{"id":3159,"date":"2023-02-19T16:11:47","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T16:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/chapter\/quality-assurance\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T21:24:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:24:20","slug":"quality-assurance","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/chapter\/quality-assurance\/","title":{"raw":"Learn It 13.4.2: Quality Assurance","rendered":"Learn It 13.4.2: Quality Assurance"},"content":{"raw":"<h2><strong>Lean Manufacturing<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<p>The central\u00a0idea of <strong>lean manufacturing<\/strong> is actually quite simple: Work relentlessly to eliminate waste from the manufacturing process. In this context, \"waste\" is defined as any activity that doesn't\u00a0add value from the customer\u2019s perspective. Almost every company has a tremendous opportunity to improve by using lean manufacturing techniques. Lean principles were developed by\u00a0the Japanese manufacturing industry\u2014by Toyota and the Toyota Production System (TPS) specifically. Lean manufacturing is based on the following goals and assumptions:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Continuous improvement<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Respect for people<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Long-term approach to process improvement<\/li>\r\n\t<li>The right process will produce the right results<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Add value to the organization by developing your people and partners<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Continuously solving root problems<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<section class=\"textbox linkToLearning\">\r\n<h3>Toyota Production System<\/h3>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_8073\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"200\"]<img class=\"wp-image-8073 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"a volunteer unpacks packages of water and boxes\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/> Figure 1. Toyota acted as a consultant to the Food Bank for New York City to improve their operations efficiency by implementing TPS.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<p>Toyota originally began sharing the TPS with its parts suppliers in the 1990s. Because of interest in the program from other organizations, Toyota began offering instruction in the methodology to others. Toyota has even \"donated\" its system to charities, providing its engineering staff and techniques to nonprofits in an effort to increase their efficiency and their ability to serve people. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lean.org\/the-lean-post\/articles\/food-bank-for-new-york-city-and-toyota-unlikely-partners-in-innovation\/\">Toyota assisted the Food Bank for New York City<\/a> to significantly decrease waiting times at soup kitchens, packing times at a food distribution center, and waiting times in a food pantry.[footnote]El-Naggar, Mona (26 July 2013). \"In Lieu of Money, Toyota Donates Efficiency to New York Charity\". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2013. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/27\/nyregion\/in-lieu-of-money-toyota-donates-efficiency-to-new-york-charity.html?_r=0[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<h2>Six Sigma<\/h2>\r\n<p>In the United States, another approach to quality management was formulated at Motorola in 1986 and was named <strong>Six Sigma<\/strong>. Six Sigma is a company-wide process that focuses on measuring the number of defects that occur and systematically eliminating them in order to get as close to zero defects as possible. In fact, Six Sigma quality aims to have every process produce no more than 3.4 defects per million. Six Sigma focuses on designing products that not only have fewer defects but that also satisfy customer needs.<\/p>\r\n<p>A key process of Six Sigma is called DMAIC. This stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Employees at all levels define what needs to be done to ensure quality, then measure and analyze production results using statistics to see if standards are met. They are also charged with finding ways to improve and control quality.\u00a0The following features also set Six Sigma apart from other quality-improvement initiatives:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Focus on measurable financial returns<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Emphasis on good management<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Commitment to making data-driven decisions<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>General Electric (GE) was one of the first companies to implement Six Sigma throughout the organization. Fully implementing Six Sigma within GE took 5 years but resulted in a savings of $12 billion.[footnote]SixSigma.us. \u201cSix Sigma Case Study: General Electric,\u201d May 22, 2017. https:\/\/www.6sigma.us\/ge\/six-sigma-case-study-general-electric\/[\/footnote] After GE's success, other companies such as Samsung, Ford, Boeing, Amazon, and GlaxoSmithKline also adopted Six Sigma.[footnote]Id.[\/footnote] Service firms and government entities have applied Six Sigma to their quality initiatives as well.<\/p>\r\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\">[ohm2_question height=\"350\"]4335[\/ohm2_question]<\/section>","rendered":"<h2><strong>Lean Manufacturing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The central\u00a0idea of <strong>lean manufacturing<\/strong> is actually quite simple: Work relentlessly to eliminate waste from the manufacturing process. In this context, &#8220;waste&#8221; is defined as any activity that doesn&#8217;t\u00a0add value from the customer\u2019s perspective. Almost every company has a tremendous opportunity to improve by using lean manufacturing techniques. Lean principles were developed by\u00a0the Japanese manufacturing industry\u2014by Toyota and the Toyota Production System (TPS) specifically. Lean manufacturing is based on the following goals and assumptions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Continuous improvement<\/li>\n<li>Respect for people<\/li>\n<li>Long-term approach to process improvement<\/li>\n<li>The right process will produce the right results<\/li>\n<li>Add value to the organization by developing your people and partners<\/li>\n<li>Continuously solving root problems<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<section class=\"textbox linkToLearning\">\n<h3>Toyota Production System<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8073\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8073\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8073 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"a volunteer unpacks packages of water and boxes\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-1200x1800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-65x98.jpg 65w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-225x338.jpg 225w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883-350x525.jpg 350w, https:\/\/content-cdn.one.lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/02\/22164445\/pexels-rdne-stock-project-6646883.