Statistical Quality Control, 7th Edition

2 The DMAIC Process

CHAPTER OUTLINE

2.1   OVERVIEW OF DMAIC

2.2   THE DEFINE STEP

2.3   THE MEASURE STEP

2.4   THE ANALYZE STEP

2.5   THE IMPROVE STEP

2.6   THE CONTROL STEP

2.7   EXAMPLES OF DMAIC

2.7.1 Litigation Documents

2.7.2 Improving On-Time Delivery

2.7.3 Improving Service Quality in a Bank

CHAPTER OVERVIEW AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Quality and process improvement occurs most effectively on a project-by-project basis. DMAIC (typically pronounced “duh-MAY-ick”) is a structured five-step problem-solving procedure that can be used to successfully complete projects by proceeding through and implementing solutions that are designed to solve root causes of quality and process problems, and to establish best practices to ensure that the solutions are permanent and can be replicated in other relevant business operations. This chapter explains the DMAIC procedure and introduces many of the tools used in each step. Many of the DMAIC tools are discussed in greater detail in subsequent textbook chapters, and references to those chapters are provided. Examples of projects that utilize DMAIC also are presented.

After careful study of this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

1. Understand the importance of selecting good projects for improvement activities
2. Explain the five steps of DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control
3. Explain the purpose of tollgate reviews
4. Understand the decision-making requirements of the tollgate review for each DMAIC step
5. Know when and when ...