The Seven Basic Tools of Quality is a designation given to a fixed set of graphical techniques identified as being most helpful in troubleshooting issues related to quality. They are called basic because they are suitable for people with little formal training in statistics and because they can be used to solve the vast majority of quality-related issues. The tools are :
- The cause-and-effect or Ishikawa diagram
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| To determine whether a process should undergo a formal examination for quality-related problems |
- The check sheet
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| To provide a structured way to collect quality-related data as a rough means for assessing a process or as an input to other analyses |
- The control chart
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| To determine whether a process should undergo a formal examination for quality-related problems |
- The histogram
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| To roughly assess the probability distribution of a given variable by depicting the frequencies of observations occurring in certain ranges of values |
- The Pareto chart
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| To assess the most frequently-occurring defects by category |
- The scatter diagram
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| To identify the type of relationship (if any) between two variables |
- Stratification (alternately flow chart or run chart)
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| A simple flowchart representing a process for dealing with a non-functioning lamp. |
