QUALITY CONTROL TOOLS VISUALIZATION IN THE PDCA CYCLE BY MEANS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The relevance of developing software tools based on traditional quality control methods for analyzing and visualizing the statistical information during the implementation of the PDCA cycle was shown. Guidelines for the use of statistical quality control tools contained in ISO international standards was presented. The quality control tools were analyzed in terms of the obtained statistical results features and the needs for their visual interpretation. The advantages and disadvantages of Сomputer algebra system (CAS) Maple, Matlab, MathCad, Mathematica are given in terms of the availability of random data processing and qualitative statistical results visualization. Based on the analysis of statistical data obtained by quality control tools, it has been proved that it is possible to most effectively solve the task using CAS Maple and the LaTeX publishing system combination. At every stage of the PDCA cycle the software modules for seven basic quality tools were realized using the CAS Maple and the LaTeX publishing system. The computational experiment results were presented. The parameters for the computational experiment results visualization of the using the LaTeX publishing system for their presentation as a single document in the cross-platform PDF format have been determined. A complex model for processing and visualizing statistical information in the PDCA cycle using the CAS Maple and LaTeX system has been developed. The model takes into account the peculiarities of input statistical information and visual interpretation of each basic quality tool. The model allows getting a single file in PDF format at the output. This PDF file contains a complex analysis of the technological process quality in a form that is simple for visual perception. Using the comparative analysis method, an expert map was compiled, that analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of each quality control tool. General recommendations were given on the use of the developed modules during the realization of the PDCA cycle in practice in the process of quality control in production and in the educational process of the engineering students.