Total Quality Management

UNIT-1

INTRODUCTION

Liberalization and Globalization: ​With the opening up of the

economy multinational companies, the world over, are setting up
organizations in India. Also, Indian Government has liberalized and
many products that were previously manufactured by the public
sector and government organizations are now being manufactured
by Private organizations.
The opening up of the economy has brought to the advantage of the
customers many benefits
● Sellers market to Buyers market: ​Previously, Customers
had to depend on only a few products. They are now able to
choose whatever the product they want. So organizations
have to be agile and introduce many variants of the same
product and that too in a very short period of time.

● Awareness: ​With the connectivity increasing, the world

has become very small and even remote places are now
connected through internet and mobile phones, not to
mention the connectivity through road and rail.

● Increased Competition: ​More and more organizations are

setting up industries in India to produce products and
services. Also, any product produced anywhere in the world
can be sold in any part of the world.

Indian companies have come under lot of pressure under the present
circumstances because
● Freedom to produce: ​Many products that were under the
domain of the cottage industry are now being manufactured
by multinational companies (ex: chips, soft drinks).

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 ● Organizational Systems and Culture: ​These
multinational companies that enter the Indian market bring
with them proven systems through which they have a great
advantage over many of the Indian organizations that still
need to think in terms of progressive systems.
In view of the above circumstances organizations in India need to
look ahead to be competitive to survive and succeed. One of the best
ways of taking the first step forward is to
● Improve productivity ​of all activities, inside the
organization and in the delivery process i.e., they need to
respond faster to the environmental requirement and
produce products and services at continually reduced costs.

● Secondly, organizations need to ​process information

and products at a faster rate​, For this to happen
managers in such organizations need to be provided with
updated, timely and strategic information

● All the ​departments in the organization need to work

in unison ​to serve the ultimate customer. Customer is the
king in the present age and he will not pay for the
producers’ inefficiency.

● Product costs have to continually decrease.

All these things should happen in a situation in which employee
salary, interests on loans, insurance costs electricity charges, to name
a few, keep on increasing as expenses to the organization.

The concept of Total Quality Management(TQM)

TQM is composed of three paradigms:

● Total: ​Organization wide

● Quality​: ​With its usual Definitions, with all its complexities
(External Definition)
● Management​: ​The system of managing with steps like Plan,
Organize, Control, Lead, Staff, etc.

Definition: ​As defined by the ​International Organization for

Standardization​ ​(ISO):

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 "TQM is a management approach for an organization, centered on
quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at
long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all
members of the organization and to society."

Total Quality
The term ‘total quality’ was used for the first time in a paper by
Feigenbaum at the first international conference on quality control in
Tokyo in 1969. The term referred to wider issues within an
organisation.

Ishikawa also discussed ‘total quality control’ in Japan, which is different

from the western idea of total quality. According to his explanation, it
means ‘company-wide quality control’ that involves all employees, from
top management to the workers, in quality control.

Total Quality Management

In the 1980s to the 1990s, a new phase of quality control and

management began. This became known as Total Quality Management
(TQM). Having observed Japan’s success of employing quality issues.
Western companies started to introduce their own quality initiatives. TQM,
developed as a catchall phrase for the broad spectrum of quality-focused
strategies, programmes and techniques during this period, became the
centre of focus for the Western quality movement.

Basic Concepts: TQM requires six basic concepts

1. A committed and involved management: ​TQM is a continual

long term activity that must be imbibed in the culture of the
organization. Everything begins with the
long-term-top-to-bottom-

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 organization support. Management must participate in the quality
program, establish a council to develop clear vision, set goals and
direct the programs.
2. An unwavering focus on the customer: ​Customers are the very
purpose of any organization. Key to an effective TQM is orienting all
activities towards the need of the customer, both internally and
externally.
3. Effective involvement and achievement of the entire work
force: ​Implementing TQM is everyone’s responsibility. Employees
are the future of any organization. All personnel must be trained in
TQM, its tools. They must be empowered to perform processes in an
optimal manner.
4. Continuous improvement of the business and production
processes: ​All employees must continually strive to improve all
business and production systems.
5. Treating Suppliers as Partners: ​40 to 60 % of the product cost is
outsourced. So all supplier organizations have to be treated as
extension of one’s organisations.
6. Establish Performance measures: ​Measure and prosper.
Measures should be available to note downtimes, nonconformities
and satisfaction of customers, absenteeism etc.

