Paul's recent blog post has excited me as it looks at Quality Tools as something practically useful to the mankind. He asks fellow ASQ bloggers to write about their experiences where a quality tool has been used in non-work situations. I here share some of my experiences.
I know of a friend who is so passionate about quality where he implemented the '5S' quality tool in his home. Objects inside the home were neatly arranged and directions to access them clearly marked. Due to this, even a stranger can locate things quickly and easily. For example, when I am at his home, I can locate his car keys without seeking anybody's assistance. I could find a similar initiative in YouTube that I suggest you to watch.
Why-Why-Why analysis (or the 5-Why analysis) has proved to be an effective tool that I use with my children to find out the root causes of a particular outcome - success or failure. For example, my child did not score good marks, say, in Physics. Look at a typical 5-Why analysis session below:
Me: Why did you score less marks in Physics?
Child: The questions were tough.
Me: Why were the questions tough?
Child: I had skipped reading 2 chapters from where most questions came for the exam.
Me: Why did you skip reading of 2 chapters?
Child: I did not understand the topics. I had missed 2 classroom sessions as I fell sick due to flu.
Me: Why did you not ask me for help?
Child: You were always busy, dad to find time to teach me! ....
Today, my credit card online statement provides me histogram, Pareto chart or pie chart views of my spending. Here I am able to analyze my financial spending in a systematic way.
Quality tools are very handy for work as well as non-work situations. Sometimes, we use them even without completely realizing the fact that they are quality tools!
I know of a friend who is so passionate about quality where he implemented the '5S' quality tool in his home. Objects inside the home were neatly arranged and directions to access them clearly marked. Due to this, even a stranger can locate things quickly and easily. For example, when I am at his home, I can locate his car keys without seeking anybody's assistance. I could find a similar initiative in YouTube that I suggest you to watch.
Why-Why-Why analysis (or the 5-Why analysis) has proved to be an effective tool that I use with my children to find out the root causes of a particular outcome - success or failure. For example, my child did not score good marks, say, in Physics. Look at a typical 5-Why analysis session below:
Me: Why did you score less marks in Physics?
Child: The questions were tough.
Me: Why were the questions tough?
Child: I had skipped reading 2 chapters from where most questions came for the exam.
Me: Why did you skip reading of 2 chapters?
Child: I did not understand the topics. I had missed 2 classroom sessions as I fell sick due to flu.
Me: Why did you not ask me for help?
Child: You were always busy, dad to find time to teach me! ....
Today, my credit card online statement provides me histogram, Pareto chart or pie chart views of my spending. Here I am able to analyze my financial spending in a systematic way.
Quality tools are very handy for work as well as non-work situations. Sometimes, we use them even without completely realizing the fact that they are quality tools!
