The Seven Basic Tools of Quality is a designation given to a fixed set of graphical techniques identified as being most helpful in troubleshooting issues related to quality.[1] They are called basic because they are suitable for people with little formal training in statistics and because they can be used to solve the vast majority of quality-related issues.[2]
The tools are:
* The cause-and-effect or Ishikawa diagram
* The check sheet
* The control chart
* The histogram
* The pareto chart
* The scatter diagram
* Stratification (alternately flow chart or run chart)
The designation arose in postwar Japan, inspired by the seven famous weapons of Benkei.[4] At that time, companies that had set about training their workforces in statistical quality control found that the complexity of the subject intimidated the vast majority of their workers and scaled back training to focus primarily on simpler methods which suffice for most quality-related issues anyway.[5]
The Seven Basic Tools stand in contrast with more advanced statistical methods such as survey sampling, acceptance sampling, statistical hypothesis testing, design of experiments, multivariate analysis, and various methods developed in the field of operations research