Principles of Total Quality Management: ​The eight principles are:

1. Customer-Focused Organisation
2. Leadership
3. Involvement of People
4. Process Approach

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 5. System Approach to Management
6. Continual Improvement
7. Factual Approach to Decision Making ​and
8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships​.

TQM has evolved over a period of time through practice and the
contribution of principles by various gurus. The whole system is focused
towards the customer, who is the basic purpose for which the organization
exists. The products and services are realized by the combination of
various principles and practices based on people and relationships, and
Tools and Techniques, as shown above. The approach to product
realization is by continuously identifying activities and process for
incremental and breakthrough improvement so as to provide the best to
the customer. This happens when at every stage all activities and process
have progressive performance measures which channelize the
performance in the direction of the set goal.

Benefits of TQM:

▪ Improved quality
▪ Employee participation
▪ Team work
▪ Working relationship
▪ Customer satisfaction
▪ Employee satisfaction.
▪ Increased productivity
▪ Communication]
▪ Profitability
▪ Increased market share

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Quality and Business performance :

TQM implementation and organizational performance and five of TQM

principles, customer focus, continuous improvement, top management
commitment, employee involvement, and product innovation have a
significantly positive effect on product quality, recommending the use of
reward and recognition for involving employees in TQM efforts.

The implementation of TQM has a positive effect on both the operational

and the organizational performance. The results show that customer
focus, continuous improvement, top management commitment, employee
involvement and product innovation are significantly and positively related
to product quality. The different TQM practices significantly affect different
performance outcomes and the main obstacles were lack of employee
involvement, awareness and commitment of the employees, inappropriate
firm structure, and lack of the resources.

Attitude and Involvement(Role) of Top/Senior

management

Senior management is a group of high level executives that actively

participate in the daily supervision, planning and administrative processes
required by a business to help meet its objectives. The senior
management of a company is often appointed by the corporation's board
of directors and approved by stockholders.

They are sometimes referred to as executive management, top

management, upper management, higher management, or simply
executives within the corporation. The need for senior management
commitment and leadership is recognized by most prominent writers in
the area of quality.

TQM implementation must be started by the senior management because

they are the primary internal change agent for quality improvement.
Furthermore, they must realize that TQM is a long-term business
strategy.
The senior management has two major roles:

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They are shaping organizational values and establishing a managerial
infrastructure to actually bring about change.

They have to prepare themselves with knowledge about the criteria of

TQM and put in their mind the TQM agenda.

Beside the required support and involvement by the seiner management,

TQM implementation needs commitment to quality and continuously
improving from all levels of staff .

Quality is the responsibility of all organization members especially the top

management. Hence, the top management role is not only limited to
taking the decisions but also they need to make sure that all organization
members are aligned with the TQM process and goals.

For TQM to be successful in an organization it must be actively

supported by top management. If employees are confident that top
management strongly supports TQM initiative, employees becomes
involved in the TQM initiative. Successful employee empowerment and
involvement are essential components of any TQM program. The reason
for gaining the commitment of top management to implement the TQM
programme is that management has the responsibility to help
employees through all the different stages of TQM. Leadership is the
heart and soul of change. Change will not occur without leadership.

Leaders must lead the pro-active change to TQM to overcome

fear of change. Change to TQM demands stamina, a spirit of
entrepreneurship, endless patience, continuous communication,
encouragement and recognition of those who achieve successes along
the line. It is a process that is exciting as well as dangerous. Cultural
change should be planned and should occur in a consistent and
incremental manner.

To introduce TQM, an open cooperative culture has to be created

by the management. Employees have to be made to feel that they are
responsible for customer satisfaction. They are not going to feel this if
they are excluded from the development of visions, strategies, and
plans. It is important that they participate in these activities for
complete success of TQM implementation. The success of an
organization's quality efforts relies largely on focusing on the right
objectives and its ability to communicate them to both its external and
internal customers.

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Communication:

The organization should be in communication with its customers

matching with its level of service quality. A customer will be
dissatisfied if what is advertised and what is delivered are not the
same.

Under communication organizations need to

1. Optimize the trade-off between time and personal attention.

2. Minimize the number of contact points
3. Provide pleasant, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic employees.
4. Write documents in customer-friendly language.

