Quality Tools
Seven Basic Management Tools
"The Old Seven."
"The First Seven."
"The Basic Seven."
Quality pros have many names for these seven basic tools of quality, first emphasized by Kaoru Ishikawa, a professor of engineering at Tokyo University and the father of “quality circles.”
Start your quality journey by mastering these tools, and you 'll have a name for them too: "indispensable." 1. Cause-and-effect diagram (also called Ishikawa or fishbone chart): Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem and sorts ideas into useful categories. 2. Check sheet: A structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data; a generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes. 3. Control charts: Graphs used to study how a process changes over time. 4. Histogram: The most commonly used graph for showing frequency distributions, or how often each different value in a set of data occurs. 5. Pareto chart: Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant. 6. Scatter diagram: Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship. 7. Stratification: A technique that separates data gathered from a variety of sources so that patterns can be seen (some lists replace "stratification" with "flowchart" or "run chart").
In 1976, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) saw the need for tools to promote innovation, communicate information and successfully plan major projects. A team researched and developed the seven new quality control tools, often called the seven management and planning (MP) tools, or simply the seven management tools. Not all the tools were new, but their collection and promotion were.
Seven New Management Tools
The seven tools, listed in an order that moves from abstract analysis to detailed planning, are: 1. Affinity diagram: organizes a large number of ideas into their natural relationships.
2. Relations diagram: shows cause-and-effect
"The Old Seven."
"The First Seven."
"The Basic Seven."
Quality pros have many names for these seven basic tools of quality, first emphasized by Kaoru Ishikawa, a professor of engineering at Tokyo University and the father of “quality circles.”
Start your quality journey by mastering these tools, and you 'll have a name for them too: "indispensable." 1. Cause-and-effect diagram (also called Ishikawa or fishbone chart): Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem and sorts ideas into useful categories. 2. Check sheet: A structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data; a generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes. 3. Control charts: Graphs used to study how a process changes over time. 4. Histogram: The most commonly used graph for showing frequency distributions, or how often each different value in a set of data occurs. 5. Pareto chart: Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant. 6. Scatter diagram: Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship. 7. Stratification: A technique that separates data gathered from a variety of sources so that patterns can be seen (some lists replace "stratification" with "flowchart" or "run chart").
In 1976, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) saw the need for tools to promote innovation, communicate information and successfully plan major projects. A team researched and developed the seven new quality control tools, often called the seven management and planning (MP) tools, or simply the seven management tools. Not all the tools were new, but their collection and promotion were.
Seven New Management Tools
The seven tools, listed in an order that moves from abstract analysis to detailed planning, are: 1. Affinity diagram: organizes a large number of ideas into their natural relationships.
2. Relations diagram: shows cause-and-effect
References: 1. Juran, J. M. and Frank M. Gryna, Juran’s Quality Control Handbook, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1988. Excerpted from Nancy R. Tague’s The Quality Toolbox, Second Edition, ASQ Quality Press, 2004, pages 236-240. Excerpted from Nancy R. Tague’s The Quality Toolbox, Second Edition, ASQ Quality Press, 2004, pages 351-356.