SPC Tools and Visual

Methods
Prof. Sayak Roychowdhury
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Perspectives
Designing a
new product,
process,
service

Maintaining
prescribed
quality

Improving an
existing product,
process, service
“What cannot be measured, cannot be managed”
-Peter Drucker (American consultant)
Outline

Learn About the Investigate the issues:

Tools for control /
Process: Ask for the C&E, Check Sheet, Improvement
SOP Pareto Chart
Magnificent Seven (Chapter 5, Montgomery)
1. Histogram or Stem and Leaf Plot
2. Check sheet
3. Pareto chart
4. Cause and effect diagram
5. Defect concentration diagram
6. Scatter diagram
7. Control chart
What is SPC/SQC?: ASQ (American Society for Quality)
• 7 Quality Control Tools (7-QC) • 7 Supplemental Tools (7-SUPP)
1. Cause and Effect Diagram 1. Data stratification
2. Check Sheet 2. Defect maps
3. Control Chart 3. Event logs
4. Histogram 4. Process flowcharts
5. Pareto chart 5. Progress centres
6. Scatter plot 6. Randomization
7. Stratification 7. Sample size determination
Graphical and Visual Tools
• Standard Operating Procedure Learn about the process, also new SOP once the change is implemented
• Check Sheet Identify the
problems, and
• Cause and Effect Diagram (Fishbone diagram) the extent of
causes
• Pareto Charts
• Quality Function Deployment Voice of Customer to Design of Product, Process
• Value Stream Mapping Efficiency of Process

Chapter 5, SQC by D.C. Montogomery

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
• A step by step guide compiled by an organization to help workers carry out complex
routine operations (Wikipedia)
• SOPs aim to achieve efficiency, quality output and uniformity of performance while
reducing miscommunication and failure to comply with industry regulations.
• It should follow 4 C’s, Clear, Complete, Concise, Courteous and Correct.
• SOP helps smoothing the transition process from one worker to another.
• The sections may include (but not limited to):
• Purpose/ Objective
• Scope
• Responsibilities
• Accountability
• Procedure https://www.pharmaguideline.com/p/sop-for-quality-
control.html
Check Sheet
• When to use?
• When data can be observed and collected repeatedly
• When collecting data on the frequency of patterns, problems, defects, issues
• Production process
• How to use?
• Decide what problems are observed. Define the problems
• Decide the duration and length of data collection
• Design a form, so that data can be recorded simply, by putting check marks, ‘X’s or
numbers
• Test for a short trial period and then implement in appropriate situations

https://asq.org/quality-resources/check-sheet
Example of Check Sheet

Source: asq.org
Example of Check Sheet

Check sheet to record defects in a tank used in aerospace

Application

Source: Montgomery, SQC

Cause and Effect Diagram (Fishbone Diagram)
• When to use?
• To identify possible causes of a problem
• When the problem is too complicated to be resolved by experts in specific fields
• How to use?
• Agree on a problem statement
• Brainstorm major categories of causes of the problem. The generic categories are
• Methods
• Machines
• Manpower
• Materials
• Measurement
• Environment
• Write the causes as branches of the main problem
• Ask “why” for each of the major causes, then write subcauses as the branches of the main causes.
Generate deeper levels of causes.

https://asq.org/quality-resources/fishbone
https://www.juran.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-cause-and-effect-diagrams/
Cause and Effect Diagram Example

Source: asq.org
Cause and Effect Diagram Example
C&E diagram to identigy defects in a tank used
in aerospace
Application

Source: Montgomery, SQC

Pareto Chart
• When to use?
• To analyse frequency of problems or causes of a problem
• When there are multiple problems in a process and you want to focus on
important few
• Communicating distribution of problem/causes
• How to use?
• Collect data on number of occurrences of problems/causes
• Order the data in descending order of frequencies
• Create a bar chart with the frequency (or percentages) on y-axis,
problem category labels
on x-axis
• From the top of the highest bar, draw a line diagram using cumulative
frequency of problem categories
https://asq.org/quality-resources/pareto
Pareto Chart Example

Source: asq.org
Pareto Chart Example
C&E diagram to identigy defects in a tank used
in aerospace
Application