The message of quality improvement has to be communicated to

three distinct audiences: employees, customers and stakeholders.
Employees cannot be expected to be productive and effective if they do
not receive accurate and relevant information. Effective communication
increases employees‟ level of trust and improves problem solving. By
allowing employees to give inputs with regard to their jobs,
management recognizes that employees are an important source of
knowledge and experience.

People‟s attitudes and behavior can be influenced by

communication, and the essence of changing attitudes is to gain
acceptance through excellent communication processes [5]. Positive
reinforcement is an effective way to motivate people and generate their
interest in transforming the organization. One of the most powerful
ways to create interest in TQM is to communicate TQM success stories
to employees. Success stories of organizations implementing TQM must
also include financial information by teaching employees to understand
and take TQM implementation forward.

The vehicles for communicating the total quality strategy to the

organization‟s employee‟s are:
Train and develop both managers and employees - Managers must
understand the processes they manage as well as the basic concept
of systems optimization.

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 Employee training should focus on the integration and appropriate
use of statistical tools and problem solving.

Culture and management systems

All existing and newly appointed employees should be made aware of

behaviour that is regarded as the best way of action. Every employee who
adopted the new organizational culture of TQM must assume ownership of
their processes and the quality of their deliverables. To really understand
what is meant by the culture of an organization, it is important to clearly
define the concept.

The culture in each organisation tends to have distinctive properties

that make it different from other organisations such as (1) top-down
leadership, (2) vision, (3) customer focus, (4) employee well-being, (5)
performance management system, (6) reward system,
(7) communication system, (8) roles and relationships, (9) structure and
(10) teamwork.

Certain conditions are essential for a successful change in culture, namely:

Top management‟s commitment to the TQM programme, as well as their

visible involvement, is important.

Leaders must exhibit the new desired behaviour and their general
behaviour should be in accordance with slogans based on their vision,
mission and values.

Clear objectives should be formulated – these should include objectives

with regard to performance, programming and cultural expectations.

Change should be regarded as a process to build skills, of which training

forms an important component. The change process should take place
simultaneously in all subsystems in the organization.

A compensation or recognition system should be linked to the desired

behaviour or actions.

Sufficient time should be allocated to ensure the success of the project.

The programme should be result-orientated.

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 If the culture is positive, it enables the implementation of new
management strategies or philosophies as well as the smooth functioning of
the organization. The absence of culture in an organization is one of the
main reasons why transformation to TQM fails. An organization‟s culture is
based on the organization‟s mission, vision, values and its requirements for
success, namely high quality, reliability, customer service, innovation, hard
work and loyalty. Changing people‟s beliefs and attitudes is mainly
obtained by means of experience, observation, interaction, participation
and persuasive communication.

Before embarking on a quality revolution, an organization must

determine whether its culture offers an environment that is conducive to
total quality. If not, the culture must be changed. Changing the culture
within an organization is one of the dimensions required to move an
organization from a hierarchical, traditional organization to an empowered
organization.

Management of Process Quality:

QUALITY

Quality has been the most exploited word but at the same time most
mis-understood word. Quality is an off shoot of the work we do. It is a
bi-product of an act. It shows the level of commitment in doing our
activity.

Examples such as: High quality at low price, Quality Hawaii chappal,
High class quality etc., are being mentioned.

Definition of Quality​: The Quality is defined in many ways:

Quality is Excellence: When quality is defined as excellence, it loses

its measurability. Each person understands to the level of his own
excellence and involves in his work. It is often misunderstood that high
cost is high quality. Judgmental in nature. Ex. (Rolex watches, BMW
automobiles).

Quality is Value: With this definition the performance and features or

the usefulness of the products are compared to only the cost of price of

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 the product. Many a times the utility/ possession value is more than the
value of the product. Ex: the features of the product are compared to the
cost of the product.

Quality is Conformance to Requirements: This definition has a

manufacturing orientation. It requires that the customer gives the
specification and the products are manufactured to that requirement.

Quality is degree to which the inherent capabilities of the

product satisfy (implicit and explicit) Requirements (Customer
driven).

Need for Quality

● Good quality of goods and services can provide an organization

with competitive edge.

● Good quality reduces costs due to product returns, rework and

scrap.

● Good quality increases productivity, profits and other

measures of success such as brand image, product image and
company goodwill.

