Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Quality Control for Dummies or If You Dont Know Where Youre Going Youll Probably End Up Somewhere Else

Quality Control for Dummies

Author: Larry Webber

So you’ve been asked to lead a quality control initiative? Or maybe you’ve been assigned to a quality team. Perhaps you’re a CEO whose main concern is to make your company faster, more efficient, and less expensive. Whatever your role is, quality control is a critical concept in every industry and profession.

Quality Control For Dummies is the straightforward, easy guide to improving your company’s quality. It covers all of today’s available options and provides expert techniques for introducing quality methods to your company, collecting data, designing quality processes, and more. This hands-on guide gives you all the tools you’ll ever need to enhance your company’s quality, including:



• Understanding the importance of quality standards

• Putting fundamental quality control methods to use

• Listening to your customer about quality issues

• Whipping quality control into shape with Lean

• Working with value stream mapping

• Focusing on the 5S method

• Supplement a process with Kanban

• Fixing tough problems with Six Sigma

• Using QFD to win customers over

• Improving you company with TOC



This invaluable reference is written from an unbiased viewpoint, giving you all the facts about each theory with no fuzzy coverings. It also includes steps for incorporating quality into a new product and Web sites packed with quality control tips and techniques. With Quality Control For Dummies, you’ll be able to speed up production, eliminate waste, and save money!



