FOCUS Magazine

Pareto Charts are one of the seven basic quality tools. They are bar graphs which can be used to graphically demonstrate the 80/20 theory, Pareto Principle or “Vital Few, Trivial Many Rule.” The 80/20 theory was first developed in 1906, by Italian economist and sociologist, Vilfredo Pareto, who observed an unequal distribution of wealth and [...]

A histogram is the most commonly used graph to show frequency distributions. A frequency distribution shows how often each value occurs in a set of data. This is possible because the histogram allows for a concise portrayal of information in a bar graph format. When measuring a process, it often occurs that the measurements vary [...]

Quality/Business Analysis Tools in Action The Systems and Performance Improvement Department (SPID) has partnered with the Ergon, Inc., Environmental Health and Safety Environmental Group to assist Lion Oil Company (LOC) with a long-term continuous improvement project for management of the various wastes generated throughout the Lion Oil refinery. This project is part of Lion Oil [...]

A process is a sequence of steps, tasks or activities that converts an input to an output. For example, an order is placed, acted upon and a product is delivered to a customer. A process map would then be characterized as a diagram that graphically depicts an entire process. There should be a defined beginning [...]

Root cause analysis “is a method used to identify and confirm the causes of performance problems or adverse trends and identify the associated corrective actions needed to prevent recurrence of the causes.” (Excerpted from web “Always Improving Performance” – Performance Technology Dictionary). There are several quality tools that can be used to perform a root [...]

Root Cause Analysis In our last Quality Tools article, we reviewed the use of the Cause and Effect or Ishikawa Diagram as a tool used to perform Root Cause Analysis. Remember (January 2005 issue, page 12) Root Cause Analysis is a method used to identify and confirm the causes of problems or adverse trends and [...]