Process Analysis

Process Analysis follows the steps that are mentioned in the subsidiary plan Process Improvement Plan to identify any process improvements like constraints, the activities which are redundant, problems experienced. It uses root cause analysis to find the causes which can be used for preventive actions.

Process Analysis technique is used the process Perform Quality Assurance

Quality Audits

Quality Audits is used to see if the project activities being carried out as per the organizational and project policies, processes and procedures. Quality Audits can be internal or external or can be both.

Some of the outcome of the Quality Audits will be:

Identification of non- conformance which means the project is not following the desired steps

Identification of best practices from your projects which can be implemented for other projects

Identification of best practices from other projects which can be considered for your projects

Proactive measures which can be taken to improve the processes which in turn help in team raise productivity

Contribution of each audit in the lesson learned organizational knowledge bank

Quality Audits can be random or scheduled basis. Also this technique ensures implementation of approved change requests.

Quality Audit is used under the process Perform Quality Assurance which is part of Executing process group.

Quality management and control tools

Quality management and control tools are Affinity diagram, Process decision program charts, Interrelationship digraphs, Tree diagrams, prioritization matrices, Activity network diagrams and Matrix diagrams. These seven tools are called Seven Quality and Control Tools.

For Affinity diagram refer the link http://bksprasad.blogspot.in/2015/09/group-creativity-technique.html

Process decision program charts (PDPC): is used to understand the goal in relation to the steps to be followed in achieving the goal. This helps in anticipating the risk which may arise while achieving the goal so as to plan for contingency.

For example automation is to be introduced. Choice is buy a tool or build it yourself. Buy the tool decision leads to vendor selection and ordering. If the vendor will not deliver it on time what can be contingency plan. Similarly build it yourself decision leads to hiring resources. If the desired skilled resource not available what can be the contingency? It may be train the existing employees. This entire sequence can be represented as diagram.

Interrelationship diagraphs is used in problem solving by connecting the relationship with one cause to other the other cause. This can be developed using other diagrams like affinity diagram, cause and effect diagram.

For example the customer is using lot of defects. What can be the reason? The reason can be lack of understanding of the requirements, poor design, improper development, incomplete testing. Let us the major defects are due to incomplete testing which has been found out by cause and effect diagram. The cause of incomplete testing can be poor test planning, the cause for poor test planning can be the requirements came late, this cause can be the customer did not provide the requirements as per the committed date. In this way we can relate the causes and draw the diagram.

Tree diagram used to represent decomposition hierarchies like Work Breakdown Structure, Risk Breakdown Structure and Organizational Breakdown Structure. After creating this structure it terminates to the single point which helps in taking the decision.

For example in a coin what is the probability of getting head or tail? It is 50%. So the value for each possibility is 0.5. Let’s add one more coin and tossing both the coins, the combinations increases to HH, HT, TH and TT. So the probability of getting atleast one head in this scenario will be 75%. Using this mechanism one can design the process improvement or reducing the product defects.

Prioritization matrix: Here the issues are identified and the alternatives are found and prioritized to solve the issue by giving the weightages. For example, need to complete a deliverable which requires highly skilled people and are not available within the organization. The alternatives are outsource or train the existing employees. Give the weightages for both the options and see what can be the best outcome. The one which scores higher is the better option.

Activity network diagrams are nothing but project network diagram. It is used with scheduling, PERT, CPM and PDM. To understand these diagrams refer to the links:

http://bksprasad.blogspot.in/2015/11/three-point-estimating.html

http://bksprasad.blogspot.in/2015/11/critical-path.html

http://bksprasad.blogspot.in/2015/10/precedence-diagramming-method-pdm.html

Matrix diagrams used to perform data analysis created in matrix form. The matrix diagram can be created using rows and columns with different parameters and will indicate the strength of the relationships between those parameters.

Perform quality Assurance process uses Quality Management and Control Tools in addition to the tools which are used under processes Plan Quality management and Control Quality.

Additional Quality Planning Tools

While planning for the project quality we need to use some additional tools which help in defining better quality metrics and quality checklist. Some of the tools are brainstorming, nominal group techniques, force field analysis, and quality management and control tools.

For Brainstorming and Nominal group techniques you can refer to the link http://bksprasad.blogspot.in/2015/09/group-creativity-technique.html

Force field analysis provides the diagram to the situations which is for and against. For example we need to introduce automation system instead of manual. The for can be increased efficiency, consistency in getting the results, easier monitoring, cutting the human resource cost whereas the against can threat to the job, initial investment, demotivation among the staff which can results in attrition at the organization level, disruption of service till gets stabilized. For each of these parameters we can give the weightages and sum it. The total score can be used to decide based on the highest score to consider automation or not.

