Quality

In an information technology product or service, quality is sometimes

defined as "meeting the requirements of the customer." The term quality
assurance describes any systematic process for ensuring quality during the
successive steps in developing a product or service. ISO 9000 is a standard
for ensuring that a company's quality assurance system follows best industry
practices.
Quality is defined as meeting customer needs. Therefore the way to
improve quality is to figure out who is the customer and what they need, and
then improve the process to fully meet this need. There are various
techniques for doing this. They involve setting up teams to analyze problems
with the process and implement solutions. Because the supplier is part of the
process some techniques involve teaming with the supplier to improve the
quality of incoming products.
In developing products and services, quality assurance is any systematic
process of checking to see whether a product or service being developed is
meeting specified requirements. Many companies have a separate
department devoted to quality assurance. A quality assurance system is said
to increase customer confidence and a company's credibility, to improve work
processes and efficiency, and to enable a company to better compete with
others. Quality assurance was initially introduced in World War II when
munitions were inspected and tested for defects after they were made.
Today's quality assurance systems emphasize catching defects before they
get into the final product.

Quality and Total Quality Management

Although quality and quality management does not have a formal

definition, most agree that it is an integration of all functions of a business to
achieve high quality of products through continuous improvement efforts of all
employees. Quality revolves around the concept of meeting or exceeding
customer expectation applied to the product and service. Achieving high
quality is an ever changing, or continuous, process therefore quality
management emphasizes the ideas of working constantly toward improved
quality. It involves every aspect of the company: processes, environment and
people. The whole workforce from the CEO to the line worker must be
involved in a shared commitment to improving quality.
Therefore, in brief, quality and total quality management (TQM) in
particular can be defined as directing (managing) the whole (total) production
process to produce an excellent (quality) product or service.
It differs from other management techniques in the attitude of
management toward the product and toward the worker. Older management
methods focused on the volume of production and the cost of the product.
Quality was controlled by using a detection method (post production
inspection), problems were solved by management and management's role
was defined as planning, assigning work, controlling the production.
 Quality management, in contrast, is focused on the customer and meeting
the customer's needs. Quality is controlled by prevention, i.e., quality is built in
at every stage. Teams solve problems and everyone is responsible for the
quality of the product. Management's role is to delegate, coach, facilitate and
mentor. The major quality management principles are: quality, teamwork, and
proactive management philosophies for process
improvement.

Origins

Quality management in is not derived from a single idea or person. It is a

collection of ideas, and has been called by various names and acronyms:
TQM, total quality management; CQU, continuous quality improvement; SQC,
statistical quality control; TQC, total quality control, etc. However each of
these ideas encompasses the underlying idea of productivity initiatives that
increase profit by improving the product.
Though most writers trace the quality movement's origins to W. Edward
Deming, Joseph M. Juran and Philip B. Crosby, the roots of quality can be
traced even further back, to Frederick Taylor in the 1920s. Taylor is the "father
of scientific management." As manufacturing left the single craftsman's
workshop, companies needed to develop a quality control department. As
manufacturing moved into big plants, between the 1920s and the 1950s, the
terms and processes of quality engineering and reliability engineering
developed. During this time productivity was emphasized and quality was
checked at the end of the line. As industrial plants became larger, post-
production checks became more difficult and statistical methods began to be
used to control quality. This was called reliability engineering because it
moved quality control toward building quality into the design and production of
the product. Taylor was the pioneer of these methods. Although some writers
consider Taylor's methods part of classical management in opposition to the
quality management system, both Deming and Juran both used statistical
methods for quality assurance at Bell Telephone laboratories.
In the decades that followed World War II, the U.S. had no trouble selling
everything made. This demand had the effect in the U.S. of driving industry to
increase production, which resulted in less quality control. U.S. manufacturers
became complacent, thinking that they could sell any product and that the
consumer did not want or demand quality. The post World War II situation in
Japan was just the opposite. The war had left the country devastated, and it
needed to rebuild its means of production. In addition, Japanese
manufacturers needed to counteract the shoddy reputation they had that
products "made in Japan" were of low quality.
Japan began focusing on serious quality efforts. Japanese teams went
abroad to visit foreign countries to learn how other countries managed quality,
and they invited foreign experts to lecture in Japan on quality management.
Two of these foreign experts were Americans W. Edward Deming and Joseph
Juran. They each had a profound influence on Japanese quality processes,
encouraging quality and design, built in, and zero defect programs. It took
twenty years of concerted effort to revamp Japan's industrial system. The
strategies used involved high-level managers as leaders, all levels and
functions were trained in managing for quality, continuous progress was
undertaken, quality circles were used, and the entire workforce was enlisted.
By the early 1980s Japanese products, particularly automobiles and electronic
products, were superior in quality to U.S. products. U.S. companies lost
markets in the U.S. and in the western world to the Japanese and went in
search of the Japanese secret. They found W. Edward Deming.