Table of Contents:
Introduction     1
About This Book     1
Conventions Used in This Book     1
What You're Not to Read     2
Foolish Assumptions     2
How This Book Is Organized     2
Understanding the Basics of Quality Control     3
Putting Fundamental Quality Control Methods to Use     3
Whipping Quality Control into Shape with Lean Processes     3
Surveying Other Quality Control Techniques     4
The Part of Tens     4
Icons Used in This Book     4
Where to Go from Here     4
Understanding the Basics of Quality Control     7
Defining and Explaining Quality Control     9
Looking at Different Definitions of "Quality"     10
A customer-based definition of quality     10
The statistical definition of quality     11
Setting Quality Standards     11
Preventing Errors with Quality Assurance     11
Controlling Quality with Inspection     12
Applying Fundamental Quality Control Concepts     12
Introducing quality control to your business     13
Listening to your customers     13
Measuring your quality     14
Evaluating yourquality     14
Trimming Down with Lean Processes     15
Value Stream Mapping     15
The 5S method     16
Rapid Improvement Events     16
Lean Materials and Kanban     16
Checking Out Additional Quality Control Techniques     17
Total Quality Management     17
Six Sigma     17
Quality Function Deployment     18
The Theory of Constraints     18
Understanding the Importance of Ouality Standards     19
Getting the Quality Just Right     19
Falling short: The cost of offering too little     20
Overshooting: Providing too much     21
Setting Quality Standards as the Rules of the Road     22
Defining quality standards     22
Creating quality standards     23
Surveying quality governing bodies     24
Recognizing the Roles of Quality Standards in Commerce     25
Communicating customers' requirements     26
Cutting costs     26
Ensuring safety     26
Securing ISO Certification     27
Looking at the basics of ISO certification     27
Checking out ISO standards     29
Examining the requirements for ISO 9000     29
Preparing for ISO 9001 certification     30
Sweating through an ISO audit     31
Using Quality Assurance for the Best Results     33
Understanding the Concept of Quality Assurance     33
Recognizing how quality assurance differs from quality control     34
Catching errors before they occur     35
Developing Trusted Suppliers     36
Verifying quality with a supplier self-survey     37
Knowing your responsibilities as a buyer     38
Focusing on the Process with Plan-Do-Check-Act     41
The major stages of the PDCA Cycle     41
Tools for working through each PDCA stage     43
Getting What You Really Need with Product or Service Specifications     44
Creating clear specifications     45
Avoiding extras in specifications     46
The Role of Inspection in Quality Control     47
Examining the Basics of Inspection     47
The definition of "defect"     48
The importance of catching bad products before your customers do     48
The heart of inspection: Attribute and variable data     49
Recognizing and Addressing the Challenges of Quality Inspection     50
Getting a grip on the human aspect of inspection     50
Totaling the expenses of inspection     51
Jumping over other inspection hurdles     51
Choosing the Inspection Approach That Fits Your Company's Needs     52
Considering different factors as you select an inspection process     53
Checking out zero and 100% inspection     54
Surveying lot sampling     54
Tracking Defects to Improve Your Business     56
Following trends in your process     56
Keeping careful records     57
Calculating the cost of rework     59
Putting Fundamental Quality Control Methods to Use     61
Starting Down the Road to Quality     63
What's New? Introducing Change in Your Company     63
Having a Sponsor as a Champion of Quality Control     64
Deciding on the sponsor     65
Understanding the roles of the sponsor     65
Talk About It: Quality Communication within an Organization     68
Listing the types of information to communicate     68
Determining who communicates different types of information     69
Creating a stakeholder reporting matrix     70
Class Is in Session: Training Employees     71
Ensuring consistency with formal training      72
Rounding out skills with informal training     74
Testing the Waters with a Pilot Project     76
Choosing the right pilot project     76
Succeeding early with results from the pilot project     77
Conquering Obstacles as Your Company Implements Change     78
Staying ahead of potential problems     78
Getting back on track     79
Detecting the Voice of the Customer in Quality Issues     81
Identifying Critical-to-Customer Quality Issues     82
Product or service performance: I want it perfect!     82
Delivery: I want it fast!     83
Cost: I want it cheap!     83
Gauging Current Customer Desires with the Kano Model     84
Surveying the Kano Model's categories     85
Using the Kano Model in a few easy steps     85
Digging Up Data from (And about) Your Customers     87
Following some important rules     88
Putting surveys to work     89
Using focus groups properly     90
Tracking with a CRM system     92
Borrowing from what competitors got right     93
Examining other ways to seek feedback and information     93
Preparing to Measure Your Current Quality Process      95
Mapping Out Metrics and Measuring Processes     95
Making sense of metrics     96
Putting measurement processes under the microscope     97
Equipping Yourself with Tools of the Measurement Trade     100
Getting a handle on hand tools     101
Allowing a gauge to do your measuring tricks     101
Checking out coordinate measuring machines     105
Collecting Your Quality Data     107
Planning and Instituting a Data-Collection Process     108
Knowing exactly what data you're looking for     108
Working out the data-collection details     112
Ensuring that everyone measures the same way     113
Confirming the quality of your data     117
Absorbing the costs of data collection     121
Making Sense of Your Data     122
Coding the data     123
Using pivot tables     123
Developing useful data charts     125
Evaluating Quality with Statistics     131
By the Numbers: Discovering the Basics of Statistics in Quality     132
The story that statistics can tell you about quality     132
The statistics terms that you need to know     133
Just One of Many: Delving into the Details of Sampling     134
Understanding why sampling is a smart idea     134
Examining the factors related to selecting a sample size     135
Recognizing the importance of random sampling     136
More Bang for Your Buck: Using Pareto Analysis     137
Creating a Pareto chart     137
Interpreting a Pareto chart     140
The Positive and the Negative: Coming Up with Correlations     143
What exactly is a correlation?     143
How do you determine and use a correlation?     144
Let Me Guess: Predicting Values with Regression Analysis     148
Getting the gist of regression analysis     148
Performing a regression analysis     149
Using the results of a regression analysis     151
Consistency Counts: Analyzing Variance     151
Identifying a variance issue     151
Calculating and using variance     152
Assessing Quality with Statistical Process Control     155
Grasping the Basics of Statistical Process Control     155
The importance of the normal curve     156
Useful tools for calculating and plotting within SPC     158
The pros and cons of SPC     159
Using Control Charts Effectively      161
Detecting different types of variation     161
Understanding a control chart's elements     162
Checking out different kinds of control charts     164
Building a control chart     165
Reading a control chart     169
Responding to different types of variation     170
Changing your control limits     173
Calculating Process Capability     173
Identifying a process's capability     174
Moving a process closer to customer specifications     175
Whipping Quality Control into Shape with Lean Processes     177
Gathering the Nuts and Bolts of Lean Processes     179
Boning Up on the Lean Basics     179
Considering Lean cornerstones     180
Taking important steps for getting Lean and mean     181
Weighing the pros and cons of Lean     184
Identifying the Seven Wastes That Can Plague a Process     186
Waste of overproduction     186
Waste of waiting     187
Waste of unnecessary transportation     188
Waste from unneeded processing steps     189
Waste of excess inventory     189
Waste of unnecessary motion     190
Waste of defective products      191
Moving to the Beat of Takt Time     192
Listening to customer demand     192
Setting the process tempo and considering process design     193
Balancing for a smooth flow     195
Getting to the Heart of an Issue with the 5 "Why's"     195
Digging to find the real problem     195
Establishing a good environment for asking "why"     197
Keeping Your Eyes on the Process: Value Stream Mapping     199
Sketching the Basics of Value Stream Mapping     199
Breaking down the definition of VSM     200
Examining important VSM attributes     201
Walking through the basic steps to create a Value Stream Map     201
Checking out the advantages of VSM     202
To the Drawing Board: Creating a Current State Map     203
Eyeing icons     204
Mapping the flow of materials and information     204
Grouping products and services into families to simplify mapping     207
Do It Over: Building a Future State Map     209
Evaluating value-added steps and non-value-added steps     209
Constructing a future state map with your newfound knowledge     210
Taking action after finishing your future state map     211
Focusing on the 5S Method     213
Understanding the Pros and Cons of 5S     214
The pros     214
The cons     215
Rolling Out 5S with Communications Boards     215
Establishing a facility communications board     216
Starting a status board for each department     216
The Sort Phase: Separating the Gravel from the Gems     220
Preparing to sort     221
Sorting everything with ease     222
The Straighten Phase: A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place     223
Tidying tools and materials     223
Putting away personal items     224
Labeling items     225
Drawing up "after" floor plans and charts     225
The Shine Phase: Polishing It All Up!     228
Gathering the necessary equipment     228
Recognizing that common areas belong to everyone     229
Cleaning as you go     229
Addressing maintenance issues and fixing problems at the source     230
The Standardize Phase: Using the Best Practices Everywhere     231
The Sustain Phase: Upholding the Gains     232
Stressing that 5S is permanent     232
Keeping up with responsibilities     233
Doing a daily checkup     233
Auditing the ongoing results     234
Empowering Workers to Make Changes with Rapid Improvement     235
Considering the Pros and Cons of Rapid Improvement Events     236
The pluses of RIEs     236
The minuses of RIEs     237
Seek and Improve: Selecting a Process Victim     237
Identifying a problematic process     238
Concentrating on tasks within the process     238
Finding a Few Good Workers: Staffing an Improvement Team     239
Workers are the heart of the team     239
An experienced leader is essential     240
Managers also have a role to play     241
Before the Fun Really Starts: Documenting the Current Process     241
Drawing a map of the process flow     241
Discovering what the work instructions say     242
Following a worker through the process     243
Baselining the process performance     243
The First Day of the Event: Train the Team     245
Surveying important presentations     246
Creating and updating lists and maps     248
The Second Day: Review the Training and Clean the Work Area     249
The Third Day: Draft the Improvement Plan      250
The Fourth Day: Test Changes and Document the Results     251
Taking the revised process for some test drives     251
Documenting your tests and research     252
The Fifth Day: Finalize Changes and Report to Management     253
One Week Later: Did the RIE Make a Difference?     254
Looking at Lean Materials and Kanban     255
Getting the Gist of Lean Materials and Kanban     256
Contemplating the concept of Lean Materials     257
Supplementing a process with Kanban     258
Monitoring a great debate: Push versus Pull     260
Reviewing the Pros and Cons of Lean Materials     263
The pros     263
The cons     264
Going with the Flow of Lean Materials     265
Packing materials in the best containers     267
Setting up "supermarkets"     269
Arranging for smooth deliveries and working environments     269
Working with Suppliers to Keep Lean Materials on Track     270
Encouraging supplier involvement to control costs     271
Convincing suppliers to ship in smaller lots     272
Surveying Other Quality Control Techniques     273
Combining the Best of All Worlds in Total Quality Management      275
Total Quality Management in a Nutshell     276
The guiding principles     276
The major steps     277
The pros and cons     279
Shedding Light on TQM Techniques and Tools     279
Beginning with basic techniques     280
Emphasizing the deletion of defects     281
Taking prompt action on data     282
Surveying the tools of TQM     282
It Takes a Village: The Main TQM Players     283
The role of executives     283
The duties of middle managers     284
The importance of empowered workers     284
The value of external customers and suppliers     286
Perpetual Motion: How to Enjoy Continuous Improvement     286
Keeping TQM moving forward with the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle     287
Watching small improvements add up     287
Overcoming obstacles     288
Fixing Tough Problems with Six Sigma     289
Surveying the Basics of the Six Sigma Way     290
Injecting statistics into tried-and-true methods: The foundation     290
Driving for breakthrough results: The goal     290
Meeting Six Sigma experts: The necessity     291
Considering the pros and cons of Six Sigma: The dealbreakers     292
Taking Important Steps to Implement Six Sigma     293
Project selection: The key to success     293
Proceed with caution: Doing upfront work before you implement Six Sigma     295
DMAIC: A five-step program, Six Sigma style     295
Crunching Some Six Sigma Numbers     299
Calculating the Rolled Throughput Yield     300
Understanding the meaning of "Sigma"     301
Measuring variation with x's and Y's     303
Putting Everything Together with Process-Review Tools     304
Painting a complete picture with a SIPOC     304
Organizing process inputs with Ishikawa's Fishbone     305
Pinpointing potential process errors with FMEA     307
Delving into Quality Function Deployment     311
Organizing the Nuts 'n' Bolts of Quality Function Deployment     311
The QFD matrix     312
The pros and cons of QFD     312
If You Build a House of Quality, Customers Will Come     313
Identifying customer requirements     314
Listening to the voice of the marketplace     317
Converting customer requirements into design specifications     317
Determining relationships between requirements and specifications      319
Laying the roof     320
Digging a basement     321
Considering the Theory of Constraints     325
Focusing on the Fundamentals of the Theory of Constraints     325
Highlighting the principles behind the TOC     326
Weighing the pros and cons of the TOC     328
Understanding the Drum-Buffer-Rope System     330
Marching to the beat of the drum     330
Managing buffers for maximum results     331
Feeding a constraint with the rope     332
Tackling Constraints in Your Process     333
Identifying a process constraint     334
Cleaning up the constraint     335
Subordinating processes to keep materials moving     336
Elevating the constraint     337
Improving throughput all over again     338
The Part of Tens     339
Ten Steps for Incorporating Quality into a New Product and/or Process     341
Identify a Problem You Can Solve with a New Product or Service     342
Define the Critical Characteristics of Each Customer Requirement     342
Translate Customer Requirements into Measurements     343
Establish a Capable Prototype Process     343
Make Your Process Lean      343
Mistake Proof Your Process     344
Prepare the Kanban     344
Test the Process     345
Incorporate Improvements into the Process Design     345
Create a Customer-Feedback Mechanism     346
Ten (Or So) Web Sites with Quality Control Tips and Techniques     347
International Organization for Standardization     347
American Society for Quality     348
Lean Aerospace Initiative     348
Curious Cat Management Improvement Library     348
The Northwest Lean Networks     348
Kaizen Institute     349
Replenishment Technology Group Inc.     349
Total Quality Management     349
i Six Sigma     349
QFD Institute     350
AGI     350
Index     351

See also: Lessons in Service from Charlie Trotter or Knife Skills Illustrated

If You Don't Know Where You're Going, You'll Probably End Up Somewhere Else: Finding a Career and Getting a Life

Author: David P Campbell

More than half a million copies of this perennial bestseller have been sold! This revised & re-designed edition will help a whole new generation of twenty-somethings understand who they are & what they want out of life -- sound, sensible advice to young people who need guidance for their career & future.



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