7 Indispensable Tools for Business Process Improvement and Problem Solving

Business Drivers for Process Improvement

COST

Overall Cost of Ownership for the Customer determines Satisfaction and Repeat business.  Cost arising out of the Process need to be kept low to ensure profitability and increased market share

TIME

Response to Customer, Time to Market, Productivity are Critical to a Business Success.  Measure of Time for every activity plays a vital role in adaptability to market changes, reduced cost and improved profit

QUALITY

Quality drives Business – Quality as perceived/ expected by Customer.  In other words, Quality AFTER the product reaches the Customer.  Quality Assurance & Quality Control are essential for customer retention

Why 7 QC Tools are Essential?

Every Process has Input and Output.  If a desired Output is necessary, then the Input and Process have to undergo changes.  If the Input and the Process do not change, how can the output change?  In order to have desirable characteristics in the Output, the Input and Process need to be calibrated for optimal performance and monitored.  By studying the variables in the process as well as the Input, and their sensitivities to changes in the Output, optimality can be arrived at by continuously observing process data, analyzing causes-and-effects and looking for inter-relationships between variables that could emerge as factors.  7 QC Tools are handy in achieving this for any Process that needs to be followed by Organizational Team members.

Input Process Output
Maze - Problem Solving

Data Driven Enterprises

Successful Organizations stand apart from the crowd, having institutionalized processes and mechanisms for continuous improvement.  Importance of 7 QC Tools can be seen from answering the following questions:

  1. What is done ? (Process Flow Chart)
  2. How often is this done? (Check Sheets)
  3. How does the data look like ? (Histograms)
  4. How are the trends? ( Control Charts)
  5. Which are the significant issues? (Pareto Chart)
  6. What causes the Problems ? (Fishbone/Ishikawa Diagram)
  7. What are the relationship between factors ? (Scatter Diagram)

Continuous Process Improvement

Enabling Process visibility to stakeholders, measuring factors influencing/ affecting the process, controlling the parameters for a deterministic output are vital for the Organizational Efficiency and Productivity.

  • 7 QC Tools, when deployed effectively, enable processes to deliver
  • ISO 9000 emphasizes Continuous Process Improvement that is possible using the Basic 7 QC Tools
QC Tools Benefits for Organization