Deming's Contributions

Deming was an American who worked in the 1930s with Walter A.

Shewhart at Bell Telephone Company. Shewhart was a statistician who had
the theory that product control could best be managed by statistics. He
developed a statistical chart for the control of product variables. Deming
developed a process, based on Shewhart's, using statistical control
techniques that alerted managers of the need to intervene in the production
process.
He then utilized these techniques during World War II while working on
government war production. In 1947 Douglas MacArthur and the U.S. State
Department sent Deming to Japan to help the war-devastated Japanese
manufacturing plants. He introduced these "statistical process control"
methods in a series of lectures on statistical methods to Japanese
businessmen and engineers. The Japanese were an attentive audience and
utilized Deming's ideas readily. They found him charming and considerate and
listened to his ideas. His concept of employees working toward quality fit well
into their personal ideas. His philosophy went beyond statistical quality control
and encouraged building quality into the product at all stages.

Juran’s Contributions

Joseph M. Juran, like Deming, went to Japan in 1954 and assisted the
Japanese in their quest to achieve quality. Like Deming, Juran emphasized
planning, organizing and controlling. However he emphasized customer
satisfaction more than Deming did and focused on management and technical
methods rather than worker satisfaction. Juran was a prolific author,
publishing over a dozen books. His most influential book Quality Control and
book (later called Juran's Quality Handbook) was published in 1951 and
became a best seller.
By 1960 Japan was using quality control circles and simple statistical
techniques learned and applied by Japanese workers. Juran developed basic
steps that companies must take, however he believed there was a point of
diminishing return, a point at which quality goes beyond the consumer needs.
For example, if the consumer trades his car in after 50,000 miles, the car
need only be built to perform trouble-free for 60,000 miles. Building a better
car would drive up costs without delivering the expected product. This is
called the Pareto Principle, or the Juran 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the trouble
comes from 20 percent of the problems. The rule is named for Vilfredo Pareto,
an economist, but it was Juran that applied the idea to management. It can be
expressed as: "concentrate on the 'vital few' sources of problems; don't be
distracted by less important problems."
 • Juran's trilogy involves:

1. Quality planning (determine customer needs, develop product in

response to needs).
2. Quality control (assess performance, compare performance with
goals, act on differences between performance and goals).
3. Quality improvement (develop infrastructure, identify areas of
improvement and implement projects, establish project team, provide teams
with what they need).

• Juran's ten steps to quality improvement are:

1. Build awareness of opportunities to improve.

2. Set goals.
3. Organize to reach goals.
4. Provide training.
5. Carry out projects to solve problems.
6. Report progress.
7. Give recognition.
8. Communicate results.
9. Keep score.
10. Maintain momentum by making annual improvement part of the
systems and processes of the company.

The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) considered

Juran's vision of top-to-bottom quality management even more important to
their quality turnaround than Deming's insights. JUSE asked Juran if it could
name its top-level award, a 'super-Deming award' after him, but he declined.
This medal is called the Japan Quality Control Medal.

