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Quality Toolkit

The Quality Toolkit contains a variety of quality tools intended to support development and maintenance of SOPS, staff training and aiding in conformance to AABB Standards, resulting in a successful accreditation experience. Using these tools, facilities and individual members will find the following types of quality tools:

Current Quality Tools to Aid in Conformance

5 Whys to Identify a Root Cause and Solution Affinity Diagram to Organize Ideas Control Chart to Determine Statistical Variation Interrelationship Diagram to Identify Root Causes Matrix Diagram to Show Relationship Between Data Sets Pareto Chart to Identify "Vital Few" Improvements Process Improvement Check Sheet Process Pattern Analysis Histogram Process Sequencing Flowchart Process Sequencing Tree Diagram Regulatory Toolkits Root Cause Analysis Fishbone Diagram

Introduction to the Quality Toolkit

Errors and nonconformances can occur in any system or process. Often, they are process related rather than related to individual performance. A systemic approach to problem solving must be performed to identify, investigate, eliminate, and follow-up on the problem.

A root cause analysis might be required based on the error that has occurred. The goal of the root cause analysis is to identify the true causes(s) of the error.

Both short term and long-term corrective actions can be taken once the root cause has been identified. Short-term corrective action fixes the problem temporally while long-term corrective action(s) permanently fix the problem.

Once corrective and preventive actions are implemented, organizations should have a system to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of those actions.

These eight quality tools can be used to identify the errors, to perform root cause analysis and identify true cause(s), and for post implementation monitoring of the effectiveness of corrective action(s) taken. This toolbox will contain descriptions, strengths and weaknesses, and examples of the application for each of these tools.

Definitions

  • Corrective Action: An activity performed to eliminate the cause of a nonconformance or other undesirable situation in order to prevent recurrence.
  • Nonconformance: Failure to meet requirements.
  • Normalization: The organization of data to appear similar among different datasets and taking into consideration the number of opportunities.
  • Preventive Action: An action taken to reduce the potential for nonconformances or other undesirable situations.
  • Root Cause Analysis: A collective term that describes a wide range of approaches, tools, and techniques used to uncover cause of problems.

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