
 1. Increasing Customer Expectations: Generally, customer expectations have risen than past.
Increasing customer expectations may relate to several factors including increased customers'
awareness and knowledge, organization advertising, and competitors' performance. Arabian Journal of
Business and Management Review (OMAN Chapter) Vol. 3, No.3; Oct. 2013 36 
 2. Competitor Activity: Competitors by continuous changing of own services and how to provided to
customers are constantly do changing markets and they are seek to increase their market share. This
act will compel others take steps in order to improve their services quality. (Gronroos 2010) 
 3. Environmental Factors: Forced to provide high quality services factors of legal and political,
economic, social and cultural to organizations. Additionally Today by expanding access to the internet,
customers can easily obtain information from around the world.
 4. Services Nature: Evaluation of the services quality is problem considering attributes of services for
its recipients. For this reason, customers considering services' physical evidence and employees'
behavior do evaluation the service quality. (Porter 2007)  
 5. Organizational Internal Factors: Organizations by own promoting activity raise customers'
expectations and demands. As a result, when customer comes to organizations, has expected
promised services. Thus, organization performance should will be responsive to the expectations of the
customers.  
 6. Benefits Arising From Service Quality: Benefits arising from service quality is another factor that
encourages organizations to provide high quality services. One of the direct effects is increasing the
organization's ability to provide efficient services for customers. Because organization found their
customers have what demands and needs. So reduce or even eliminate from non-essential services.
Organization's profit will increase by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness in providing services.
Also provide a better service to customers makes repeat of purchase and spreading positive mouth to
mouth advertising. (SeyedJavadian & Kimasi 2005)

Customers' Satisfaction Factors Than Service Organization 

 1. Type deal service employees 

 2. Interact with equipment 
 3. The appearance and internal and external specifications of service facility under as physical -
environment factors 
 4. Features and behavior of other customers (Gilaninia 2013)

Conclusions 
Service is a work and practical offered by one party to the opposite party. A service has four distinctive feature
included intangible, inseparable, heterogeneous, and non-store. A service has quality can satisfy customers’ needs
and demands. Common factors of service quality included process quality, product quality, physical quality,
interactive quality, and organization quality. Service quality is more important and necessary due to increasing
customer expectations, competitor activity, environmental factors, services nature, organizational internal factors.

Lesson Proper for Week 3

 The ISO 9000 definition of quality improvement states that it is part of quality management
focused on increasing the ability to fulfil quality requirements.  
 In simple terms, quality improvement is anything which causes a beneficial change in quality
performance. There are two basic ways of bringing about improvement in quality performance.
One is by better control and the other by raising standards. We don't have suitable words to
define these two concepts.  
 Doing better what you already do is improvement but so is doing something new. Juran uses the
term control for maintaining standards and the term breakthrough for achieving new standards.
Imai uses the term Improvement when change is gradual and Innovation when it is radical.
Hammer uses the term reengineering for the radical changes. All beneficial change results in
improvement whether gradual or radical so we really need a word which means gradual change or
incremental change. The Japanese have the word Kaizen but there is no English equivalent that I
know of other than the word improvement.  
 Quality improvement (for better control) is a process for changing standards. It is not a process for
maintaining or creating new standards. Standards are changed through a process of selection,
analysis, corrective action on the standard or process, education and training. The standards
which emerge from this process are an improvement from those used previously. A typical quality
improvement might be to increase the achieved reliability of a range of products from 1 failure
every 1000 hours to meet the specified target of 1 every 5000 hours. Another might be to reduce
service call-out response time from an average of 38 hours to the maximum of 36 hours specified.
Another might be simply to correct the weaknesses in the registered quality management system
so that it will pass re-assessment.
  Quality improvement (raising standards or Innovation), is a process for creating new standards. It
is not a process for maintaining or improving existing standards. Standards are created through a
process which starts at a feasibility stage and progresses through research and development to
result in a new standard proven for repeatable applications. Such standards result from
innovations in technology, marketing and management. A typical quality improvement might be to
redesign a range of products to increase the achieved reliability from 1 failure every 5000 hours to
1 failure every 10,000 hours. Another example might be to improve the efficiency of the service
organization so as to reduce the guaranteed call-out time from the specified 36 hours to 24 hours.
A further example might be to design and install a quality system which complies with ISO 9001. 
 The transition between where quality improvement stops and quality control begins is where the
level has been set and the mechanisms are in place to keep quality on or above the set level. In
simple terms if quality improvement reduces quality costs from 25% of turnover to 10% of
turnover, the objective of quality control is to prevent the quality costs rising above 10% of
turnover. This is illustrated below.  
 Improvement by better control is achieved through the corrective action mechanisms referred to
in ISO 9001:2015 clause 10.2. Improvement by raising standards requires a different process. A
process which results in new standards.