Continuous Process Improvement

Most people tend to think of their own work in terms of a task carried out
in relative isolation from other work in the organization. The first step in quality
improvement is for people to look at their work in terms of being part of a
continuous process.
A process is simply a sequence of tasks which together produce a
product or service. The best way to understand a process is to draw a flow
chart showing all the steps. When you do this it is possible to visualize one's
own work in terms of being a step in a process. A whole set of new insights
opens up. For instance, every workgroup has a supplier and a customer.
People take the output from another work group, do work that adds value, and
then pass it on to another work group.
Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement is the term used to describe the fact that

process improvement takes place in incremental steps. It never stops.
However good things may be, they can always be better. Continuous
improvement is a relentless effort to add value for the customer.

The steps in the Continuous Improvement process are to:

o select an improvement project with a specific goal assign a team to
improve it
o define the process using a flow chart
o define variability and problems in the process
o find the root causes of the problems
o recommend improvements
o implement the improvements as a pilot project
o measure the results
o proceed to a final implementation
o move on to the next problem.

The continuous improvement process should be driven from the top, but
implemented from the bottom. The selection of improvement projects needs a
sharp focus. The problem areas must be prioritised, critical processes
selected for improvement, and improvement goals set for the project team.
This is a top down process.
The problem solving and implementation is done by teams which include
staff at the working level. This is a bottom up process which requires the
involvement and commitment of the staff.

Quality Improvement vs. Quality Assurance

It is important to avoid equating quality improvement with quality

assurance. Quality assurance is a system of activities designed to ensure
production that meets pre-established requirements. It gives the customer a
guarantee of quality by measuring product conformance with process and
performance specifications. Quality improvement refers to all efforts directed
to increase effectiveness and efficiency in meeting accepted customer
expectations. It is a continuous process to achieve a better understanding of
the market; to innovate products and processes; to manage and distribute
material and products; and to provide service to customers. The success of
quality improvement is based on the understanding of every member of the
organization concerning the needs of their customers (internal and external).
Maintenance of that understanding requires continuing dialogue and
negotiation with the customer and measurement of one's products and
services against the customer expectations.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance refers to a program for the systematic monitoring and
evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that
standards of quality are being met.
Quality assurance is the process of verifying or determining whether
products or services meet or exceed customer expectations. Quality
assurance is a process-driven approach with specific steps to help define and
attain goals. This process considers design, development, production, and
service.
It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the program
sponsor. QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products,
unfortunately, but makes this more likely.
Two key principles characterize QA: "fit for purpose" (the product should
be suitable for the intended purpose) and "right first time" (mistakes should be
eliminated). QA includes regulation of the quality of raw materials,
assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and
management, production and inspection processes.
It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the intended
users, clients or customers, not by society in general: it is not the same as
'expensive' or 'high quality'. Even goods with low prices can be considered
quality items if they meet a market need. QA is more than just testing the
quality of aspects of a product, service or facility, it analyzes the quality to
make sure it conforms to specific requirements and comply with established
plans.
The most popular tool used to determine quality assurance is the
Shewhart Cycle, developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. This cycle for quality
assurance consists of four steps: Plan, Do, Check, and Act. These steps are
commonly abbreviated as PDCA.

The four quality assurance steps within the PDCA model stand for:

o Plan: Establish objectives and processes required to deliver the

desired results.
o Do: Implement the process developed.
o Check: Monitor and evaluate the implemented process by testing the
results against the predetermined objectives
o Act: Apply actions necessary for improvement if the results require
changes.
Role of the quality assurance department
 Verifying, by audit, that the quality system requirements are being
followed throughout the organization and that effective procedures and
job instructions are being implemented by all departments or
disciplines.
 Verifying that those responsible for controlling and checking an activity
have done so in a systematic manner and that there is objective
evidence available to confirm such.
 Ensuring that all procedural non-conformances are resolved.
 Ensuring that fundamental working methods are established and that
fully approved procedures are developed to cover them and that all
departments and personnel are aware of, and have access to, current
versions of these procedures.
 Verifying that all procedures are regularly reviewed and updated as
necessary.
 Determining and reporting the principal causes of quality losses and
non-conformances
Steps In Quality Assurance Process

The product quality assurance process is a series of steps taken at the

different stages of the product life cycle i.e. from the product concept to the
launch of the product to its obsolescence.