Source: Montgomery, SQC

Defect Concentration Diagram
• Picture of a unit showing all the relevant views and the associated defects.
• Defects are color coded – helps identifying the source of the defect
Quality Function Deployment (House of Quality)
• A tool“To satisfy or even delight the customers, QFD is an essential tool” –
ASQ
• Focused on “voice of the customer”

Source: asq.org

https://www.edrawsoft.com/template/pdf/qfd.pdf
QFD
• Tool to design quality product incorporating customer needs
• Evaluates competitors on two perspectives: customers’ and technical
• QFD cuts down on time that would otherwise be spent on product redesign
• QFD is also used to create training programs, hire new employees, establish
supplier development criteria and improve service
• Needs a cross-functional team for data collection and analysis
QFD
Quality Function Deployment
Four Phases of
Quality Function Deployment

Performance
Requirements System Design Process Design Process Control

Trade- Trade- Trade- Trade-

offs offs offs offs
System Design Process
Control Specs
Requirements Characteristics Characteristics

Characteristics

Characteristics
Requirements
Customer

Process
Design
System
Needs

Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase VI

23
 Step 4: Is there a positive,
neutral, or negative
relationship between each of
the System Requirements?

Step 2:
Design Characteristics (Component
Decisions)
Step 1: Step 3:
What does the How are the Customer Wants and our
customer System Requirements related?
want??? Is there a strong, weak, medium, or no
(Customer relationship???
Wants)

24
 Step 4: Is there a positive,
neutral, or negative
relationship between each of
the System Requirements and
Components?
Step 2:
How do we configure the system to meet
Step 1: the system requirements?
How do we
provide what
the customer
wants??
(System Step 3:
Components How are the system requirements ‘met’ or
&/or satisfied by the system component
Requirements) decisions? (in the context of customer
satisfaction, might be proxies)

25
Lean Management
• “Value” is something for which your customer is willing to pay. These are
called value-adding activities.
• Everything else falls under the category of “waste”
• Taichi Ohno, architect of Toyota production system conceived this idea of lean,
and devoted his career in eliminating waste from production process.
• 7 types of waste: Transport, Inventory, Motion , Waiting, Overproduction,
Over-processing, Defects
• Pure Waste: Any activity that does not bring value and damages efficiency
• Necessary Waste: Activities that our customer does not want to pay for, but is
necessary to provide value for the end product
https://kanbanize.com/lean-management/value-waste/what-is-value-lean/
Value Stream Mapping
• What is VSM?
• Representation of the flow of material and information from supplier to customer
through your organization.
• It enables you to see where the delays are in the process, if there is bottleneck,
excessive inventory or other restraints.
• You create your current state map and work towards producing your ideal state map.
Value Stream Mapping (Current State Map)

Lasa, I. S., Laburu, C. O., & de Castro Vila, R. (2008). An evaluation of the value stream
mapping tool. Business process management journal, 14(1), 39-52.
Value Stream Mapping (Future State Map)
Scatter Plots
• Plot showing the relationship between 2 variables
Normal Curve

𝜎
2𝜎
3𝜎

http://whatilearned.wikia.com/wiki/File:Normal_curve_probability.jpg
Stem and Leaf Plot
• Example: 44, 46, 47, 49, 63, 64, 66, 68, 68, 72, 72, 75, 76, 81, 84, 88,
106

Source: Wikipedia
Histograms
• Tally grouped or ungrouped data
• Determine range 𝑅 = 𝑋ℎ − 𝑋𝑙
• Determine cell (or bin) interval 𝑖 (applying Sturges’
rule is optional)
𝑖
• Determine cell midpoints (𝑀𝑃𝑙 = 𝑋𝑙 + )
2
• Determine cell boundaries (extra decimal place)
• Post cell/bins and the frequencies
• Plot (X-axis: midpoints, Y-axis: frequencies/Relative
frequencies)
Histograms

Minitab > Graph > Histogram >Simple > Select Variable > OK
Histograms

Minitab > Graph > Histogram >With Fit > Select Variable > OK

Histogram of Minitest 1 Score

Normal
16 Mean 59.84
StDev 22.84
14 N 75

12

10
Frequency

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Data

If the histogram closely follows normal curve,

then data is more likely to come from a normal distribution
Boxplot

Minitab > Graph > Box plot > Simple > Select Variable

Generally,
length of
75 %ile/ Q3

Median
whisker =
25th %ile/ Q1 1.5*IQR

If the boxplot is symmetrical about median, then data is more likely to be normal