Improving quality by raising standards can be accomplished by the following steps: 

 Determine the objective to be achieved. e.g. new markets, products or technologies or new levels
of organizational efficiency or managerial effectiveness, new national standards or government
legislation. These provide the reasons for needing change.  
 Determine the policies needed for improvement. i.e. the broad guidelines to enable management
to cause or stimulate the improvement.  
 Conduct a feasibility study. This should discover whether accomplishment of the objective is
feasible and propose several strategies or conceptual solutions for consideration.  
 If feasible, approval to proceed should be secured.  
 Produce plans for the improvement which specifies the means by which the objective will be
achieved.  Organize the resources to implement the plan.  
 Carry out research, analysis and design to define a possible solution and credible alternatives. 
 Model and develop the best solution and carry out tests to prove it fulfills the objective.  
 Identify and overcome any resistance to the change in standards.  
 Implement the change i.e. putting new products into production and new services into operation.

 Put in place the controls to hold the new level of performance.  
 This improvement process will require controls to keep improvement projects on course towards
their objectives. The controls applied should be designed in the manner described previously.  
 More information about quality improvement can be found in Part 10 of the ISO 9000 Quality
Systems Handbook 7E

Graphic Representation

Types of Graphical Representation 

Data charts are available in a wide variety of maps, diagrams, and graphs that typically include textual titles and
legends to denote the purpose, measurement units, and variables of the chart. Choosing the most appropriate
chart depends on a variety of different factors -- the nature of the data, the purpose of the chart, and whether a
graphical representation of qualitative data or a graphical representation of quantitative data is being depicted.
There are dozens of different formats for graphical representation of data. Some of the most popular charts
include: 

 Bar Graph -- contains a vertical axis and horizontal axis and displays data as rectangular bars with
lengths proportional to the values that they represent; a useful visual aid for marketing purposes 
 Choropleth -- thematic map in which an aggregate summary of a geographic characteristic within
an area is represented by patterns of shading proportionate to a statistical variable 
 Flow Chart -- diagram that depicts a workflow graphical representation with the use of arrows and
geometric shapes; a useful visual aid for business and finance purposes

 Heatmap -- a colored, two-dimensional matrix of cells in which each cell represents a grouping of
data and each cell’s color indicates its relative value 
 Histogram – frequency distribution and graphical representation uses adjacent vertical bars
erected over discrete intervals to represent the data frequency within a given interval; a useful
visual aid for meteorology and environment purposes 
 Line Graph – displays continuous data; ideal for predicting future events over time; a useful visual
aid for marketing purposes 
 Pie Chart -- shows percentage values as a slice of pie; a useful visual aid for marketing purposes 
 Pointmap -- CAD & GIS contract mapping and drafting solution that visualizes the location of data
on a map by plotting geographic latitude and longitude data 
 Scatter plot -- a diagram that shows the relationship between two sets of data, where each dot
represents individual pieces of data and each axis represents a quantitative measure 
 Stacked Bar Graph -- a graph in which each bar is segmented into parts, with the entire bar
representing the whole, and each segment representing different categories of that whole; a
useful visual aid for political science and sociology purposes 
 Timeline Chart -- a long bar labeled with dates paralleling it that display a list of events in
chronological order, a useful visual aid for history charting purposes 
  Tree Diagram -- a hierarchical genealogical tree that illustrates a family structure; a useful visual
aid for history charting purposes 
 Venn Diagram -- consists of multiple overlapping usually circles, each representing a set; the
default inner join graphical representation

Advantages and Disadvantages of Graphical Representation of Data 

Tabular and graphical representation of data is a vital component in analyzing and understanding large
quantities of numerical data and the relationship between data points. Data visualization is one of the most
fundamental approaches to data analysis, providing an intuitive and universal means to visualize, abstract, and
share complex data patterns. The primary advantages of graphical representation of data are:

 Facilitates and improves learning: graphics make data easy to understand and eliminate language
and literacy barriers 
 Understanding content: visuals are more effective than text in human understanding 
 Flexibility of use: graphical representation can be leveraged in nearly every field involving data 
 Increases structured thinking: users can make quick, data-driven decisions at a glance with visual
aids 
 Supports creative, personalized reports for more engaging and stimulating visual presentations 
 Improves communication: analyzing graphs that highlight relevant themes is significantly faster
than reading through a descriptive report line by line 
 Shows the whole picture: an instantaneous, full view of all variables, time frames, data behavior
and relationships

