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Seven Key Tools for Breakthrough Improvement

The Magnificent Seven is All You Need

Over the years, in project after project, I have found that I only needed seven tools to solve virtually any operational problems involving delay, defects and deviation. Once in a great while I might need another tool, but I had to look it up because I had long forgotten it. You can easily create breakthrough improvements using these seven tools and QI Macros for Excel.

1	Value stream Map	Value Stream Maps identify and remove delays from any process.
1	Spaghetti Diagram	Spaghetti Diagrams identify and eliminate unnecessary movement of people or materials in any workspace.
2		Excel PivotTables summarize massive dumps of data about defects and money.
3		Control Charts to measure and monitor the performance of any process.
4		Pareto Charts identify the most frequent types of defects, mistakes and errors.
5		Histograms evaluate deviation in process performance
6	Fishbone	Ishikawa (fishbone) diagrams identify the root causes of the problem.
7	Checksheet	Matrix diagrams like check sheets, countermeasures and action plans collect data and prioritize corrective actions.