problem solving qc story

Educational Materials

QC Story: what is it and how does it work?

This guide helps you to understand about the qc story (quality control story) for problem solving and its relationship with the pdca cycle..

Published on June 30, 2017

Updated on September 1, 2022

• DAM – Daily Audit Management
• APS – Advanced Problem Solving
• TMM – Total Maintenance Management
• SAM – Small Activity Management
• PMB – Performance Management Board
• ESB – Enterprise Schedule Builder
• EPP – Enterprise Project Planner
• VCB – Visual communication board
• BDM – Business Document Management
• 5 Whys Analysis
• TPM – Total Productive Maintenance
• PDCA and DEMING CYCLE
• Work Standardization
• Lean production

Integral tool in Total Quality Management (TQM)

The qc story is an integral tool in total quality management (tqm) aimed at addressing problems in a structured manner. it is based on the pdca (plan-do-check-act) principle and involves presenting a problem-solving story in nine steps, from case selection to achieving a thorough solution. while not as widely recognized as other methodologies, the content and purpose of qc story are equivalent or identical to the well-known a3 analysis or 8d report..

Traditionally, QC Story is formalized on paper, boards, or posters. Larger formats, such as 2x2 meters, are particularly popular in companies with well-developed visual management systems. By visually depicting the case as a story, it facilitates a better breakdown of the problem, its resolution, and, most importantly, comprehension. However, managing information and the database can be relatively challenging with such displays.

To address this, our company has developed a web application called APS (Advanced Problem Solving) , which enhances information management. APS is a versatile tool that not only complements QC Story but also replaces other conventional methods like A3 and 8D reports. Moreover, APS enables even more structured and efficient implementation of projects focused on eliminating losses within PDCA, DMAIC, or 6Sigma frameworks. An additional advantage is the ability to use APS across various devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Key Objectives of QC Story:

• Problem Resolution: Resolving problems is vital for any competitive company today. Instead of merely applying corrective or firefighting actions, QC Story aims to identify the root causes of issues and find solutions. This approach fosters continuous improvement in all areas, such as quality, workplace safety, reliability, and cost reduction.
• Communication Tool: QC Story serves as a powerful communication tool. By presenting problems in a clear and understandable manner, it engages a wider circle of employees. As a result, an increasing number of employees gain a better understanding of work processes and the underlying causes of issues. Gradually, everyone, including operators, becomes involved in problem-solving, leading to new challenges and the creation of higher added value in their roles.

Incorporating the APS methodology into your problem-solving approach enables your organization to drive effective change, enhance collaboration, and achieve sustainable improvements across diverse operational domains. By leveraging QC Story, you can transform problem-solving into a dynamic and inclusive process that fosters continuous growth and competitive advantage.

Digital 5 Whys Analysis

DIGITAL CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Opportunity to change organizational culture

Partners Zone

• QC Story — An overview

When it comes to quality control, continuous improvement plays a key role in industries striving for excellence. Here’s where the QC comes in.

This method, developed in Japan, has proven dramatically effective in boosting industrial processes and operations.

Let’s take a look at it in more detail.

What is QC Story?

At its core, QC Story —or Quality Control Story— is a systematic problem-solving approach that empowers organisations to identify, analyse, and rectify quality issues within their operations.

This structured problem-solving technique works by leveraging data analysis to drive quality improvements. 

QC Story originated in the 1960s in Japan as part of the broader Total Quality Control (TQC) movement.

QC Story aims to address process inefficiencies by identifying their root causes and implementing corrective actions to eliminate or minimise them.

Why do we use QC Story?

For many reasons, one of them being that it promotes a culture of continuous improvement throughout the entire organisation.

QC Story brings a systematic approach to problem-solving, guiding teams to take action in a structured way. This means collaboration and cross-departmental participation go up, and wasting time and resources trying to figure out the next step goes down.

This method highlights the importance of data collection and analysis to inform the next steps. This helps your team make decisions based on real-time evidence and avoid guesswork. By using data, identifying patterns and correlations becomes easier and faster.

Because QC Story focuses on finding and addressing the root cause of the issue, organisations get permanent solutions to their problems. This proactive approach prevents recurring issues and reduces waste, enhancing product quality and customer satisfaction.

QC Story is mainly used to rectify and prevent process failures while enhancing decision-making. It’s typically used to:

• Resolve non-conformities and evaluate observations that do not align with set parameters
• Minimise variations that could potentially compromise the quality of your products
• Tackle problems at their source by implementing corrective and preventive actions

How many steps are in QC Story?

QC Story typically comprises eight key steps:

Identify the problem

The first step involves identifying the problem to fix. The issue should be clearly defined, specific, and measurable to facilitate effective problem-solving.

If there’s more than one problem, it’s essential to have a priority list to deal with each issue at the right time.

Observe the problem

In this step, take a cross-departmental approach to problem-solving and get as many relevant people involved as possible. This will give you different perspectives on the issue while fostering collaboration.

Analyse the cause

Before we go any further, it’s critical to note that you can classify your causes into three groups:

• Possible causes
• Probable causes
• Root causes

So, in this step, you collect relevant data to understand the cause of the problem. This data may include measurements, observations, customer feedback, or other relevant information.