● Most importantly, good quality generates satisfied customers

today and tomorrow.

● Good quality creates an atmosphere for high employee morale,

which improves productivity.

Dimensions of Quality

Manufacturing Quality
Dimensions
● Reliability ● Aesthetics
● Performance
● Durability ● Reputation
● Features
● Service ● Respons
● Conformance

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 Performance: ​A product’s primary operating characteristics.
● Automobile- Braking Distance, Acceleration, Steering, Handling, etc.
● Mobile Phone: Clarity, Audibility, Ease of use, etc.
Features: ​Additional provisions provided in the product
● Automobile: Stereo systems, Antilock Brakes, Air conditioning
● Mobile Phones: MP3, Email facility,
Reliability: ​Probability of product surviving over a specified period of time
under specified conditions.
● Automobile: Able to start on cold days, Good mileage
● Mobile Phones: Catches even feeble signals, Battery life is good
Conformance: ​The degree to which physical and performance
characteristics of a product match pre- established standards
● Automobile: No sounds while driving as all components fit well with
each other.
● Mobile: Battery and additional cards fit well into the unit. Battery gets
charged properly
Durability: ​The amount of use one gets from a product before it
physically deteriorates or until replacement is preferable.
● Automobile: Corrosion resistance, Upholstery wears.
● Mobile: Battery life, Sturdiness of buttons
Seviceability: ​The speed, courtesy and competence of repair work.
● Automobile: Ease with which the cables can be replaced.
● Mobile: Service expenses
Aesthetics: ​How a product looks, feels, tastes, smells and sounds
● Automobile: Colour, ergonomic seats, panel design
● Mobile: Sleekness, weight, Colour combination
Reputation: ​The name the supplier has made over time
● Automobile: Maruthi Suzuki service.
● Mobile: Nokia’s reliability
Response: ​Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.
● Automobile: Replacement of defective parts – TATA Indica, Honda
● Mobile: Nokia battery replacement

Quality Control

Quality Control is a systematic control of various factors that affect the

quality of the product. The various factors include material, tools, machines,
type of labour, working conditions, measuring instruments, etc.

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 Quality Control can be defined as the entire collection of activities which
ensures that the operation will produce the optimum Quality products at
minimum cost.

Quality Control was introduced to detect and fix problems along the
production line to prevent the production of faulty products. Statistical theory
played an important role in this area. In the 1920s, Dr W. Shewhart
developed the application of statistical methods to the management of
quality. He made the first modern control chart and demonstrated that
variation in the production process leads to variation in product. Therefore,
eliminating variation in the process leads to a good standard of end products.

Objectives of Quality Control

● To decide about the standard of quality of a product that is
easily acceptable to the customer and at the same time this
standard should be economical to maintain.
● To take different measures to improve the standard of quality of
product.

Advantages of quality control

● Quality of product is improved which in turn increases sales.

● Scrap rejection and rework are minimized thus reducing
wastage. So the cost of manufacturing reduces.
● Good quality product improves reputation.
● Inspection cost reduces to a great extent.
● Uniformity in quality can be achieved.
● Improvement in manufacturer and consumer relations.

A Brief History

● In the middle ages ​the concept of quality in the individuals was

instilled by long hours of on the job training. The manufacturer
would act as the inspector. The concept of business was in the
barter system. Even now we see such skilled craftsmen like
carpenters, idol makers and others, who make their own product

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 and inspect it.

● In the early 20​th century​, the work of F.W.Taylor, known as the

father of scientific management, led to a new philosophy of
separating planning function from execution function. During this
phase the total work was segmented into specific work tasks for
focusing on increased efficiency. The quality assurance of the
items/products produced fell into the hands of the inspectors.
During manufacturing, defects were present but were removed by
inspectors before passing it on to the next stage or to the customer.
Eventually organizations formed separate quality departments to
pass materials produced. This worked during that period because of
lack of skill and education of the workers. Later on it led to a lot of
indifference to quality among production workers thinking that
quality personnel were responsible for quality goods produced.

o During this period Henry Ford ​had identified lot of best

practices of Total Quality and put it in a book called “My Life
and Work”, which people in Ford came to know later when
they visited Japan to learn best practices.
o During 1920s ​in the Bell Telephone Laboratories, a team led
by Walter Shewart, developed the control chart, which
became a popular means of identifying quality problems in
production processes and ensuring consistency of output.
o During the Second World War ​sampling tables (MIL STD)
were developed for sampling inspection.