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8073\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 1. Toyota acted as a consultant to the Food Bank for New York City to improve their operations efficiency by implementing TPS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Toyota originally began sharing the TPS with its parts suppliers in the 1990s. Because of interest in the program from other organizations, Toyota began offering instruction in the methodology to others. Toyota has even &#8220;donated&#8221; its system to charities, providing its engineering staff and techniques to nonprofits in an effort to increase their efficiency and their ability to serve people. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lean.org\/the-lean-post\/articles\/food-bank-for-new-york-city-and-toyota-unlikely-partners-in-innovation\/\">Toyota assisted the Food Bank for New York City<\/a> to significantly decrease waiting times at soup kitchens, packing times at a food distribution center, and waiting times in a food pantry.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"El-Naggar, Mona (26 July 2013). &quot;In Lieu of Money, Toyota Donates Efficiency to New York Charity&quot;. The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2013. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/27\/nyregion\/in-lieu-of-money-toyota-donates-efficiency-to-new-york-charity.html?_r=0\" id=\"return-footnote-3159-1\" href=\"#footnote-3159-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<h2>Six Sigma<\/h2>\n<p>In the United States, another approach to quality management was formulated at Motorola in 1986 and was named <strong>Six Sigma<\/strong>. Six Sigma is a company-wide process that focuses on measuring the number of defects that occur and systematically eliminating them in order to get as close to zero defects as possible. In fact, Six Sigma quality aims to have every process produce no more than 3.4 defects per million. Six Sigma focuses on designing products that not only have fewer defects but that also satisfy customer needs.<\/p>\n<p>A key process of Six Sigma is called DMAIC. This stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Employees at all levels define what needs to be done to ensure quality, then measure and analyze production results using statistics to see if standards are met. They are also charged with finding ways to improve and control quality.\u00a0The following features also set Six Sigma apart from other quality-improvement initiatives:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Focus on measurable financial returns<\/li>\n<li>Emphasis on good management<\/li>\n<li>Commitment to making data-driven decisions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>General Electric (GE) was one of the first companies to implement Six Sigma throughout the organization. Fully implementing Six Sigma within GE took 5 years but resulted in a savings of $12 billion.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"SixSigma.us. \u201cSix Sigma Case Study: General Electric,\u201d May 22, 2017. https:\/\/www.6sigma.us\/ge\/six-sigma-case-study-general-electric\/\" id=\"return-footnote-3159-2\" href=\"#footnote-3159-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a> After GE&#8217;s success, other companies such as Samsung, Ford, Boeing, Amazon, and GlaxoSmithKline also adopted Six Sigma.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Id.\" id=\"return-footnote-3159-3\" href=\"#footnote-3159-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a> Service firms and government entities have applied Six Sigma to their quality initiatives as well.<\/p>\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ohm4335\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/ohm.one.lumenlearning.com\/multiembedq.php?id=4335&theme=lumen&iframe_resize_id=ohm4335&source=tnh&show_question_numbers\" width=\"100%\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/section>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-3159-1\">El-Naggar, Mona (26 July 2013). \"In Lieu of Money, Toyota Donates Efficiency to New York Charity\". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2013. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/27\/nyregion\/in-lieu-of-money-toyota-donates-efficiency-to-new-york-charity.html?_r=0 <a href=\"#return-footnote-3159-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3159-2\">SixSigma.us. \u201cSix Sigma Case Study: General Electric,\u201d May 22, 2017. https:\/\/www.6sigma.us\/ge\/six-sigma-case-study-general-electric\/ <a href=\"#return-footnote-3159-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3159-3\">Id. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3159-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":21,"menu_order":20,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Quality Assurance\",\"author\":\"Linda Williams and Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Six Sigma\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax CNX\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/4e09771f-a8aa-40ce-9063-aa58cc24e77f@8.5\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Download for free at http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/4e09771f-a8aa-40ce-9063-aa58cc24e77f@8.5\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"volunteer\",\"author\":\"RDNE Stock project\",\"organization\":\"Pexels\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/a-woman-holding-bottles-of-drinks-on-top-of-a-brown-box-6646883\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Practice Questions\",\"author\":\"Robert Danielson\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":3138,"module-header":"learn_it","content_attributions":[{"type":"original","description":"Quality Assurance","author":"Linda Williams and Lumen Learning","organization":"","url":"","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":""},{"type":"cc","description":"Six Sigma","author":"","organization":"OpenStax CNX","url":"http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/4e09771f-a8aa-40ce-9063-aa58cc24e77f@8.5","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":"Download for free at http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/4e09771f-a8aa-40ce-9063-aa58cc24e77f@8.5"},{"type":"cc","description":"volunteer","author":"RDNE Stock project","organization":"Pexels","url":"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/a-woman-holding-bottles-of-drinks-on-top-of-a-brown-box-6646883\/","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":""},{"type":"original","description":"Practice Questions","author":"Robert Danielson","organization":"Lumen Learning","url":"","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":""}],"internal_book_links":[],"video_content":null,"cc_video_embed_content":{"cc_scripts":"","media_targets":[]},"try_it_collection":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9680,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3159\/revisions\/9680"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3138"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3159\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=3159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}