Analyse your data using statistical tools and techniques to identify patterns, trends, and potential root causes of the problem. Some helpful tools are Pareto charts, scatter diagrams, and cause-and-effect diagrams.

Propose evidence-based action plans

Once you find the problems and what’s causing them, it’s time to sit down and come up with a strategic plan of action to fix these issues.

At this stage, you should define responsibilities, deadlines, and specific actions to solve the problem successfully.

Execute your plans

After planning comes the execution.

Make sure that responsibilities are clearly assigned and that everybody is properly trained to handle their duties.

Verify your results

Here’s where you do a quality control on your Quality Control Story.

Take your actions and measure them against the goals you defined in your plan of action.

If everything looks great, move ahead.

If you need to make adjustments, now is the time to do so.

Standardise your procedures

Once you know that your actions work, you need to develop standards to prevent the issue from happening again.

This process needs to be ongoing, as you’ll have to audit the measures in place regularly to make adjustments if needed.

Create a closing report

Everything you did to tackle this issue needs to be documented, labelled, and dated.

This report must include lessons learned, positive and negative, to inform your action plans in the future.

How to measure QC Story

There are many ways to check whether this approach worked or not.

Some of them are:

• The number of errors has gone down , meaning the issue has been dealt with successfully.
• Your KPIs are changing since you implemented the measures. If the problem you identified is causing a decline in production efficiency, when that production efficiency goes up is because your implementation of QC Story worked.
• The level of employee engagement with the problem-solving process.
• The cost-effectiveness derived from implementing your measures . This can come from reduced waste, minimised rework, and optimised processes
• Customer feedback

mlean ® & QC Story

QC Story is a robust methodology that enables organisations to tackle quality issues systematically, drive continuous improvement, and enhance industrial processes. 

Embracing QC Story empowers organisations to create a culture of quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction, propelling them toward operational excellence in today’s competitive landscape.

But even better than QC Story is our mlean® Production System (mPS).

We developed this software to help you identify, fix, and prevent issues in your factories, connecting your workers and boosting your profitability.

Our mPS features many problem-solving methodologies, so you’ll always have the right tool at the right time.

Because everything is centralised and digitalised, you won’t have to worry about losing critical data or having to integrate it with other systems.

mlean® Production System helps you through all your industrial processes, such as:

• Standard work
• Shop floor management
• Start of production
• Maintenance
• And many more

Our mPS isn’t just a tool. It’s a scalable business partner that connects your workers to your processes, improving your cost-effectiveness and letting you know what’s happening at all times.

Give us a try and see for yourself!

Book a free demo today

Alba Rodriguez

• Deep dive (19)
• Digital transformation (13)
• How-tos (18)
• Industry Trends (14)
• mlean news (22)

Recent Post

Notice of Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting

Sustainability and digital transformation for factories

How to create a strategy for digital transformation

Connect with us

on social media

with any questions

Book a demo

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate.

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies
• 3rd Party Cookies
• Cookies Policy

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

More information about our Cookies policy

Focused Improvement – The QC Story

The basic procedure for solving any problem is to identify the problem, analyze its causes, put together a plan for solving it, and carry out that plan. The QC story (or Improvement Story) is a simple, practical way of doing this and thereby solving problems efficiently. It consists of the following steps:

• Step 1: Choose a topic
• Step 2: Assess the current situation and set targets
• Step 3: Draw up a schedule of activities
• Step 4: Identify the causes of the problem
• Step 5: Formulate and carry out a plan for eliminating those causes
• Step 6: Check the results
• Step 7: Ensure that the problem cannot recur (e.g. by standardising)
• Step 8: Decide on the next topic to tackle, and make a plan for doing so

Although the details of the steps may vary from one company to the next or from one textbook to the next, the basic QC Story remains the same and should be studied until it is well understood. Table “The QC Story and the QC Tools” outlines each of the steps of the QC Story and indicates which QC tool should be used at each step.

• More By sensei
• More In Focused Improvement

Enhance Your Equipment Reliability with Preventive Maintenance

Project Management Career Paths and Certifications: What You Need to Know

A Four-Step Guide to Reducing Maintenance Expenses

Essential Quality Tools for Effective Process Improvement

Achieving Manufacturing Excellence: The Right First Time Approach

Enhance Efficiency with These Key Maintenance Scheduling Strategies

TPM Pillar Self Assessment

Focused Improvement. Why-why Analysis

The 3 Tools of TPM

Focused Improvement – The Steps of P-M Analysis. Steps 5 – 8

Focused Improvement – The Steps of P-M Analysis. Steps 1 – 4

Focused Improvement – The Structure of P-M Analysis

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most Popular

4M Analysis Process

The purpose of this procedure is to define the steps to do a 4M …

PDCA – A Process Approach

OPL – One Point Lesson Template – Free Download

5S Audit Checklist and Report

Why-Why Analysis

Blog Search

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• About Our Ads

Steps QC Story

@qualityengineerstuff

Brief Description of Problem

 Justification Use Trend graph or Pareto, Occurrence and/or severity as applicable

Emergency Response

Problem Definition / justification

www.qualityengineerstuff.com

Observation of process

Understand the current situation

Observation of process - Understand the current situation

Identify the possible & probable causes

Confirm the probable causes

Identify the root causes

Analysis: Testing of hypothesis and root causes

Consider various probable actions.

