The Quality Toolbox

Every year I get together with a group of my good friends, Bobby, Dudley, Doug and Woody, all fellow Harley-Davidson enthusiasts, and take an epic ride to “parts unknown”. As we were sitting around the campfire one night during this year’s trip, I mentioned that I was writing a new series of articles on quality and was struggling with what to include out of the vast number of quality tools available. Doug, who has his own handyman show as his day job, said “Steve, it is all about having the right tools in your toolbox for the job at hand.”

As is normally the case, my friend Doug had just condensed a complex problem down to a simple solution; develop a Quality Toolbox with only the most powerful tools that should be a day-to-day part of any quality professional’s arsenal. I have classified this toolbox into four categories: Process Analysis Tools, Data Collection & Analysis Tools, Problem-Solving Tools and Quality Planning Tools. While this toolbox is certainly not all-inclusive, the set of tools contained in this chapter will provide a blueprint that any organization can use to develop, implement, and maintain a world-class quality system that supports a continuous improvement culture.

Stay tuned… I will be drilling down into this toolbox over the following series of posts.