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A quality storyboard is a visual tool used in production and product development to outline the quality and performance standards for a project or product, ensuring that the final product meets or exceeds the specified objectives.
At Yokogawa-Hewlett-Packard in Japan, the QC story is told using a flip chart of size 6 x 6 feet (2 x 2 meters). The project team uses colored markers to show the PDSA cycle (Shewhart cycle) and the SDSA cycle (Standardize, Do, Study, Act). After each manager writes an interpretation of the policy statement, the interpretation is discussed with the next manager above to reconcile differences in understanding and direction. In this way, they develop a consensus.
When the management attempts to make a managerial diagnosis, it is important that the people whose work is being diagnosed be properly prepared to enter the discussion. For this purpose, it is very helpful if everyone knows how to tell the QC story. Telling the story properly requires seven steps.
1. Problem definition: This step includes an explanation of why the problem is important (which will tie it to the priority statements of the top management or to a problem that is essential as seen at the lower levels). Normally, this step includes a discussion of the losses that occur because of the problem. The team will make an estimate of what should be done and work on it. A target is often specified, though it is understood that reaching such a target cannot be guaranteed. A schedule is proposed.
2. Data collection: This step involves observing the time, place, type, and symptoms of the problem. It involves data gathering and displays an attempt to understand the important aspects of the problem.
3. Analysis: In this step, various tools for quality analysis are used. This includes Control charts, Pareto charts, cause-and-effect diagrams, scatter diagrams, and histograms.
4. Action: Based on the analysis, an action is taken.
5. Study: The results are studied to see if they conform to what was expected and to learn from what was not expected. Data is taken to confirm the action.
6. Act or standardize: Appropriate steps are taken to ensure that the gains are secured. New standard procedures are introduced.
7. Plans for the future/Continuity: As a result of solving this problem, other problems will have been identified and other opportunities recognized.
These seven steps do not describe how a problem is solved. Problem-solving requires iteration, and it is often necessary to go back to a previous step as new data is found and better analysis is made. However, when the time comes to report on what was done, the above format provides the basis for telling the story in a way that makes it comprehensible to the upper levels of management.
Definition of the problem:
Why Selected:
Initial state:
Analysis of Causes:
Plans:
Study:
Acts and Standardization:
Future Plans:
It is believed to have been first developed by a Japanese tractor company, Komatsu.
Quality storyboards were also used by Florida Power & Light as part of their quality drive during the 1980s to win the Deming Prize.
A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction. It is aligned with an organization's purpose and strategic direction. It is expressed as the organizational goals and aspirations, policies, processes, documented information, and resources needed to implement and maintain it. Early quality management systems emphasized predictable outcomes of an industrial product production line, using simple statistics and random sampling. By the 20th century, labor inputs were typically the most costly inputs in most industrialized societies, so focus shifted to team cooperation and dynamics, especially the early signaling of problems via a continual improvement cycle. In the 21st century, QMS has tended to converge with sustainability and transparency initiatives, as both investor and customer satisfaction and perceived quality are increasingly tied to these factors. Of QMS regimes, the ISO 9000 family of standards is probably the most widely implemented worldwide – the ISO 19011 audit regime applies to both and deals with quality and sustainability and their integration.
Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software implementation. Test techniques include, but are not necessarily limited to:
William Edwards Deming was an American business theorist, composer, economist, industrial engineer, management consultant, statistician, and writer. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the United States Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He is also known as the father of the quality movement and was hugely influential in post-WWII Japan. He is best known for his theories of management.
Total quality management (TQM) consists of organization-wide efforts to "install and make permanent climate where employees continuously improve their ability to provide on demand products and services that customers will find of particular value." "Total" emphasizes that departments in addition to production are obligated to improve their operations; "management" emphasizes that executives are obligated to actively manage quality through funding, training, staffing, and goal setting. While there is no widely agreed-upon approach, TQM efforts typically draw heavily on the previously developed tools and techniques of quality control. TQM enjoyed widespread attention during the late 1980s and early 1990s before being overshadowed by ISO 9000, Lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma.
Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by American engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986.
Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost.
A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. Solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan so that goals may be achieved. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, without a sound strategic foundation, it is of little use to a business.
Kaizen is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life coaching, government, manufacturing, and banking.