Assign each corrective action a priority and stick to it.

Verify the results

Carry out full-scale implementation

Quantify Tangible benefits

Updating of documents

Additional audit or check

Standardization

Horizontal deployment

Lessons learned

MORE CONTENT FOR QUALITY ENGINEER

7 Step QC Story Workshop

Learning objectives:.

To help Process & Engineering Managers to appreciate the principles & concept of 7 step QC Story approach for problem solving and how to can be applied to different problems

Expected Outcomes:

• Understand the concept of QC story and steps involved and how it can be used to solve problems
• Learn the tools and techniques that are used as a part of QC story problem solving approach
• Step by step process applying QC Story approach for different scenarios
• Practical strategies to manage problem solving teams

Target Audience:

Engineering Leadership Team, Manufacturing Managers, Supply Chain Managers, Quality Engineers, Process Improvement Professionals

One day interactive workshop

Broad Curriculum:

Broad scope is include here:

• 7 step QC approach and its benefits
• Linkage to Lean principles, Policy, DWM and PDCA
• Step-by-step hands-on training on QC Story tools & techniques
• Problem statement 
• Process Flow Diagram
• Cause & Effect Analysis
• Data & Graphical Analysis Tools
• 5Why analysis
• Decision Matrix
• Brainstorming 
• Pilot Planning & Results
• Mistake Proofing
• Control Plan & link to DWM
• Standard Work
• Control Charts
• Recognizing Team Efforts 

All the methods to be covered in the training will be Application, Analysis or Synthesis as per Bloom’s taxonomy.

Aimed at encouraging exploratory learning, in this this workshop a full-fledged case study will be provided that the team will workshop from start to finish covering all the aspects covered above followed by facilitated group discussions to understand the QC Story principles & tools.

To conduct QC Story workshop in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and across India and to know more about the curriculum & structure & customization to your needs, contact us .

Sign-up for collaborat newsletter

Where We Can Help

• Client Centricity & Value Creation
• Sales Transformation
• Experience Design
• Enterprise Agility
• Data & Analytics
• Quality & Productivity Improvement

How We Can Help

• Strategic Workshops
• Implementation & Co-creation
• Training & Mentoring
• Client Research
• Data based Insights
• [email protected]
• +91-9176615766

Quick Skill Quality (Training for Technician)

My dear friend, this website helps to better learning and understand about quality and improve the practical skill for those who is starting his career in QA department .

• Privacy policy

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

12 steps of quality circle | qsqtech.com.

  12 STEPS OF QUALITY CIRCLE

• Identification of work related problems 
• Selection of problem 
• Define the problem 
• Analyze the problem 
• Identification of cause 
• Finding out the root cause 
• Data analysis 
• Developing solution 
• Foreseeing probable resistance 
• Trial implementation 
• Regular implementation 
• Follow up & review 

STEP-1 Identification of work related problem: 

• 'A' Category Problem
• 'B' Category Problem 
• 'C' Category Problem 

'A' Category Problem: 

'b' category problem:, 'c' category problem: , step-2  selection of problem , step-3 define the problem, step-4  analyse the problem.

• Number of times the problem occurred.
• Defect quantity 
• Effect of the problem in detail. 

Pareto chart: 

Step-5 identification of causes , cause & effect diagram: .

STEP-6 Finding out the root cause 

Step-7 data analysis , step-8 developing solution , step-9 foreseeing probable resistance , step-10  trial implementation & check performance , step-11  regular implementation , step-12  follow up & review .

•   Do you know history of Quality?  
• How do you know about 3M waste?  
• Do you know about biography of W. Edward Deming?  
• How do you know about modern development of Quality?   

No comments:

Post a Comment

Clamping force | How to calculate the clamping force in injection molding machine | Qsqtech.com

 CLAMPING FORCE:  Clamping force is an engineering term used in mechanical and manufacturing processes. The meaning of clamping force is to ...

Top Page | Upper Page | Contents | About This Site | JAPANESE

Problem-solving steps.

As a procedure for problem solving and task achievement , there is a methodology that comes to the answer by investigating and thinking along the 4th to 10th stages. You can go up the stairs, or if it's a little complicated, there may be branches along the way, or it may repeat until you get a good answer.

What to do at each stage is well thought out by each method.

Comparing the problem-solving procedure with the task-achieving procedure, the problem-solving procedure is easier to understand. Also, I think that problem-solving is often the higher priority in terms of reality, and problem-solving is also more common in the number of themes. Therefore, in order, it is better to understand the problem-solving procedure and then the task-achieving procedure. The procedure for completing the tasks is divided into pages.

There are various problem-solving procedures in the world, but this page focuses on problem-solving QC stories. The problem-solving QC story is easy to understand and contains important points.

QC story is a methodology that was originally used in small group activities in Japan .

The QC story says "QC (Quality Control)", so it has a name that gives the impression of the manufacturing industry. However, it is a fairly versatile solution to the problem. Not only about the quality of manufacturing companies, but also the content that can be used by any department. It is also useful for companies other than the manufacturing industry.

Problem-solving QC story

The problem-solving QC story has slightly different words depending on the literature, but the general flow is as follows.

