This TQM article is a continuation of the article titled: TQM Implementation Project published on 13-May-2006. This issue is part 3a of the article. It will deal with the "How to Overcome Issues" pertaining to the application of ANALYZE Phase of the D.A.I.C. methodology described in the article. I will not be honest if I do not share with you difficulties faced with the team or me in carry out these projects.


As I have indicated in my overview TQM article titled: TQM Implementation Project, that there are several projects that were used this D.A.I.C. to complete the improvement projects. While most of the projects were successfully completed, there are some the team faced with problem. Listed below is a case study of common problem faced with team leaders and member during the ANALYZE Phase of the projects.


Just to recap, tools used in the ANALYZE Phase are :


Data Collection | Trend Charting | Pareto Analysis | Fish-Bone Diagram | Why-Why Analysis


Case Study in Data Collection

During Data Collection, team has to decide what data is needed and look around the work site if data are already available. If it is available, team has to review the data for its suitability. AT time, data are available but not obvious. However, if data is not available, the team has to decide what data is needed, when to collect, who to collect and where needs and how to collect.


It is not obvious that data collection will pose a problem to the team because it seems to be straight forward. However, many of our team is faced with problem of data accuracy. We had issue like data are negative whereas it should be all positive numbers. Due to this set back, team has to collect data once again thus frustrated team members.


How to overcome Data Collection Issues

To overcome Data Collection issues, communication of expected data need to be clearly given to member who do the data collection and it is well understood. Team leader need to assign data collection to a competent member who is guided by the leader what to collect, when, where and how. If still unsure, leader need to guide the member for a round of data collection to ensure it is done correctly.


Case Study in Trend Charting Issues

Once data are available, team has to chart out the data with different type of trend chart. Once again, data accuracy is very important during this stage where team use it to plot the trend chart and use it for the entire duration of the project. At time, team cannot decide the duration of the data to be plotted into the trend chart. There is no clear guide line should the data be 3 months, 6 months etc in duration.


How to overcome Trend Charting Issues

Though there is no major issue in deciding or changing the duration of the data, one general rule I often give the team is to include data that reflects before and after an improvement was carried out. Example: if some improvement was done 3 months ago, the data needed is to include those data 3 months before the improvement. Again, a trend must be obvious to decide the duration. Team may need to extent the 3 months duration to a longer period.


Case Study in Pareto Analysis

After data is collected, team need to spend time to cleanse the data. Once it is done, team need to arrange the data to generate a Pareto Chart. However, team often faced with too many data in the Pareto Chart . As a result, the 80/20 is not apparent or there are too many items in the 20 percent quartile. Sometime, team would group those few cases together as “others” but it appear in one of the 20 percent quartile after the Pareto Chart is plotted.


How to overcome Pareto Analysis issues

In order to have meaningful Pareto Chart, the data need to be stratified before they are sorted for Pareto Charting. To do that, one of the ways is to group the data into several key categories. Another important yet easily done is to group those items which has few cases together other “Others” do not include it in the sorting By doing so, the “others” will appear in the last column of the Pareto Chart.



In my next article, I will continue to share the problem faced with the ANALYZE Phase in Fine-Bone Diagram and Why-Why Analysis. I welcome readers give me feedback how else I could present these articles.

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About the Author, LM Foong


The author holds a MBA major in TQM. He is an expert in Malcolm Baldrige Business Framework and Baldrige Assessment and TQM Implementations in manufacturing and service sector. He facilitates workshops and Cost Reduction and Productivity Improvement projects. He publishes TQM articles, ebooks, case studies, trainer manual and presentation slides available at More TQM articles or Please Visit my Web Site

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