● During the early 40s and 50s ​the shortage of civilian goods made
production a top priority. Quality was not a priority of top managers
and remained the domain of the specialist managers. Edward
Deming learned statistical quality control from Shewart and
propagated the same to Japanese along with Joseph Juran.
● During late 1970s and 1980s US ​managers were making
frequent trips to Japan to see the miracle in Japan on Quality
issues.
● During late 1980s ​automotive industry in US began to emphasize
SPC. Suppliers and their suppliers were required to use these
techniques. Genechi Taguchi introduced his concepts of parameter
and tolerance design and brought a resurgence of design of
experiments.

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 ● The 1990s ​ISO 9000 became the worldwide model for quality
management system.

Product Inspection Vs Process control

Inspection involves measuring, examining, and testing products, process

and services against specified requirements to determine conformity. In
the late Middle Ages, special measures were taken to inspect the work of
apprentices and journeymen in order to guard the Guild against claims of
makeshift or shoddy work.

During the early years of manufacturing, inspection was used to decide

whether a worker’s job or a product met the requirements; therefore,
acceptable. It was not done in a systematic way, but worked well when
the volume of production was reasonably low. However, as organisations
became larger, the need for more effective operations became apparent.

In 1911, Frederick W. Taylor helped to satisfy this need. He published ‘The

Principles of Scientific Management’ which provided a framework for the
effective use of people in industrial organisations. One of Taylor’s concepts
was clearly defined tasks performed under standard conditions. Inspection
was one of these tasks and

● was intended to ensure that no faulty product left the factory or

workshop;
● focuses on the product and the detection of problems in the product;
● involves testing every item to ensure that it complies with product
specifications;
● is carried out at the end of the production process; and relies on
specially trained inspectors.

Accompanying the creation of inspection functions, other problems arose:

● More technical problems occurred, requiring specialised skills,
often not possessed by production workers
● The inspectors lacked training
● Inspectors were ordered to accept defective goods, to increase
output

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 ● Skilled workers were promoted into other roles, leaving less
skilled workers to perform the operational jobs, such as
manufacturing

Process Control

Under this the quality of the products is controlled while the products are in
the process of production.

The process control is secured with the technique of control charts​.

Control charts are also used in the field of advertising, packing etc. They
ensure that whether the products confirm to the specified quality standard
or not.

Process Control consists of the systems and tools used to ensure that
processes are well defined, performed correctly, and maintained so that the
completed product conforms to established requirements. Process Control
is an essential element of managing risk to ensure the safety and reliability
of the Space Shuttle Program. It is recognized that strict process control
practices will aid in the prevention of process escapes that may result in or
contribute to in-flight anomalies, mishaps, incidents and
non-conformances.

The five elements of a process are:

People – skilled individuals who understand the importance of process

and change control
Methods/Instructions – documented techniques used to define and
perform a process
Equipment – tools, fixtures, facilities required to make products that
meet requirements
Material – both product and process materials used to manufacture
and test products
Environment – environmental conditions required to properly
manufacture and test products

Statistical Quality Control(SQC):

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 Statistics​: Statistics means data, a good amount of data to obtain
reliable results. The science of statistics handles this data in
order to draw certain conclusions.

S.Q.C: ​This is a quality control system employing the statistical

techniques to control quality by performing inspection, testing
and analysis to conclude whether the quality of the product is as
per the laid quality standards.

Using statistical techniques, S.Q.C. collects and analyses data in assessing

and controlling product quality. The technique of S.Q.C. was though
developed in 1924 by Dr.WalterA.Shewartan American scientist; it got
recognition in industry only second world war. The technique permits a more
fundamental control.

It focuses on product and the detection and control of quality problems;

involves testing samples and statistically infers compliance of all products;
is carried out at stages through the production process; and
relies on trained production personnel and quality control professionals.

Shewart’s work was later developed by Deming, Dodge and Roming.

However, manufacturing companies did not fully utilise these techniques until
the late 1940s.
The fundamental basis of S.Q.C. is the theory of probability. According to the
theories of probability, the dimensions of the components made on the same
machine and in one batch (if measured accurately) vary from component to
component. This may be due to inherent machine characteristics or the
environmental conditions. The chance or condition that a sample will
represent the entire batch or population is developed from the theory of
probability.