Quality management and control tools are Affinity diagram, Process decision program charts, Interrelationship digraphs, Tree diagrams, prioritization matrices, Activity network diagrams and Matrix diagrams. These seven tools are called Seven Quality and Control Tools.

For Affinity diagram refer the link http://bksprasad.blogspot.in/2015/09/group-creativity-technique.html

For the remaining tools refer the link http://bksprasad.blogspot.in/2016/01/quality-management-and-control-tools.html

Additional Quality Planning Tools is used under the process Plan Quality Management.

Statistical Sampling

Statistical Sampling is picking up a few samples out of the lot to see if the requirements are meeting are not. For example, if there are millions of water bottles that are coming out of production, one can’t test all the pieces. Only a few pieces out of every batch can be inspected. If those pieces are meeting the specifications then we can all is well otherwise we can take the decision of rejecting the entire lot. The sampling size and the frequency should be determined during the planning itself so that one can determine the cost of quality required for testing and rework or expected wastages.

Statistical Sampling technique is used under the process Plan Quality Management and Control Quality.

Design of Experiments

Design of Experiments (DoE) helps in determining which combination is the best to produce an apt output. It is like a trial and error method by varying or experimenting with different inputs so that one can get the best quality product or the process output. For example in the construction or manufacturing industry which combination of material or proportion or design can produce an optimal output can be determined.

Design of Experiments is used under the process Plan Quality Management.

Seven Basic Quality tools

Seven Basic Quality tools are Cause and effect diagrams, Flowchart, Checksheets, Pareto diagrams, Histograms, Control Charts and Scatter diagrams. Seven Basic Quality tool is popularly known as 7QC tools in the industry. This uses the famous Edward Deming cycle Plan-Do-Check-Act also known as (PDCA) model to solve the quality related issues. Let us consider one by one.

Cause and effect diagrams: This tool is used to find the cause for a particular defect/effect. The defect or the problem statement is defined and causes for this defect is identified. Then one can use the concept “5 Why’s” to find out the root causes which can be converted to actionable items. When you represent the problem statement and the causes in the form of visual representation, it looks like a fish skeletal hence the name fish bone diagram and is also called as Ishikawa diagram.

Flowcharts: Flow charts depict the flow of the work or the process which is sequence of steps to be carried out. Flowcharts show the activities, decision points, branching loops, parallel paths, inputs, outputs… It uses a model called SIPOC, Supplier-Input-Process-Output-Customer, or the COPIS, Customer-Output-Process-Input-Supplier, model. For example, in the car manufacturing industry, the supplier provides the raw materials as the input, the process manufactures the car which is the output and is used by the customer. The customer provides the feedback which helps in improving the process and in turn the raw materials quality from the suppliers. The workflow logic and the frequency helps in expected monetary value for conformance and nonconformance work to deliver the desired output which in turn helps in estimating the cost of quality.

Checksheets: This is also called as tallysheet used to gather data. Checksheets ensures that all the data has been gathered which helps in identifying potential problems. This helps in inspection to identify the defects. For example there is a product which about 10 cm length which is the expected value. The other possible values which we can get are >10cm or <10cm. Measure all the output and see how many are meeting the expected value and how many or not.

Pareto diagrams: This is also called as 80/20 rule used to find most potential issues or to distinguish between critical vs non-critical. 80/20 rule means 80% of the problems are due to 20% of the causes.

Histograms: It is a bar chart and used to find the central tendency, dispersion and shape of statistical distribution. Also histogram can be used to represent data in no particular order and is not related to time. The bar which is higher can be the reason for the defect or effect.

Control charts: This tool is used to see if the process is stable or not and also to find the measurements are coming within the expected limits. Control charts uses four parameters apart from mean, upper specification limit (USL), lower specification limit (LSL), upper control limit (UCL) and lower control limits (LCL). The mid line will be mean, the line immediately above mean is UCL and the still above that is USL and the line immediately below mean is LCL and the one which still below is LSL. If the measurements are within the UCL and LCL then there is no problem. If the measurements are above the UCL and or below the LCL then it calls for corrective action. There is one more principle called rule of seven. Rule of seven says if the 7 consecutive points are above the mean level or seven consecutive points are below mean level and even though they are within the control limits still it calls for corrective action. USL and LSL can be customer committed values above which the measurements are not acceptable. UCL and LCL are defined within the project level in agreement with stakeholders. UCL and LCL helps in tightening the situation so that we are not touching or deviating the specification limits.

Scatter diagrams: This is also called as correlation charts used to find is there any relation between two variables. The correlation can be positive or negative or zero. Based on positive and or negative it helps in taking further action.

The above 7QC tools can be used as combination.

Seven Basic Quality Tools is used under the process Plan Quality Management, Control Quality. This is also used along with seven quality management and control tools, which is used under the Perform Quality Assurance process.