Six Sigma and Beyond: Statistical Process Control, Volume IV

The basic process improvement tools in any SPC program, including the nonmanufacturing programs, focus on the following:

• Examine how we do things now

• Analyze activities to determine which activities add value

• Identify possibilities for improvement

• Demonstrate improvement

Typical starter tools are as follows :

• Process flow chart

• Cause and effect diagram

• Pareto diagram

• Scatter diagram

• Histogram

• Control charts

• Normal distribution analysis

For a detailed discussion of these tools, see Chapters 2, 3, 5, 8 “10, and 13, as well as Burr (1976), Duncan (1986), Stamatis (1996), and others.