• Theme selection :Clarify the position of the theme
• Understanding the current situation :Find out what is happening. Examine the result system.
• Planning and Goal Creation :Set goals.
• Factor analysis :Analyze the cause. Investigate the causal system.
• Planning and implementation of measures :Decide how to proceed in the future and implement
• Confirmation of effect :See the difference before and after what you saw in grasping the current situation
• Standardization and establishment of management :Make sure that the effect is not limited to that time. Standardization etc.

The task of "selecting a theme" is literally carried out in small group activities , in-house education that also serves as practical work, or when "I want to try this method in practice". However, in reality, I think that there are many people who have no choice but to do it because of "instructions from their boss" or "must report to the customer" rather than the situation in which they can choose. In such cases, it is a good idea to consider the reason why the company thinks that there is no choice but to do it, and the value and background of the theme. It broadens your horizons and can be useful when thinking about countermeasures.

At the planning stage, I think that many people say, "I can't make a plan because I don't know until I try it." However, I don't think that "if you want to solve it, you can spend as much time as you want." It's a good idea to make a plan. Also, it is good to set things such as "within the year", "within the year", and "within 3 months". Company plans are often changed significantly on a yearly basis and reviewed on a three-month basis, so it may be a good idea to adjust accordingly.

On the page for distinguishing between current situation grasp and factor analysis, we have summarized what to do with current situation grasp and factor analysis.

On the countermeasure planning page, we have summarized that there are various ways to say "countermeasures".

Standardization is difficult to imagine unless you are a party, so I summarized it on one page.

Difficulty of QC story

The author is a company that promotes QC stories company-wide, and has experience in the promotion department. The story of the QC story on this site is based on what I experienced at that time.

When you read the explanation of the QC story, I think that most people think that it is "easy" or "natural". However, failure by not doing that "easy" or "natural" is not uncommon.

Also, even if the explanation seems to be "easy" or "natural", if you actually try to proceed with this procedure, it will be difficult to create it while supporting the logical connection. It's hard, but the effect is very big.

Benefits of using QC stories

The advantages of using QC stories are as follows.

• It is easy to proceed from the start of the problem to the establishment of the improved content in the shortest course.
• It is valuable that it includes the procedure until the improved content is fixed.
• If the organization decides to use this order as a format, it will be easier for the person who creates the report material to assemble the entire flow. The person listening to the report knows the general flow of the story, so it is easy to understand the content.
• When looking back on how to proceed, it is easy to check what is logically missing or wrong.
• There is little backtracking from work . (As you grasp the current situation and analyze the factors, you will deepen your understanding of the phenomenon you are investigating. Then, you may find that what you thought was a problem at the beginning is not a problem, or you may not be able to grasp the current situation. However, unfortunately, even if you can reduce the backtracking, it is difficult to reduce it to zero.)

If you make a QC story properly, it will be as follows. "The current state of understanding result, the problem was this. The results of the factor analysis, the cause was this. As planning and implementation of the measures, for the cause, was this. Once you have the confirmation of the effect, is this much effect There was. I did this so that it would not be a temporary effect. "

Even if there is a huge amount of research, it will be very easy to check the validity of the content if it is summarized in such a simple explanation. First, in each stage of the QC story, you can check the completeness of the idea and the correctness of the logic. Next, you can check the correctness of the logic for how to connect each stage.

Troublesome situations that occur in QC stories

Misunderstandings and troubles occur in QC stories.

You will be instructed that you must actually proceed with the activities in the order of the QC story.

In the report material, the QC story is used as a logical sequence to explain the validity of the activity . It is also used as a way to explain the validity of activities in an easy-to-understand manner even by a third party.

In actual activity, the order of the QC story is not always the case. However, some people understand that they must actually proceed with their activities in the order of the QC story. It may be a cause of misunderstanding that there is a style of explaining QC stories like "activity story" as a custom when presenting QC stories in QC circles.

As far as I know, the actual activity is to repeat PDCA many times to complete this story. It feels like updating the QC story hypothesis many times.

It's not like you've gone through each step completely before moving on. Attempting to find out perfectly can be very time consuming and unusual for a job. Also, the theme has passed the season, and there is no point in doing it. Moreover, even with that much time, it is not possible to "completely investigate", and after moving to the next stage, you may notice the deficiencies of the previous stage and re-examine.

After a certain amount of research, you may notice that "I should have investigated from now on", but that is because I understand the whole picture. However, some people have criticized this as "the way it went was wrong."

Misunderstood as "simple theme"

If you make a material with a QC story, the logic will be very simple and easy to understand even for a third party.

As a negative effect of this, it may be misunderstood as "easy-to-understand content = simple theme".

To avoid this misunderstanding, it is advisable to add the time required for the investigation and the difficulty of the work required for the investigation to the explanation.

The corner of the heavy box gets noticed

If you create materials with QC stories, even a third party will be able to see the details of the theme well. Then, for the details of the theme, some people point out that "there is not enough research", and the theme may not end.

It seems that this situation is unlikely to occur if you explain in a way that you can clearly convey the point that "prioritize, proceed from the highest priority, and achieve a certain result".

The role of data science

Data science for problem solving and task achievement is the refference page.

Non-problem-solving QC story

Task-achieving qc story.

The task-achieving QC story is summarized in the task-achieving procedure .