Relying itself on the probability theory, S.Q.C. evaluates batch quality and
controls the quality of processes and products. S.Q.C. uses three scientific
techniques, namely;
● Sampling inspection
● Analysis of the data, and
● Control charting

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Advantages of SQC

● Reduction in cost: ​Since only a fractional output is inspected, hence cost of

inspection is greatly reduced.
● Greater efficiency: ​It requires lesser time and boredom as compared to the
100 percent inspection and hence the efficiency increases.
● Easy to apply: ​Once the S.Q.C plan is established, it is easy to apply even by man
who does not have extensive specialized training.
● Accurate prediction​: Specifications can easily be predicted for the future, which is
not possible even with 100 percent inspection.
● Can be used where inspection is needs destruction of items: ​In cases where
destruction of product is necessary for inspecting it, 100 percent inspection is
not possible (which will spoil all the products), sampling inspection is resorted
to.
● Early detection of faults: ​The moment a sample point falls outside the control
limits, it is taken as a danger signal and necessary corrective measures are taken.
Whereas in 100 percent inspection, unwanted variations in quality may be
detected after large number of defective items have already been produced. Thus
by using the control charts, we can know from graphic picture that how the
production is proceeding and where corrective action is required and where it is
not required.

Control Charts and Acceptance Sampling

Statistical Process Control

SPC is an effective method of monitoring a process through the use of

control charts. Much of its power lies in the ability to monitor both process
center and its variation about that center. By collecting data from samples
at various points within the process, variations in the process that may
affect the quality of the end product or service can be detected and
corrected, thus reducing waste as well as the likelihood that problems will
be passed on to the customer. It has an emphasis on early detection and
prevention of problems.

Control Charts

Since variations in manufacturing process are unavoidable, the control

chart tells when to leave a process alone and thus prevent unnecessary
frequent adjustments. Control charts are graphical representation and are
based on statistical sampling theory, according to which an adequate sized

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 random sample is drawn from each lot. Control charts detect variations in
the processing and warn if there is any departure from the specified
tolerance limits. These control charts immediately tell the undesired
variations and help in detecting the cause and its removal.

In control charts, where both upper and lower values are specified for a
quality characteristic, as soon as some products show variation outside the
tolerances, a review of situation is taken and corrective step is immediately
taken.

If analysis of the control chart indicates that the process is currently under
control (i.e. is stable, with variation only coming from sources common to
the process) then data from the process can be used to predict the future
performance of the process. If the chart indicates that the process being
monitored is not in control, analysis of the chart can help determine the
sources of variation, which can then be eliminated to bring the process
back into control. A control chart is a specific kind of run chart that allows
significant change to be differentiated from the natural variability of the
process.

The control chart can be seen as part of an objective and disciplined

approach that enables correct decisions regarding control of the process,
including whether or not to change process control parameters. Process
parameters should never be adjusted for a process that is in control, as this
will result in degraded process performance.

In other words, control chart is:

● A device which specifies the state of statistical control,
● A device for attaining statistical control,
● A device to judge whether statistical control has been attained or
not.

PURPOSE AND ADVANTAGES:

● A control charts indicates whether the process is in control or out
of control.
● It determines process variability and detects unusual variations
taking place in a process.
● It ensures product quality level.

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 ● It warns in time, and if the process is rectified at that time,
scrap or percentage rejection can be reduced.
● It provides information about the selection of process and setting
of tolerance limits.
● Control charts build up the reputation of the organization through
customer’s satisfaction.

Types of Control Charts

1. Variables or Measurement Charts - X bar Chart and R chart

2. Attribute Charts - p chart, np chart and C chart

Uses:
● (X-Bar) and R charts, for process control.
● P chart, for analysis of fraction defectives
● C chart, for control of number of defects per unit.

Control charts can be used to measure any characteristic of a product, such

as the weight of a cereal box, the number of chocolates in a box, or the
volume of bottled water. The different characteristics that can be measured
by control charts can be divided into two groups: variables and attributes.

