Our Top 7 Quality Tools for Six Sigma Work

Six Sigma strives to improve quality in business processes and production. We know from experience that it is critical for customers receive products that they want or are useful. Leveraging customer demand in this way allows businesses to make predictions about future demand. If your enterprise is to be a successful one, you must maintain outstanding customer service. But how do you achieve this? If you want to deliver the highest quality products and services, controlling and monitoring measures is essential. There are multiple tools for maintaining quality in Six Sigma. We outline the top 7 tools below.

Top 7 Six Sigma Quality Tools –

1.     Control Chart – One of Your Essential Control Tools

Quality improvement involves a lot of testing and documentation. As such, a control chart is a highly effective method by which to monitor and maintain statistical control. Control charts will help you remain aware of your measurements and limits, as well as pin down the causes of variation.

2.     Cause and Effect Diagram

Also known as Fishbone or Ishikawa Diagrams, CEDs give your employees the freedom to interrogate problems for their possible causes. Every fishbone branching off the spine of the diagram represents a different category, allowing you to question multiple lines of inquiry at once.

3.     Histograms – For Graphical Data Display

One of Six Sigma’s most commonly used tools, histograms display and make sense of data. You should use them to show probability distribution in graph form. Histograms are also useful for indicating the frequency with which factors affecting quality or process improvement appear. Histograms, like Pareto diagrams, represent data vertically and horizontally.

4.     Check Sheet – Asks the 5 Whys

Another frequently used quality tool, you should use check sheets for data collection. Check sheets collect and collate data in real time, when and where your data is located. You can spot problems and highlight trends with ease, as check sheets make analysis simpler. Taking the form of a physical document or as a computer program, check sheets allow you to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Check sheets become tally sheets when dealing with quantitative data. Check sheets involve collating all relevant project or process information. Questions of Who, What, When, Where, and Why are used to measure probability distribution and quantify variation.

5.     Stratification

Six Sigma practitioners use stratification to classify data systematically. Stratification arranges information according to suitable categories, which you should devise for yourself, such as process, time, place, frequency, etc. Stratification is sometimes known as a flowchart and provides a visual template for how processes work. They can also identify your process customers.

6.     Scatter Diagram – Critical Quality Tools

A critical quality tool in Six Sigma, scatter diagrams allow you to show how two factors are related. Like cause and effect diagrams, scatter diagrams can display both causation and correlation, as well as the degree to which both appear. You can also test potential cause and effect relationships between multiple variables.

7.     Pareto Chart

Known as ABC analysis, Pareto charts are a classic of quality improvement work. Pareto charts are one of Six Sigma’s most highly utilized tools and used by companies all over the world. Pareto charts enable you to prioritize your most critical problems and the factors contributing to them. If a factor affects your business in a negative way, Pareto charts can help distinguish between the vital few and your trivial many are useful for identifying the most significant issues to tackle first.