Measure execution type QC story

As you progress through problem-solving QC stories, you may find that you need to do something at the stage of understanding the current situation, and you may not need the next stage of factor analysis.

The measure execution type QC story is a QC story that omits the stage of factor analysis.

Preventive QC story

In FMEA , the flow is to list the events that pose a risk --> score --> countermeasures --> re-evaluate .

FMEA tries to take risk countermeasures by using an evaluation sheet and proceeding in order while filling it.

"Risk" is awkward, both as a problem and as an issue. There are two types of QC stories, one for problems and one for issues, but for risks, a "preventive QC story" has also been proposed.

Risk reduction activities are the result of not having trouble if they occur, so the results of the activities are not visible and difficult to evaluate. In the case of the preventive type, the evaluation is based on the fact that the cause has been properly dealt with.

QC Story – The Diagnostic Process                              

Qc story – the diagnostic process.

by: Quest Claire

I like to continue discussing an important phase of the QC Story Procedure with the concerned parties for some of our vendors. This important phase, the diagnostic process, is considered to be the core of the Pareto Principle and the problem-solving process.

The first step of this diagnostic process is to understand the symptoms correctly. If this understanding is derived solely from regular field and shop reports, the nominated person or assigned team can be misled through undiscovered confusion and vagueness.

In terms of clear concepts, the team members should develop an awareness of the distinctions among essential concepts such as defect, symptom, theory, cause, remedy, etc., as outlined in the previous article “Define the Problem”.

The meanings of Words Used to describe symptoms should be defined and consistently used. It is very common for these words to have multiple meanings. Some descriptive words, e.g., “oversize,” may cover several degrees of seriousness.  In such cases, it is helpful in the diagnosis of symptoms to use several terms to describe these degrees, e.g., “Oversize (critical),” “Oversize (major),” and “Oversize (minor).” Other descriptive words are generic in nature, e.g., “malfunction.” Such a word may describe several very different symptoms (e.g., open circuit, reversed wiring, dead battery), which trail back to very different causes. 

A widespread source of confusion is variation in departmental dialect. For example, to the accountant, “scrap” may mean anything thrown away, no matter what the reason; to the quality specialist, “scrap” is something thrown away because of nonconformance or unfitness for use.

This lack of standardization in the meanings of words can confuse managers regarding the effect of defects. For example, in a toy manufacturing company, the term “aesthetic defect was the company dialect for surface marks (scratches on the outer surface of a doll or molding defect from plastic injection). This term failed to distinguish many different aspects of fitness for use:

1.   Damage in the outer surface, which significantly impairs fitness for use

2.   Damage that does not significantly impair fitness for use as it is located on a secondary surface of less importance but which may be visible to the user during normal use

3. Damage that does not impair fitness for use at all as it is located on the surface of an internal part and which is not visible to the user during normal use

The lack of standardization can also confuse managers regarding the causes of defects. In a plant making rubber products, there were several sources of torn products: the stripping operation, the machine cutting operation, and the assembly operation. The single word “tears” failed to distinguish among strip tears, click tears and assembly tears. One of these categories was largely operator-controllable but involved only 15% of all tears.  However, a manager may have assumed all the defects to be operator controllable.

Autopsy of Product:

This could be an essential device for cutting through the confusion in terminology. It means literally to see with one’s own eyes. The nominated team, and of course, the members who conduct the diagnostics, should get their hands on the product and learn first-hand how the words used relate to the observed conditions of the product. This seeing with one’s own eyes is of added value in stimulating realistic theories of causation.

Quantification:

The frequency and intensity of symptoms are significant in pointing to directions for analysis. The Pareto principle, applied to past performance records, can significantly aid in quantifying the symptom pattern. For example, a toy company undertook a project to reduce quality losses in the spray-painting department. The previous article, “The Pareto Principle,” showed the Pareto study of the defects within the department based on production data from four consecutive weeks. The intensity of the problem reflected that the first three painting operators account for 73.8% of all rejections. This information is an obvious aid to the nominated team in setting their study priorities. 

Formulation and Confirmation of Theories:

As symptoms of defects are studied, the question is raised ”What causes defect X?”  The responses are mainly assertions or theories. The diagnostic process includes a test of these theories, disproving some assertions and affirming the possibilities of others until there is established a cause-and-effect relationship which then leads to the remedy process. The need for a supply of theories is obvious.

Formulation of Theories:

There are several sources of theories of what causes defects, including:

1. The manufacturing management: These men have long been associated with chronic problems. They have given it much thought, harbor some apparent theories, and have done inconclusive experimenting. When some­ one writes on the blackboard, “What causes defect X?” the team members have many theories to offer. However, the causes that finally became genuinely dominant were mostly on the list of theories initially claimed by the manufacturing management.

2. The diagnosticians: Once they come to grips with the data, they identify possible relationships and advance theories. Usually, that serves to unify theories advanced by the manufacturing management, but sometimes there are brand new ones.

3. The workforce. The workforce evolves its theories through intimate association with material, process, and product details. Whether these theories are contributive depends largely on the relationship climate between the managers and the production operators. This climate may inhibit the managers from asking and the workforce from responding.

