The use of quality management techniques and tools: an examination of some key issues

Research has been undertaken into the difficulties and key issues associated with the use of statistical process control (SPC), failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), quality costing, quality function deployment (QFD), design of experiments (DOE) and the seven basic quality control tools. A 4-part classification - role in quality improvement, organisation and infrastructure, data collection and use and application - has been developed to examine the difficulties/issues associated with each of the techniques and tools. A number of issues have been identified which relate to all the techniques and tools examined, including management support, user understanding, integral approach, discipline and application. On the other hand, there are some issues, which relate to specific techniques and tools, including level of complexity, visual display, initial investment and overall status of TQM.