Quality Control for Dummies

by Larry Webber, Michael Wallace

Overview

So you’ve been asked to lead a quality control initiative? Or maybe you’ve been assigned to a quality team. Perhaps you’re a CEO whose main concern is to make your company faster, more efficient, and less expensive. Whatever your role is, quality control is a critical concept in every industry and profession.

Quality Control For Dummies is the straightforward, easy guide to improving your company’s quality. It covers all of today’s available options and provides expert techniques for introducing quality methods to your company, collecting data, designing quality processes, and more. This hands-on guide gives you all the tools you’ll ever need to enhance your company’s quality, including:

• Understanding the importance of quality standards
• Putting fundamental quality control methods to use
• Listening to your customer about quality issues
• Whipping quality control into shape with Lean
• Working with value stream mapping
• Focusing on the 5S method
• Supplement a process with Kanban
• Fixing tough problems with Six Sigma
• Using QFD to win customers over
• Improving you company with TOC

This invaluable reference is written from an unbiased viewpoint, giving you all the facts about each theory with no fuzzy coverings. It also includes steps for incorporating quality into a new product and Web sites packed with quality control tips and techniques. With Quality Control For Dummies, you’ll be able to speed up production, eliminate waste, and save money!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470069097
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/27/2012
Series:	For Dummies Books
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,048,844
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Larry Webber is a Six Sigma Black Belt and quality improvement facilitator. Michael Wallace has developed quality control software for all types of companies.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I: Understanding the Basics of Quality Control 7

Chapter 1: Defining and Explaining Quality Control 9

Chapter 2: Understanding the Importance of Quality Standards 19

Chapter 3: Using Quality Assurance for the Best Results 33

Chapter 4: The Role of Inspection in Quality Control 47

Part II: Putting Fundamental Quality Control Methods to Use 61

Chapter 5: Starting Down the Road to Quality 63

Chapter 6: Detecting the Voice of the Customer in Quality Issues 81

Chapter 7: Preparing to Measure Your Current Quality Process 95

Chapter 8: Collecting Your Quality Data 107

Chapter 9: Evaluating Quality with Statistics 131

Chapter 10: Assessing Quality with Statistical Process Control 155

Part III: Whipping Quality Control into Shape with Lean Processes 177

Chapter 11: Gathering the Nuts and Bolts of Lean Processes 179

Chapter 12: Keeping Your Eyes on the Process: Value Stream Mapping 199

Chapter 13: Focusing on the 5S Method 213

Chapter 14: Empowering Workers to Make Changes with Rapid Improvement 235

Chapter 15: Looking at Lean Materials and Kanban 255

Part IV: Surveying Other Quality Control Techniques 273

Chapter 16: Combining the Best of All Worlds in Total Quality Management 275

Chapter 17: Fixing Tough Problems with Six Sigma 289

Chapter 18: Delving into Quality Function Deployment 311

Chapter 19: Considering the Theory of Constraints 325

Part V: The Part of Tens 339

Chapter 20: Ten Steps for Incorporating Quality into a New Product and/or Process 341

Chapter 21: Ten (Or So) Web Sites with Quality Control Tips and Techniques 347

Index 351