Theories may be secured from the workforce in several ways:

1. by a direct request: A factory making mechanical springs experienced field usage trouble due to some springs being too weak. The foreman answered that he had observed that during the counting of springs (by weight), the weigher would pull springs out of the entangled supply box to complete the count. The foreman believed that this pulling weakened some springs caught in the entanglement.   He was the sole source of this theory, which identified the sole dominant cause.

2. by a standing suggestion system: The regular suggestion systems always turn up some ideas relating to quality. The Process Improvement Program becomes one of the motivational programs that result in an effective suggestion system directed specifically to quality matters.

3. from defenses set up by the workforce: Operators who are criticized for making errors often defend themselves by assertions that the defects are caused in other ways.

4. from involuntary theories: Whenever it is observed that some operators consistently turn out work superior to others, a shop study may disclose the cause of this difference as a form of secret knowledge, which is unknown to the production manufacturing management.

Theories of Defective Systems: Theories of causation should not be limited to products and processes; they should also extend to broader systems. At a meeting of managers, one man reported the observation: That’s the third time this month we lost many products due to instruments out of calibration. It is a shrewd observation since the three lots consisted of different products. The system for maintaining the devices in calibration is now placed under suspicion. He was always thinking outside the box, being creative, and never trotting on the same old path often, allowing real causes of a problem to surface. Otherwise, such causes remain hidden for a much longer time.

Upon completion of the diagnostic process, a cause-and-effect diagram could be written down showing all elements seemingly related to the problem while removing all that is irrelevant. The following represents a simple Rice Cooking cause-and-effect diagram for reference.

Preliminary Diagram: 

A detailed cause-and-effect diagram could then be developed, showing all elements seemingly related to the problem. It is important to know that these elements must include those pertaining to sporadic and chronic problems, which require different methods and processes to restore control of the process or remove the sporadic problems. As far as dealing with chronic problems is concerned, pulling in company-wide breakthrough efforts is often required.

Therefore, identifying the vital few defects as the first milestone and using the Pareto principle, as discussed in The QC Story Procedure, is worth attention in the diagnostic process.

The following is a comprehensive representation of a simple Rice Cooking cause-and-effect diagram.

Comprehensive Diagram:

I want to cover the remedial process in the forthcoming articles.

• Nation + World
• Oxford school shooting

Thailand has tried for years to solve its pollution problem. But 'haze season' always comes back

Samoeng, Thailand — When the haze season comes, village chief Nanthawat Tiengtrongsakun and his tribesmen start preparing the land for fire.

They cut shrubs and trees on their small parcels of land, then set controlled burns that will clear their fields for planting — and send up plumes of smoke that add to some of the worst air in the world. It’s a slightly sweet gray haze that blurs the mountains in this part of northern Thailand to a faint outline, makes the air itself feel solid and turns breathing and swallowing painful for some.

The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice as long as they have lived in these hills about 90 minutes from Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land.

“We are the ethnic group that preserves the forest, but other people have the concern that we are destroying the forest,” Tiengtrongsakun said. “My argument to them is that we have been living (here) for generations. If we are the cause of the damage, the forest around us would have to be all gone.”

The Pakanyo are just a small part of a cluster of factors that show how deeply fire is ingrained in local practices and why Thailand’s air pollution issue is so intractable.

During the haze season, from February to April, Chiang Mai city regularly tops the list of the world’s worst cities for air pollution. In March and April, its levels of fine particulate matter — things like dust, dirt, soot and smoke that get into lungs and even bloodstreams — are on average about 20 times the World Health Organization's recommended limit for exposure.

The city is at the forefront of the air pollution fight in Thailand in part because of its toxic air quality index readings, but also because it is home to a strong civil society and a meaningful local government effort to tackle the issue. And that effort has been reinforced by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who has visited Chiang Mai four times since taking office last summer. He's called Chiang Mai a “model” that other places in Thailand should learn from, and last fall pledged to push through clean air legislation to "ensure that access to clean air is a basic human right for all.”

Dirty air has become a fixture for public discussion in Thailand over the past two decades, but despite significant research and advocacy, the problem persists.

Air pollution in northern Thailand has been traditionally blamed on farmers who grow corn and sell it to big agro-food companies like CP Foods to be used as animal feed. There are other ways to deal with stubble, like biochar, which involves burning in a low-oxygen environment that means lower particulate emissions. But that requires significant labor in highland areas. And tilling the stubble into the soil, even if the mostly subsistence farmers had the equipment, would be difficult on the mostly hilly terrain.

CP said in March it had set up a tracing system to avoid buying corn produced on deforested or burned land. The same month, Srettha said he plans to ban imports of corn grown on land cleared by burning.

But the problem is wider than northern Thailand. Researchers say corn cultivation has mostly shifted into neighboring Myanmar and Laos, where stubble-burning is also practiced. Srettha has set up a working group with those countries aimed at cutting down the practice, and invited Cambodia to join, too.

Researchers at Chiang Mai University traced the sources of air pollution affecting the city, and in a paper published in April in the journal Atmospheric Environment, reported that more than 51% of the haze came from biomass burning — material like leaves or crop stubble. The second-largest share, about 23%, was long-range pollution from other countries, most likely India, they said.

Fire is a deep part of the culture in northern Thailand, featured in local sayings that signal the coming of a period of growth and renewal. In people’s day-to-day lives, it's used in clearing the forest floor to manage wildfires, or to clear space for an expensive mushroom to grow that will bring in better income, or to clear the ground of noisy leaves as part of hunting practices.