• Define the Objectives

The first step while undertaking QA of any project is to define its
requirements. For e.g. if the quality planning process has to be evolved for
launching a new product or service in the market, then the first step in quality
planning should be to understand and document the need of this project and
its ultimate goal. At this stage, it is necessary to document the quality goals.
These goals should be set according to the quality standards, customer
requirements, with reference to the organizations own benchmark
performance, competitors performance, according to the law and so on.

• Understanding Customer Needs

The next step in product QA process involves knowing and understanding
the needs of the customers. All these needs should be fully explained and
documented so that it can be accessed by all the involved personnel
whenever required. There are two kinds of customers, i.e. internal and
external customers. For example, the manufacturing department is an internal
customer of the design department as the designs for manufacturing are
supplied by them. Similarly, there are many other internal customers in an
organization. So, it is necessary to understand the needs of both internal and
external customers.

• Designing the Product

The product should be designed keeping in view the quality goals and
needs of the customers defined in step 1 and step 2 respectively. The cost
benefit analysis also has to be done in order to ensure that the product will be
manufactured at low cost with high quality in order to be successful in the
market.

• Product Pilot Testing

Once the product design is ready, the next step of QA process is product
testing. The pilot batch of the product is manufactured. The product is tested
for various attributes in accordance with the standards, customer
requirements, and regulatory requirements. This is to ensure that the product
meets the set goals. Once everything is found satisfactory, the product is
approved.

• Process Development
Once the product design has been approved, the entire lists of tasks and
activities that will be required for manufacturing the product are listed. The
workflow plan is developed. The teams are formed and given specific
responsibilities. The timelines for each and every task are specified. Process
capability is also measured during this stage of QA process to ensure that the
processes are capable of meeting design requirements.
 • Start Manufacturing
Once the processes are developed, the required process controls are put
in place. Tools like process failure mode and effects analysis are used to
identify the likely modes of failures of the process and the effect of those
failures on the product performance. Actions are initiated for high-risk items.
Audits are planned to periodically measure the performance and give
feedback to the manufacturing and design department.

• Life Cycle Management

During the life of the product, the quality will be periodically monitored
through inspections and audits. These inputs will result in improvements of
the processes or the product design. Customer complaints, if any, will also act
as inputs for product and process corrections and improvements. Hence, the
product quality assurance process plays an important role during the entire
life of the product to ensure that the customer gets a quality product.

The ISO 9001 Standard

ISO 9000 is an international standard that many companies use to ensure

that their quality assurance system is in place and effective. Conformance to
ISO 9000 is said to guarantee that a company delivers quality products and
services. To follow ISO 9000, a company's management team decides quality
assurance policies and objectives. Next, the company or an external
consultant formally writes down the company's policies and requirements and
how the staff can implement the quality assurance system. Once this
guideline is in place and the quality assurance procedures are implemented,
an outside assessor examines the company's quality assurance system to
make sure it complies with ISO 9000. A detailed report describes the parts of
the standard the company missed, and the company agrees to correct any
problems within a specific time. Once the problems are corrected, the
company is certified as in conformance with the standard.

Quality Tools, The Basic Seven

This topic actually contains an assortment of tools, some developed

by quality engineers, and some adapted from other applications. They
provide the means for making quality management decisions based on facts.
No particular tool is mandatory, any one may be helpful, depending on
circumstances. A number of software programs are available as aids to the
application of some of
these tools.

Total Quality Management (TQM) and Total Quality Control (TQC)

literature make frequent mention of seven basic tools. Kaoru Ishikawa
contends that 95% of a company's problems can be solved using these seven
tools. The tools are designed for simplicity. Only one, control charts require
any significant training. The tools are:

 Flow Charts.
 Ishikawa Diagrams.
 Checklists.
 Pareto Charts.
 Histograms.
 Scattergrams.
 Control Charts.