● A ​control chart for variables i​ s used to monitor characteristics

that can be measured and have a continuum of values, such as
height, weight, or volume. A soft drink bottling operation is an
example of a variable measure, since the amount of liquid in the
bottles is measured and can take on a number of different
values. Other examples are the weight of a bag of sugar, the
temperature of a baking oven, or the diameter of plastic tubing.
● A ​control chart for attributes​, ​on the other hand, is used to
monitor characteristics that have discrete values and can be
counted. Often they can be evaluated with a simple yes or no
decision. Examples include color, taste, or smell. The monitoring
of attributes usually takes less time than that of variables
because a variable needs to be measured (e.g., the bottle of soft
drink contains 15.9 ounces of liquid). An attribute requires only

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 a single decision, such as yes or no, good or bad, acceptable or
unacceptable (e.g., the apple is good or rotten, the meat is good
or stale, the shoes have a defect or do not have a defect, the
lightbulb works or it does not work) or counting the number of
defects (e.g., the number of broken cookies in the box, the
number of dents in the car, the number of barnacles on the
bottom of a boat).

Acceptance Sampling :
Acceptance sampling uses ​statistical sampling ​to determine whether to accept
or reject a production lot of material. It has been a common quality control
technique used in industry and particularly the military for contracts and
procurement. It is usually done as products leave the factory, or in some
cases even within the factory. Most often a producer supplies a consumer a
number of items and decision to accept or reject the lot is made by
determining the number of defective items in a sample from the lot. The lot is
accepted if the number of defects falls below where the acceptance number or
otherwise the lot is rejected.

For the purpose of acceptance, inspection is carried out at many stages in

the process of manufacturing. These stages may be: inspection of incoming
materials and parts, process inspection at various points in the
manufacturing operations, final inspection by a manufacturer of his own
product and finally inspection of the finished product by the purchaser.

Inspection for acceptance is generally carried out on a sampling basis. The

use of sampling inspection to decide whether or not to accept the lot is
known as Acceptance Sampling. A sample from the inspection lot is
inspected, and if the number of defective items is more than the stated
number known as acceptance number, the whole lot is rejected.

The purpose of Acceptance Sampling is, therefore a method used to make a

decision as to whether to accept or to reject lots based on inspection of
sample(s).

Operating Characteristic Curve

The Operating Characteristic Curve (OC Curve) shows you the

probability that you will accept lots with various levels of quality. It is

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 the working plan of acceptance sampling.

AQL – Acceptance Quality Level

The AQL (Acceptance Quality Level), the maximum % defective that can
be considered satisfactory as a process average for sampling inspection

RQL – Rejectable Quality Level

The RQL (Rejectable Quality Level) is the % defective.it is also known

as the Lot Tolerance Percent Defective (LTPD).
LTPD – Lot Tolerance Percent Defective

The LTPD of a sampling plan is a level of quality routinely rejected by the

sampling plan. It is generally defined as that level of quality (percent
defective, defects per hundred units, etc.) which the sampling plan will
accept 10% of the time.

Acceptance Sampling Plans

A sampling plan is a plan for acceptance sampling that precisely specifies
the parameters of the sampling process and the acceptance/rejection
criteria. The variables to be specified include the size of the lot (​N)​ , the size
of the sample inspected from the lot (​n​), the number of defects above
which a lot is rejected (​c)​ , and the number of samples that will be taken.
There are different types of sampling plans.

Single Sampling (Inference made on the basis of only one sample)

Double Sampling (Inference made on the basis of one or two samples)
Sequential Sampling (Additional samples are drawn until an inference can
be made) etc.

Single Sampling Plan

In single sampling plan, the decision regarding the acceptance or rejection
is made after drawing a sample from a bigger lot. Inspection is done and if
the defectives exceed a certain number the lot is rejected. Otherwise, the
lot is accepted when the number of defectives is less than the acceptance
number.
Double Sampling Plan

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 In this, a small sample is first drawn. If the number of defectives is less
than or equal to the acceptance number (C1) the lot is accepted. If the
number of defectives is more than another acceptance number (C2) which
is higher, then C1 then the lot is rejected. If in case, the number in the
inspection lies between C2 and C1, then a second sample is drawn. The
entire lot is accepted or rejected on the basis of outcome of second
inspection.

Sequential Sampling Plan

Sequential sampling plan is used when three or more samples of stated
size are permitted and when the decision on acceptance or rejection must
be reached after a stated number of samples.

ALL THE VERY BEST - Regards @ ​B.Tejavardhan

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