Lean Office and Service Simplified

 

 

The Quality Toolbox

When you are implementing Lean—or any kind of continuous improvement initiative—you need a full toolbox. The late Kaoru Ishikawa, a professor of engineering at Tokyo University, identified seven basic quality tools—visual tools focused on data interpretation and analysis, key components of implementing Lean. Over the years, this list has been modified, but the tools most commonly identified as the basics are

Flowcharts

Run charts

Histograms

Pareto charts

Cause-and-effect diagrams

Control plans

Control charts

These basic ...