Tool Time!

How to properly use some of the seven tools of quality.

Learning Objectives

• Capturing your data
• Using common charts correctly
• Their use as a communication tool 

The seven tools of quality are:

1. Cause-and-effect diagram (also called Ishikawa or fishbone diagrams): 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 chart: Graph used to study how a process changes over time. Comparing current data to historical control limits leads to conclusions about whether the process variation is consistent (in control) or is unpredictable (out of control, affected by special causes of variation).
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: A bar graph that shows 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).