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© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Plan
1. Select the Opportunity for Improvement
• What is the opportunity for improvement we are considering? Why was this chosen?
• What's included? What's excluded?
• What is the scope of the opportunity?
• What are we trying to achieve? What is our purpose for this improvement? How does it relate to our values/mission/vision?
Useful Quality Tools
Affinity Diagram |
Interrelationship Diagraph |
Brainstorming |
Lotus Diagram |
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Capacity Matrix |
Matrices |
Check Sheet |
Multivoting/NGT |
Consensogram |
Operational Definitions |
Feedback Station |
Pareto Chart |
Fishbone Diagram |
Problem Statement |
Five Whys |
Purpose and Vision |
Flow Chart |
Run Chart |
Forcefield |
Survey |
Imagineering |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Plan
2. Select the Team
• Who are the key stakeholders? Who should be involved in the improvement? In what capacity? At what stage(s) in the improvement process?
• How will the improvement team operate? What are the roles, rules and reporting arrangements?
• How will we document progress? Who will be responsible?
Useful Quality Tools
| Capacity Matrix | Matrices |
| Code of Co-operation | NGT/Multivoting |
| Flowchart | Systems View |
| Gantt Chart | Storyboard |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Plan
3. Study the Current Situation
• What is the current situation? How do we know?
• What is the current process flow?
• Who are we serving by making this improvement? What do they think? What do they want?
• What is the vision of excellence in making this improvement? What quality characteristics would an excellent outcome exhibit?
• What data do we need to tell us how the current process is performing? How will we collect it? How will we display it? What is our prediction?
• What are the data telling us?
• What indicators can we use to measure improvement?
Useful Quality Tools
| Affinity Diagram | Forcefield |
| Bar Chart | Imagineering |
| Check Sheet | Loss Function |
| Consensogram | Pareto Chart |
| Control Chart | Plus/Delta |
| Correlation Chart/Scatter Plot | Histogram/Frequency Chart |
| Client Requirement Analysis | Operational Definitions |
| Five Whys | Run Chart |
| Flowchart | |
| Survey |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Plan
4. Analyse the Causes
• What are the possible causes of variation and poor performance? How do we know?
• What additional data do we need? What do the data tell us?
• What are the actual causes of variation and poor performance?
Useful Quality Tools
| Affinity Diagram | Matrices |
| Brainstorming | Multivoting/NGT |
| Correlation Chart/Scatter Plot | Pareto Chart |
| Fishbone Diagram | Run Chart |
| Five Whys | Tree Diagram |
| Interrelationship Diagraph |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Plan
5. Develop a Theory for Improvement
What are the potential actions we could take?
How will we prevent the causes of variation and poor performance?
How do other people manage this situation? What can we learn from them? How?
What is the proposed solution +/or process flow?
Can we trial our improvement actions on a small scale pilot? Where?
How does the their support our values/mission/vision?
What is our action plan? Who will do what, where and when?
What do we predict will happen when we implement this plan?
Who will we need to support our plan? How will we ensure our action plan is supported by all who need to support it?
What will we monitor as we implement our plan?
What method will we use to communicate and promote our plan?
What documentation is required to support the plan? (Policy, process flowcharts, supporting documentation)
Useful Quality Tools
| Affinity Diagram | Imagineering |
| Benchmarking | Loss Function |
| Brainstorming | Lotus Diagram |
| Flowchart | Multivoting/NGT |
| Gantt Chart | Operational Definitions |
| If Then | Purpose and Vision |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Do
6. Implement the Improvement
• To what extent are we following the plan?
• Are we capturing data as we go?
• To what extent is everyone involved as intended?
Useful Quality Tools
| Check Sheet | Gantt Chart |
| Feedback Station | Pilot Project |
| Flowchart | Run Chart |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Study
7. Study the Results
• What do the data from our trial implementation tell us?
• What are the results for our clients? Our people? Our organisation?
• To what extent did our actions lead to improvement?
• To what extent was our plan a success?
• What did we learn from implementing our plan? About the improvement? About the improvement process? About ourselves?
• What needs to be done next? Can we standardise on the improved process, or is more trial and analysis required?
• What would we do differently next time?
Useful Quality Tools
| Bar Chart | Histogram/Frequency Chart |
| Check Sheet | Loss Function |
| Client Requirement Analysis | Pareto Chart |
| Consensogram | Run Chart |
| Control Chart | Survey |
| Correlation Chart/Scatter Plot | Tree Diagram |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Act
8. Standardise the Improvement
• What documentation is required to capture the memory, support the improvement? Policy" Process flowcharts? Supporting documents?
• Who needs to be, and how will people be mentored, trained and coached to adopt the new way?
• How do we make the trial implementation part of the way we now do things?
• How will we ensure the changes "stick"?
• How will we continue to monitor performance?
• How will we capture what we have learned?
• How will we share what we have learned? With whom?
Useful Quality Tools
| Capacity Matrix | Matrices |
| Flowchart | Operational Definitions |
| Gantt Chart | Purpose and Vision |
| Imagineering | Storyboard |
| Lotus Diagram |
© Copyright AQC 2001 - Version 3.1
Act
9. Establish Future Plans
• What more do we need to learn?
• What should we be improving next?