In science and engineering, root cause analysis (RCA) is a method of problem solving used for identifying the root causes of faults or problems. It is widely used in IT operations, manufacturing, telecommunications, industrial process control, accident analysis, medicine, healthcare industry, etc. Root cause analysis is a form of inductive and deductive inference.
Management by objectives (MBO), also known as management by planning (MBP), was first popularized by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book The Practice of Management. Management by objectives is the process of defining specific objectives within an organization that management can convey to organization members, then deciding how to achieve each objective in sequence. This process allows managers to take work that needs to be done one step at a time to allow for a calm, yet productive work environment. In this system of management, individual goals are synchronized with the goals of the organization.
PDCA or plan–do–check–act is an iterative design and management method used in business for the control and continual improvement of processes and products. It is also known as the Shewhart cycle, or the control circle/cycle. Another version of this PDCA cycle is OPDCA. The added "O" stands for observation or as some versions say: "Observe the current condition." This emphasis on observation and current condition has currency with the literature on lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System. The PDCA cycle, with Ishikawa's changes, can be traced back to S. Mizuno of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1959.
A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity in which it engages. KPIs provide a focus for strategic and operational improvement, create an analytical basis for decision making and help focus attention on what matters most.
In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions:
Quality management ensures that an organization, product or service consistently functions well. It has four main components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product and service quality, but also on the means to achieve it. Quality management, therefore, uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality. Quality control is also part of quality management. What a customer wants and is willing to pay for it, determines quality. It is a written or unwritten commitment to a known or unknown consumer in the market. Quality can be defined as how well the product performs its intended function.
Clinical audit is a process that has been defined as a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change
Analytic and enumerative statistical studies are two types of scientific studies:
Eight Disciplines Methodology (8D) is a method or model developed at Ford Motor Company used to approach and to resolve problems, typically employed by quality engineers or other professionals. Focused on product and process improvement, its purpose is to identify, correct, and eliminate recurring problems. It establishes a permanent corrective action based on statistical analysis of the problem and on the origin of the problem by determining the root causes. Although it originally comprised eight stages, or 'disciplines', it was later augmented by an initial planning stage. 8D follows the logic of the PDCA cycle. The disciplines are:
Corrective and preventive action consists of improvements to an organization's processes taken to eliminate causes of non-conformities or other undesirable situations. It is usually a set of actions, laws or regulations required by an organization to take in manufacturing, documentation, procedures, or systems to rectify and eliminate recurring non-conformance. Non-conformance is identified after systematic evaluation and analysis of the root cause of the non-conformance. Non-conformance may be a market complaint or customer complaint or failure of machinery or a quality management system, or misinterpretation of written instructions to carry out work. The corrective and preventive action is designed by a team that includes quality assurance personnel and personnel involved in the actual observation point of non-conformance. It must be systematically implemented and observed for its ability to eliminate further recurrence of such non-conformation. The Eight disciplines problem solving method, or 8D framework, can be used as an effective method of structuring a CAPA.
In business, engineering, and manufacturing, quality – or high quality – has a pragmatic interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of something ; it is also defined as being suitable for the intended purpose while satisfying customer expectations. Quality is a perceptual, conditional, and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people. Consumers may focus on the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace. Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product/service was produced correctly. Support personnel may measure quality in the degree that a product is reliable, maintainable, or sustainable. In such ways, the subjectivity of quality is rendered objective via operational definitions and measured with metrics such as proxy measures.
Operations management for services has the functional responsibility for producing the services of an organization and providing them directly to its customers. It specifically deals with decisions required by operations managers for simultaneous production and consumption of an intangible product. These decisions concern the process, people, information and the system that produces and delivers the service. It differs from operations management in general, since the processes of service organizations differ from those of manufacturing organizations.
Walton, Mary (1986). The Deming Management Method. The Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 0-399-55000-3.
Tribus, Myron (1992). Quality First: Selected Papers on Quality and Productivity Improvement -4th Edition. National Society of Professional Engineers. ISBN 99938-53-23-2.
Joiner, Brian L. (1994). Fourth Generation Management: The New Business Consciousness . McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-032715-7.
Scholtes, Peter R. (1997). The Leader's Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-058028-6.