Fire is often used as a form of protest in Thailand, too, said Olivier Evrard, a Thailand-based senior researcher at French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). In 2018, a national controversy erupted when locals discovered that a branch of the judiciary had built a housing and residential complex in protected forest land at the base of a sacred mountain outside Chiang Mai. They eventually vacated the premises owing to the backlash, but fires are still set near the site every year, likely in protest.

There's been no shortage of policies attempting to regulate the burning. Thailand issued a national zero-burning directive starting in 2013, with different provinces implementing a blanket ban on burning at different times.

But people responded by burning before and after the zero-burn period, extending the haze season’s duration, said Mary Mostafanezhad, a professor at the University of Hawaii who has studied air pollution in Chiang Mai. After seeing that the zero-burning policy did not work, Chiang Mai province adopted a newer policy: Fires could be set, as long as you applied beforehand.

The fires are to be submitted via FireD, an app developed by Chiang Mai university professor Chakrit Chotamonsak. The app uses weather and satellite data to predict if a fire on a particular day will cause more pollution or whether conditions will blow away the smoke and pollutants.

The researchers estimate that as many as half the fires in the province aren't registered, but they still consider the app a positive step. Even the decision to use FireD, which is the transliteration of “good fire” in Thai, in 2021 was an important shift, said Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, an independent researcher who had worked with the FireD team.

“This changes the perspective that fire was seen as a bad image, fire was seen as savage,” he said, noting that many in rural northern Thailand depend on fire.

Yet, to the villagers, it’s strange being asked to fill out paperwork for permission to do what they already know how to do — set a prescribed burn in good weather so they can clear a patch of land for the coming year’s crops.

Tiengtrongsakun, the Pakanyo chief in the village of Ban Mae Lan Kham, this year did paperwork for 100 households who needed to start a fire to clear their fields. Not everyone in the village speaks Thai or understands the latest government policy.

“If we hand them the document or registration form, they don’t know what to do with it,” he said. “Often they just throw the papers away.”

Researchers say policymakers need to look at the conditions of people's lives and consider the details of which land is being burned and why. But it's difficult because of politics and economics. Many of the people living in the hills surrounding Chiang Mai belong to various tribal groups not formally recognized by the Thai government. Others struggle with access to good education and jobs. For now, burning remains the most efficient and cheapest way for people to do what they need to do, whether it's farming, hunting or clearing the forest floor.

“If burning is the easiest and most cost-efficient way to grow your crops, or to make a living, until that is not true, it’s going to continue to happen,” said Mostafanezhad.

AP reporter Napat Kongsawad and producer Vasapa Wanichwethin contributed to this report.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

As Thailand gasps through another haze season, researchers hope a fire-charting app can help

When the haze season comes, villagers in northern Thailand start preparing the land for fire. They set areas of forest alight, part of controlled burns that will clear their fields for planting — and before long large plumes of smoke rise up, adding to some of the worst air in the world. It’s a practice that is unavoidable due to the mountainous terrain, which prevents harvesting machines from operating. During the haze season, from February to April, Chiang Mai city regularly tops the list of the world’s worst cities for air pollution. At nearby Chiang Mai university, an app called FireD has been developed to try to control burning. People register their planned fires through the app. It uses weather and satellite data to predict if a fire on a particular day will cause more pollution or whether conditions will blow away the smoke and pollutants.

A member of the Pakanyo tribe stands near a fire set in protected forest land at Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

• Copy Link copied

A fire set by members of the Pakanyo tribe in protected forest land at Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Village chief Nanthawat Tiengtrongsakun talks to The Associated Press about the Pakanyo’s tribes controlled burns during interview at Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A thick layer of smoke covers the city of Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A member of the Pakanyo tribe set a fire in protected forest land at Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Professor Wan Wiriya at Chiang Mai University who studies pollution, talks to The Associated Press beside a dust measuring tool in the Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. Researchers at the university traced the sources of air pollution affecting the city, and in a paper published in April in the journal Atmospheric Environment, reported that more than 51% of the haze came from biomass burning — material like leaves or crop stubble. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A member of the Pakanyo tribe clears a path before setting a fire in Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Members of the Pakanyo tribe set a fire in protected forest land at Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

The remains of a protected forest that was burnt by Pakanyo tribe members is visible in Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

SAMOENG, Thailand (AP) — When the haze season comes, village chief Nanthawat Tiengtrongsakun and his tribesmen start preparing the land for fire.

They cut shrubs and trees on their small parcels of land, then set controlled burns that will clear their fields for planting — and send up plumes of smoke that add to some of the worst air in the world. It’s a slightly sweet gray haze that blurs the mountains in this part of northern Thailand to a faint outline, makes the air itself feel solid and turns breathing and swallowing painful for some.

The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice as long as they have lived in these hills about 90 minutes from Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land.

“We are the ethnic group that preserves the forest, but other people have the concern that we are destroying the forest,” Tiengtrongsakun said. “My argument to them is that we have been living (here) for generations. If we are the cause of the damage, the forest around us would have to be all gone.”

The Pakanyo are just a small part of a cluster of factors that show how deeply fire is ingrained in local practices and why Thailand’s air pollution issue is so intractable.

