Pareto chart
The Pareto chart is a special type of bar chart or histogram, and is one of the seven quality tools, named after Vilfredo Pareto. It is an analytical tool that graphically demonstrates the Pareto principle or the 80–20 rule. It is used to view causes of a problem in order of severity or impact from largest to smallest.
The categories are placed along the bottom x-axis in order from largest to smallest, and the quantity or cost are placed on the y-axis. Often times, a line is drawn against the opposite y-axis to represent the cumulative impact %.
Ideally, the best Pareto charts are when no more than 20% of the categories exceed at least 80% of the total impact. In the example above, the first 4 categories exceed the 80% cut off, but that is 33% of the 12 total categories. In this situation, it is recommended to create a new Pareto chart by looking at Frequency compared with another type of data instead of defect code, such as Department, Manager, Medication Type, Day of the Week, etc.
Articles
- How to Summarize Survey Comments and Feedback with Pareto Charts
- New spin (literally) on an old quality tool
- Pareto chart approach to reducing water usage in your city
- Pareto chart for largest US carbon emitting power plant
- Pareto Charts & 80-20 Rule – Clinical Excellence Commission
Videos
Additional Resources
- Control Charts: A Basic Component of Six Sigma– creativesafetysupply.com
- 6 Reasons Vinyl Chart Tape Should Be A Tool In Your Workplace– lean-news.com
- Vinyl Chart Tape – Ways To Improve Your Workplace– safetyblognews.com
- Marine Pipe Marking Standards, Labels and Tape– blog.creativesafetysupply.com
- Total Quality Management And Kaizen Principles In Lean Management– kaizen-news.com
- A Break Down Of The 5s Philosphy– 5snews.com
- The Great Root Cause Problem Solving Debate– realsafety.org
- The “Lean Pill” Side Effects– jakegoeslean.com
- How to Select a Good Six Sigma Project– iecieeechallenge.org