Flow Charts

A flow chart shows the steps in a process i.e., actions which transform an
input to an output for the next step. This is a significant help in analyzing a
process but it must reflect the actual process used rather than what the
process owner thinks it is or wants it to be. The differences between the
actual and the intended process are often surprising and provide many
ideas for improvements. Figure 1 shows the flow chart for a hypothetical
technical report review process. Measurements could be taken at each
step to find the most significant causes of delays, these may then be
flagged for improvement.
 In making a flow chart, the process owner often finds the actual process
to be quite different than it was thought to be. Often, non-value-added
steps become obvious and eliminating these provides an easy way to
improve the process. When the process flow is satisfactory, each step
becomes a potential target for improvement. Priorities are set by
measurements.
In Figure 1, the average time to complete peer review (get from Step 2 to
Step 4) and to complete management review (get from Step 4 to Step 8)
may be used to decide if further analysis to formulate corrective action
is warranted. It may be necessary to expand some steps into their own
flow charts to better understand them. For example, if we have an
unsatisfactory amount of time spent in management review we might expand
Step 4 as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 shows many possibilities for delay in management review. It

may be that it takes too long for the manager to get around to reading the
document. Or, too much time may be consumed in rework to address the
comments of the manager. Only some more measurements will tell.
Corrective actions to the former may include the delegation of review
authority. Training the technical writers to avoid the most frequent complaints
of the managers could possibly cure the latter. It may also be found that the
manager feels obligated to make some comment on each report he reviews,
and changing this perception may be helpful. Whatever the solution,
information provided by the flow chart would point the way.
A danger in flow charting is the use of assumed or desired steps rather
than actual process steps in making the chart. The utility of the chart will
correlate directly to its accuracy. Another danger is that the steps plotted may
not be under the control of the user. If the analyst does not "own the process"
the chart may not be too helpful. It may, however, be quite useful to a
process improvement team including all the functions involved.

Ishikawa Diagrams

Ishikawa diagrams are named after their inventor, Kaoru Ishikawa. They
are also called fishbone charts, after their appearance, or cause and effect
diagrams after their function. Their function is to identify the factors that are
causing an undesired effect (e.g., defects) for improvement action, or to
identify the factors needed to bring about a desired result (e.g., a winning
proposal). The factors are identified by people familiar with the process
involved. As a starting point, major factors could be designated using the
"four M's": Method, Manpower, Material, and Machinery; or the "four P's":
Policies, Procedures, People, and Plant. Factors can be subdivided, if useful,
and the identification of significant factors is often a prelude to the statistical
design of experiments.

Figure 3 is a partially completed Ishikawa diagram attempting to identify

potential causes of defects in a wave solder process.

Checklists
Checklists are a simple way of gathering data so that decisions can be
based on facts, rather than anecdotal evidence. Figure 4 shows a
checklist used to determine the causes of defects in a hypothetical
assembly process. It indicates that "not-to-print" is the biggest cause
of defects, and hence, a good subject for improvement. Checklist items
should be selected to be mutually exclusive and to cover all reasonable
categories. If too many checks are made in the "other" category, a new
set of categories is needed.
Figure 4. Checklist for Detects Found

Figure 4 could also be used to relate the number of defects to the day of
the week to see if thereis any significant difference in the number of defects
between workdays. Other possible column or row entries could be
production line, shift, product type, machine used, operator, etc.,
depending on what factors are considered useful to examine. So long
as each factor can be
considered mutually exclusive, the chart can provide useful data. An
Ishikwa Diagram may be helpful in selecting factors to consider. The data
gathered in a checklist can be used as input to a Pareto chart for ease of
analysis. Note that the data does not directly provide solutions. Knowing that
"not-to-print" is the biggest cause of defects only starts the search for the root
cause of "not-to-print" situations. (This is in contrast to the design of
experiments which could yield the optimal settings for controllable process
settings such as temperature and wave height.)