During the haze season, from February to April, Chiang Mai city regularly tops the list of the world’s worst cities for air pollution. In March and April, its levels of fine particulate matter — things like dust, dirt, soot and smoke that get into lungs and even bloodstreams — are on average about 20 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit for exposure.

The city is at the forefront of the air pollution fight in Thailand in part because of its toxic air quality index readings, but also because it is home to a strong civil society and a meaningful local government effort to tackle the issue. And that effort has been reinforced by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who has visited Chiang Mai four times since taking office last summer. He’s called Chiang Mai a “model” that other places in Thailand should learn from, and last fall pledged to push through clean air legislation to “ensure that access to clean air is a basic human right for all.”

A thick layer of smoke covers the city of Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Dirty air has become a fixture for public discussion in Thailand over the past two decades, but despite significant research and advocacy, the problem persists.

Air pollution in northern Thailand has been traditionally blamed on farmers who grow corn and sell it to big agro-food companies like CP Foods to be used as animal feed. There are other ways to deal with stubble, like biochar, which involves burning in a low-oxygen environment that means lower particulate emissions. But that requires significant labor in highland areas. And tilling the stubble into the soil, even if the mostly subsistence farmers had the equipment, would be difficult on the mostly hilly terrain.

CP said in March it had set up a tracing system to avoid buying corn produced on deforested or burned land. The same month, Srettha said he plans to ban imports of corn grown on land cleared by burning.

But the problem is wider than northern Thailand. Researchers say corn cultivation has mostly shifted into neighboring Myanmar and Laos, where stubble-burning is also practiced. Srettha has set up a working group with those countries aimed at cutting down the practice, and invited Cambodia to join, too.

Professor Wan Wiriya at Chiang Mai University who studies pollution, talks to The Associated Press beside a dust measuring tool in the Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Researchers at Chiang Mai University traced the sources of air pollution affecting the city, and in a paper published in April in the journal Atmospheric Environment, reported that more than 51% of the haze came from biomass burning — material like leaves or crop stubble. The second-largest share, about 23%, was long-range pollution from other countries, most likely India, they said.

Fire is a deep part of the culture in northern Thailand, featured in local sayings that signal the coming of a period of growth and renewal. In people’s day-to-day lives, it’s used in clearing the forest floor to manage wildfires, or to clear space for an expensive mushroom to grow that will bring in better income, or to clear the ground of noisy leaves as part of hunting practices.

Fire is often used as a form of protest in Thailand, too, said Olivier Evrard, a Thailand-based senior researcher at French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). In 2018, a national controversy erupted when locals discovered that a branch of the judiciary had built a housing and residential complex in protected forest land at the base of a sacred mountain outside Chiang Mai. They eventually vacated the premises owing to the backlash, but fires are still set near the site every year, likely in protest.

A member of the Pakanyo tribe clears a path before setting a fire in Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Members of the Pakanyo tribe set a fire in protected forest land at Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

There’s been no shortage of policies attempting to regulate the burning. Thailand issued a national zero-burning directive starting in 2013, with different provinces implementing a blanket ban on burning at different times.

But people responded by burning before and after the zero-burn period, extending the haze season’s duration, said Mary Mostafanezhad, a professor at the University of Hawaii who has studied air pollution in Chiang Mai. After seeing that the zero-burning policy did not work, Chiang Mai province adopted a newer policy: Fires could be set, as long as you applied beforehand.

The fires are to be submitted via FireD, an app developed by Chiang Mai university professor Chakrit Chotamonsak. The app uses weather and satellite data to predict if a fire on a particular day will cause more pollution or whether conditions will blow away the smoke and pollutants.

The researchers estimate that as many as half the fires in the province aren’t registered, but they still consider the app a positive step. Even the decision to use FireD, which is the transliteration of “good fire” in Thai, in 2021 was an important shift, said Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, an independent researcher who had worked with the FireD team.

“This changes the perspective that fire was seen as a bad image, fire was seen as savage,” he said, noting that many in rural northern Thailand depend on fire.

Yet, to the villagers, it’s strange being asked to fill out paperwork for permission to do what they already know how to do — set a prescribed burn in good weather so they can clear a patch of land for the coming year’s crops.

Tiengtrongsakun, the Pakanyo chief in the village of Ban Mae Lan Kham, this year did paperwork for 100 households who needed to start a fire to clear their fields. Not everyone in the village speaks Thai or understands the latest government policy.

“If we hand them the document or registration form, they don’t know what to do with it,” he said. “Often they just throw the papers away.”

Researchers say policymakers need to look at the conditions of people’s lives and consider the details of which land is being burned and why. But it’s difficult because of politics and economics. Many of the people living in the hills surrounding Chiang Mai belong to various tribal groups not formally recognized by the Thai government. Others struggle with access to good education and jobs. For now, burning remains the most efficient and cheapest way for people to do what they need to do, whether it’s farming, hunting or clearing the forest floor.

“If burning is the easiest and most cost-efficient way to grow your crops, or to make a living, until that is not true, it’s going to continue to happen,” said Mostafanezhad.

The remains of a protected forest that was burnt by Pakanyo tribe members is visible in Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

AP reporter Napat Kongsawad and producer Vasapa Wanichwethin contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .