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1. Foundation Principles. The foundation principles of quality can be grouped into six areas that include: People, Customers, Systems, Variation, Knowledge, and Planned Change. These foundation principles developed by PQ Systems, incorporate what Dr. W. Edward Deming referred to as a System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK), e.g., Psychology, Appreciation for a system, Knowledge about variation, Theory of knowledge. Another term for a SoPK is a System of Continuous Process Improvement (SoCPI). o.. People. People have needs and wants and will continually improve quality if they are motivated and led to do so. o. Customers. Customers include direct customers (receive the product or service), internal customers (provide the product/service) and indirect customers (people who are effected by what the organization does or does not do, e.g., suppliers, families, community. o. Systems. Systems and processes represent the methods people use to meet requirements. Systems are either stable and thus predictable or unstable. Stable systems include only common cause variation and unstable systems include both special and common causes. For example, if you always get to work or school on time and can predict the range of your arrival time, the process probably represents a stable commuting system. However, if periodically, you are unpredictably late for one reason or another, this would represent an unstable system. o. Variation. All systems exhibit variation and reducing variation is the key to quality. The challenge is to reduce variation in one area without making it worse in another. This is referred to as optimization. The two most common mistakes that are made in reducing variation is treating a common cause as special and a special cause as common. o. Knowledge. Knowledge of variation (common and special causes) helps to determine the type of change that needs to be taken. (See definition of variation below). For example, in the case of commuting, if you were unusually late (special cause) due to a one-day road closing, you may not make any changes to your route. However, if you wanted to reduce your average commuting time (common cause), you would have to make a permanent and fundamental change such as leaving earlier or changing routes. o. Planned Change. Generally there are two courses of action. Maintain the existing process by minimizing the resources needed to maintain it or improve it. Improvement can be either evolutionary (incremental) or revolutionary (radical). 2. Quality Methods. The quality methods include planning, standardization via the standardize-do-study-act (SDSA) cycle and improvement via the plan-do-study- act (PDSA) cycle. Improvement can be either incremental or radical. 3. Quality Tools. The basic tools of quality include: flowcharts, Pareto and cause and effect diagrams, histograms, trend and control charts, scatter diagrams and data gathering forms. These tools can be successfully taught at the elementary school level and can be applied to resolve 95% of problems. 4. Quality. Quality is the result of doing the right things right and is uniquely defined by each individual. Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things. Effectiveness represents the art side of quality and efficiency the science. The three types of quality are perceived, actual and expected. Perceived quality is what you currently think it is, expected quality is what you think it will be and actual quality is the way it is based on more objective evidence. 5. Variation. Variation is a law of nature that states that no two people or things are exactly alike. Variation is the difference between the ideal and actual. An ideal represents a standard of perfection that one can strive for but never achieve - a fact that makes continuous improvement possible. Reducing variation is the key to quality. a. Common cause variation. Common cause variation represents outcomes from a process that fall within a range that would be considered normal or not unusual. Technically, a control chart (trend chart with upper and lower limits) is used to determine if an outcome is due to a common or special cause. The majority of variation in any process is common. Reducing or eliminating common cause variation requires a permanent and fundamental change. b. Special cause variation. Special cause represents outcomes from a process that are unusual or out of the ordinary. c. Two types of mistakes. Treating a common cause as special and a special cause as common. 6. Technology. The application of knowledge for practical ends. 7. Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ). The Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) is the cost associated with providing poor quality products and services. In traditionally managed organizations, the COPQ has been estimated to be 20%-40% of total sales or budget. Individuals within organizations who successfully apply the quality technology (also referred to as six sigma,) can reduce the COPQ to less than 5% of sales or budget. 8. Six Sigma. Six Sigma is one of the relatively newer
labels that is being used to promote the advantages of quality
improvement. It is often described as a philosophy, a measurement, a goal,
and a deployment methodology. |
