What is a quality tool?

Quality tools are techniques and methods used to improve the quality of an organization's products, services or processes.

They are used as part of any management system (MS) such as:

• quality (ISO 9001)
• automobile (IATF 16949)
• occupational health and safety (ISO 45001)
• environment (ISO 14001)
• food safety (ISO 22000)
• aerospace (AS9100)
• medical devices (ISO 13485)
• cosmetics (ISO 22716)
• information security (ISO 27001)
• anti-bribery (ISO 37001)

Quality tools can be classified into different categories, including:

• Quality control tools. These tools are used to collect, analyze and present data. They include in particular:
  • Control chart
  • Scatter diagram
  • Flowchart
  • Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram
  • Pareto chart
  • Check sheet
  • Histogram
• Quality management system (QMS) tools. These tools are used to analyze, audit and maintain the company's management system. They include in particular:
  • Functional analysis
  • Internal Audit
  • Process map
  • COQ (Costs of Obtaining Quality)
  • Quality Fuction Deployment (QFD)
  • Objectives deployment
  • Customer satisfaction survey
  • Decision matrix
  • SPC (Statistical Process Control)
  • PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
  • Action plan
  • Control plan
  • Standing meeting
  • Management review
  • Process review
  • Dashboard
• Problem, risk, safety (PRS) tools. These tools are used to identify and resolve problems, manage risk and safety. They include in particular:
  • 5 W
  • 8 D
  • A 3
  • FMEA, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
  • Scenario analysis
  • Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
  • Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) 
  • PESTEL analysis (Politics, Economy, Social, Technology, Environment, Legislation)
  • Preliminary hazard analysis
  • SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
  • DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control)
  • HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points)
  • HAZOP (Hazard and Operability study)
  • The single document
  • Risk level
  • Maslow's pyramid
  • WWWWHHW (Who, What, Where, When, How, How much, Why)
  • Brainstorming
  • SWIFT (Structured "What if" techniques)
• Lean tools. These tools are specific to the Lean approach. They include in particular:
  • 5 S
  • Critical To Quality analysis (CTQ)
  • Andon
  • Value Stream Map (VSM)
  • Hoshin method
  • Fail safe device, Poka-yoké
  • Kano model
  • Spaghetti chart
  • Pull system
  • Heijunka
  • Kaizen
  • Kanban
  • Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
  • Visual management
  • Gemba Walk
  • SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer)
  • SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die)
  • Standard
  • Balanced ScoreCard (BSC)
  • Takt time
  • Temple Lean
  • Theory Of Constraints (TOC)
  • OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)
  • Added value for the customer
  • Voice of the customer (VOC)
• The 8 wastes. Waste is not strictly speaking a quality tool. But it is an essential activity. To the 7 classic wastes of Ohno is added a more recent eighth (unused skills). Everyone is free to find their own type of waste such as complexity, bureaucracy, faulty design or something else. The important thing is to make the hunt for waste a daily activity practiced by everyone. The 8 wastes are:
  • Overproduction
  • Excess inventory
  • Defects
  • Unnecessary motion
  • Unnecessary operations
  • Waiting
  • Unnecessary transport
  • Unused skills