Disadvantages of graphical representation of data typically concern the cost of human effort and resources, the
process of selecting the most appropriate graphical and tabular representation of data, greater design
complexity of visualizing data, and the potential for human bias

Why Graphical Representation of Data is Important

 Graphic visual representation of information is a crucial component in understanding and

identifying patterns and trends in the ever increasing flow of data. Graphical representation
enables the quick analysis of large amounts of data at one time and can aid in making predictions
and informed decisions. Data visualizations also make collaboration significantly more efficient by
using familiar visual metaphors to illustrate relationships and highlight meaning, eliminating
complex, long-winded explanations of an otherwise chaotic-looking array of figures. 
 Data only has value once its significance has been revealed and consumed, and its consumption is
best facilitated with graphical representation tools that are designed with human cognition and
perception in mind. Human visual processing is very efficient at detecting relationships and
changes between sizes, shapes, colors, and quantities. Attempting to gain insight from numerical
data alone, especially in big data instances in which there may be billions of rows of data, is
exceedingly cumbersome and inefficient.
The seven basic tools of quality is a designation given to a fixed set of graphical techniques identified as being
most helpful in troubleshooting issues related to qualityThey are called basic because they are suitable for
people with little formal training in statistics and because they can be used to solve the vast majority of quality-
related issues 

 Cause-and-effect diagram (also known as the "fishbone diagram" or Ishikawa diagram) 

Ishikawa diagrams are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the potential causes of a specific
event. 
Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to identify potential
factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are
usually grouped into major categories to identify and classify these sources of variation.  

 Check sheet -The check sheet is a form (document) used to collect data in real time at the

location where the data is generated. The data it captures can be quantitative or qualitative. When
the information is quantitative, the check sheet is sometimes called a tally sheet.
 Control chart - Control charts, also known as Shewhart charts (afterWalter A. Shewhart) or
process-behavior charts, are a statistical process control tool used to determine if a manufacturing
or business process is in a state of control. It is more appropriate to say that the control charts are
the graphical device for Statistical Process Monitoring (SPM). Traditional control charts are mostly
designed to monitor process parameters when underlying form of the process distributions are
known. However, more advanced techniques are available in the 21st century where incoming
data streaming can-be monitored even without any knowledge of the underlying process
distributions. Distribution-free control charts are becoming increasingly popular.
  Histogram - A histogram is an approximate representation of the distribution of numerical data.
It was first introduced by Pearson. To construct a histogram, the first step is to "bin" (or "bucket")
the range of values—that is, divide the entire range of values into a series of intervals— and then
count how many values fall into each interval. The bins are usually specified as consecutive, non-
overlapping intervals of a variable. The bins (intervals) must be adjacent, and are often (but not
required to be) of equal size
 Pareto chart - A Pareto chart is a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where
individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is
represented by the line. The chart is named for the Pareto principle, which, in turn, derives its
name fromVilfredo Pareto, a noted Italian economist.
 Scatter diagram - A scatter plot (also called a scatterplot, scatter graph,scatter chart,
scattergram, or scatter diagram) is a type of plot or mathematical diagram using Cartesian
coordinates to display values for typically two variables for a set of data. If the points are coded
(color/shape/size), one additional variable can be displayed. The data are displayed as a collection
of points, each having the value of one variable determining the position on the horizontal axis
and the value of the other variable determining the position on the vertical axis.
 Stratification (alternatively,flow chart or run chart) - Stratification is the process of dividing
members of the population into homogeneous subgroups before sampling. The strata should
define a partition of the population. That is, it should be collectively exhaustive and mutually
exclusive: every element in the population must be assigned to one and only one stratum. Then
simple random sampling or systematic sampling is applied within each stratum. The objective is to
improve the precision of the sample by reducing sampling error. It can produce a weighted mean
that has less variability than the arithmetic mean of a simple random sample of the population. 

Lesson Proper for Week 4

STATISTICAL METHODS

STATISTICAL METHODS IN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

 Statistics are defined as a field that involves tabulating, depicting, and describing data sets.  
 Statistical methods in quality improvement are defined as the use of collected data and quality
standards to find new ways to improve products and services. They are a formalized body of
techniques characteristically involving attempts to infer the properties of a large collection of data.
 Statistics are defined as a field that involves tabulating, depicting, and describing data sets.
The Fundamentals of Statistics for Quality Improvement

In business, decisions need to be taken based on data. Statistical thinking guides decision making based on the
analysis of data. Many companies have a lot of data but don't know to turn their data into useful and actionable
information. However, companies that make the best use of their available data achieve a competitive
advantage by optimizing their operations and making superior decisions. It is all the more imperative for quality
professionals to examine the best practices in statics for quality engineering to improve the performance of
their current system. 