Pareto Charts

Alfredo Pareto was an economist who noted that a few people

controlled most of a nation's wealth. "Pareto's Law" has also been applied
to many other areas, including defects, where a few causes are responsible
for most of the problems. Separating the "vital few" from the "trivial
many" can be done using a diagram known as a Pareto chart. Figure 5
shows the data from the checklist shown in Figure 4 organized into a Pareto
chart.
 Figure 5, like Figure 4, shows the "not-to-print" category as the chief
cause of defects. However, suppose the not-to-print problems could be
cheaply corrected (e.g., by resoldering a mis-routed wire) while a defect due
to "timing" was too expensive to fix and resulted in a scrapped assembly. It
may then be useful to analyze the data in terms of the cost incurred rather
than the number of instances of each defect category. This might result in the
chart shown in Figure 6, which would indicate eliminating the timing problems
to be most fruitful.

A useful application of Pareto Charts is Stratification.

Stratification.
Stratification is simply the creation of a set of Pareto charts for the same
data, using different possible causative factors. For example, Figure 7
plots defects against three possible sets of potential causes. The figure
shows that there is no significant difference in defects between
production lines or shifts, but product type three has significantly more
defects than do the others. Finding the reason for this difference in number
of defects could be worthwhile.

Histograms

Histograms are another form of bar chart in which measurements are

grouped into bins; in this case each bin representing a range of values of
some parameter. For example, in Figure 8, X could represent the length
of a rod in inches. The figure shows that most rods measure between0.9 and
1.1 inches. If the target value is 1.0 inches, this could be good news.
However, the chart also shows a wide variance, with the measured values
falling between 0.5 and 1.5 inches. This wide a range is generally a most
unsatisfactory situation.
 Besides the central tendency and spread of the data, the shape of the
histogram can also be of interest. For example, Figure 9 shows a bi-
modal distribution. This indicates that the measurements are not from a
homogeneous process, since there are two peaks indicating two central
tendencies. There are two (or more) factors that are not in harmony. These
could be two machines, two shifts, or the mixed outputs of two suppliers.
Since at least one of the peaks must be off target, there is evidence here that
improvements can be made.

In contrast, the histogram of Figure 10 shows a situation in which the

spread of measurements is lower on one side of the central tendency than on
the other. These could be measurements of miles per gallon attained by an
automobile. There are many situations that decrease fuel economy, such as
engine settings, tire condition, bad weather, traffic jams, etc., but few
situations that can significantly improve it. The wider variance can be
attacked by optimizing any of the controllable factors such as tuning the
engine, replacing the tires used, etc. Moving the central tendency in the
direction of the smaller variance is unlikely unless the process is radically
changed (e.g., reducing the weight of the vehicle, installing a new engine,
etc.).

Scattergrams

Scattergrams are a graphical, rather than statistical, means of examining

whether or not two parameters are related to each other. It is simply the
plotting of each point of data on a chart with one parameter as the x-axis and
the other as the y-axis. If the points form a narrow "cloud" the parameters
are closely related and one may be used as a predictor of the other.
A wide "cloud" indicates poor correlation. Figure 11 shows a plot of defect
rate vs. temperature with a strong positive correlation, while Figure 12 shows
a weak negative correlation.
It should be noted that the slope of a line drawn through the center of the cloud
is an artifact of the scales used and hence not a measure of the strength of the
correlation. Unfortunately, thescales used also affect the width of the cloud,
which is the indicator of correlation. When there is a question on the strength
of the correlation between the two parameters, a correlation coefficient can be
calculated. This will give a rigorous statistical measure of the correlation
ranging from -1.0 (perfect negative correlation), through zero (no correlation) to
+1.0 (perfect correlation).
Control Charts

Control charts are the most complicated of the seven basic tools of TQM,
but are based on simple principles. The charts are made by plotting in
sequence the measured values of samples taken from a process. For
example, the mean length of a sample of rods from a production line, the
number of defects in a sample of a product, the miles per gallon of
automobiles tested sequentially in a model year, etc. These
measurements are expected to vary randomly about some mean with a
known variance. From the mean and variance, control limits can be
established. Control limits are values that sample measurements are
not expected to exceed unless some special cause changes the process. A
sample measurement outside the control limits therefore indicates that the
process is no longer stable, and is usually reason for corrective action.
Other causes for corrective action are non-random behavior of the
measurements within the control limits. Control limits are established by
statistical methods depending on whether the measurements are of a
parameter, attribute or rate. A generic control chart is shown as Figure 13.