» Quality Assurance Tools

Quality assurance tools are available to quality professionals to successfully accomplish their task of maintaining the quality of the organization so as to meet or exceed the expectations of the customers. These are also used by the management in the decision making process. Some of the commonly used tools are

The Why Why Analysis

It is one of the methods used in analyzing various quality-related problems. The Why why analysis is used to find the root cause of the problems. As per this method, for getting to the crux of any problem, the person has to ask why five times.

For Example

Q – Why is there a shortage of material
A – Due to rejection during quality inspection.
Q – Why did it get rejected
A – Due to failure in meeting specifications.
Q – Why it did not meet the specifications
A – Due to a manufacturing error in the suppliers process.
Q – Why was there an error in the suppliers process
A – Due to non-clarity of work instructions.
Q – Why were the instructions not given clearly
A – Due to the verbal communication of the instructions.

Hence, in this example, through the why quality assurance tools , the manager has understood that the shortage of material is due to the verbal communication of the instructions.

Affinity Diagram

This tool is used for problem analysis. In an organization, all processes are interrelated a problem in any one area or process can affect the quality of the end product or service. To draw a conclusion from the vast pool of data, affinity diagrams are used. It uses the bottoms up approach. Teams are formed to work on the problem. All possible causes of the problem are written on separate post-it notes or cards. These are then pasted or spread over a table. The team members then group these together. Through this process, they are able to organize the data so that some meaningful information can be extracted.

Tree Diagram

This is also known as Dendrogram. This quality assurance tools is used to divide any task or process into sub tasks to have greater in depth knowledge of the systems. Also, it is used in understanding the problems. So, the first step while using this tool is to determine the objective. Based on the objective statement, the team will write various sub statements. Each sub statement is further divided into various statements. The process usually involves three levels or it can continue till the statement cannot be further subdivided.

                                                                                    -sub-statement 1a
                                             -statement 1              -sub-statement 1b
For e.g. Objective         -statement 2
                                             -statement 3             - sub-statement 3a
                                                                                    -sub-statement 3b
                                                                                    -sub-statement 3c

Prioritization Matrix

These tools is used when there is a need to prioritize from a large number of available possibilities. It can be used for the prioritization of the tasks, work, or any other issues where there is a difference of opinions among those involved. This is an analytical method of prioritizing based on the weighted-average method. Each task or issue is assigned a weight age and then by comparison, their priority is determined. Also a method is developed for deciding the weight age for each task. This tool is also used by the top management in decision making, such as for prioritizing different projects in case of the resource crunch.

Apart from these tools, there are various other industry approved and accepted tools that one can use for quality monitoring and quality control.

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