To focus on continual improvement, companies must make a shift from control-oriented management to
statistical quality control. They must emphasize statistics rather than application. They must collect data and
make faster decisions based on data

The Statistical Fundamentals

 Statistics are tools that help in analysing data, making summaries, drawing inferences, and
generalizing from the data. Statistics are highly crucial in the field of quality. Learning how to
develop different statistical charts and statistical techniques is crucial. However, learning how to
apply those techniques in a way that will document and stimulate continual improvement of the
organization is even more important.

Three concepts of statistical thinking

 Central to quality improvement is statistical thinking. Statistical thinking is a skill that is displayed
by the ability to make decisions based on data. Such thinking is based on three concepts as shown
in the figure below:
  Process variation 

All processes display variation. There is some variation that can be controlled and others that cannot be
controlled. If the variation is too high, the process parts will not fit in properly, the product will be defective and
the company's reputation for quality will be at stake if corrective actions are not taken.

 There are two types of variations that occurs commonly viz. random and nonrandom variation.

 Process stability 

When a process performs consistently over time, then the process is considered to be stable or in control.
Process stability refers to the steadiness of the process with regard to critical process characteristics such as
the average value of a key dimension or the variation in that key dimension. The process stability is determined
by using process charts. Process charts are charts that signal the process personnel when a nonrandom
variation occurs in a process.

 Sampling methods 

Data are gathered in samples to ensure the stability of the process. Sampling methods are preferred and are
better established because they are cost-effective, less intrusive, fast, and their destructive testing features.
They also let the user frame the sample.  
 o Random sampling: Randomization ensures independence among observations.  
o Systematic samples: Systematic samples according to time or according to
sequence  
o Sampling by Rational Subgroup: a group of data that is logically homogenous;
variation within the data can provide a measure for setting limits on the standard
variation between subgroups.
 Considerations for Planning for inspection  
o The type of sampling  
o The personnel who will sample  
o The persons for the use in-process inspection sample size 
o The critical attributes to be inspected  
o The location for the inspection 

Process control charts

 Process control chart definition  

 "A control chart is a statistical tool used to distinguish between variation in a process resulting
from common causes and variation resulting from special causes. It presents a graphic display of
process stability or instability over time." (Air University)

 The main purpose of a process control chart is to indicate when production processes might have
changed sufficiently to affect product quality. If the chart shows that the quality of the product has
deteriorated, it is an indication to take corrective actions.
 The main purpose of a process control chart is to indicate when production processes might have
changed sufficiently to affect product quality. If the chart shows that the quality of the product has
deteriorated, it is an indication to take corrective actions.
 General guidelines for developing process charts 
o Identify critical operations in the process where inspection might be needed. 
o Identify critical product characteristics. 
o Determine whether the critical product aspect is variable or attributable  
o Choose the relevant process control chart from the many options available  
o Determine and establish control limits and use a chart for ongoing monitoring and
improvement.  
o When you make changes to the process, update the limits
 Process stability and capability  
 When a process is stabilized, the immediate next step is to ensure the process is capable. Process
capability is the ability of the process to produce the desired product. The six sigma is one such
program that results in highly capable processes.  
 Capability studies are conducted for two reasons:  
o To determine whether a process results in the product that meets the specifications
 
o To determine whether a process is in need of monitoring through the use of
permanent process charts.  
 There are many forms used in the statistical methods for quality improvement:  
 Hypothesis testing: A statistical method for making statistical decisions using experimental data.
Hypothesis Testing is basically an assumption that can be made about the population criteria.  
 Regression analysis: A study to understand the relationship between two or more variables.  
 Statistical process control: An industry-standard methodology for measuring and controlling
quality during the manufacturing process.
 Design and analysis experiments: Planning, directing, examining and interpreting controlled
tests to evaluate the factors that may influence a response variable.   
o Why some companies fail with statistics  
o Many companies fail to develop statistical thinking and culture.  
o They fail to implement quality control in a substantive way and prefer form over
substance.  
o Some lack the knowledge about statistical tools, and so misapply them.  
o Others have a general disdain for all things mathematics creates and that creates a
barrier to the use of statistics.  
o Cultural differences in a company sometimes make the use of statistics for quality
improvement a bottleneck.  
o Statistical experts find it difficult to communicate with managerial generalists.  
o Lack of understanding of statistical methods  
o Lack of proper education in statistics  
o Lack of patience in collecting data  
o Fear of violating critical statistical assumptions  
o Some people don't understand random variation