Pareto Analysis

Step 2: Ranking Causes

To identify the "vital few" causes, the team ranks the causes based on the frequencies they found in their survey. Mrs. Alvarez helps the team calculate the cumulative percentage (each percentage added to the one before it) so they can build a pareto graph.

The team constructs a chart with the cause, percentage, and cumulative percentage:

Cause	Percentage	Cumulative Percentage
Clinic personnel don't follow the schedule	16%	16%
Delay in handing over lab results to doctors	14%	30%
Inadequate schedules	13%	43%
Outdated methods	12%	55%
Procedures take too long	11%	66%
Lack of automation	9%	75%
Clinic personnel lack punctuality	6%	81%

Making the chart brings a lot of tension out into the open. Mrs. Alvarez decides to stop here and use some of the Team Building Tools to alleviate the stress arising between the quality team and the staff, as well as within the quality team itself.

Step 3: Pareto Graph

Now the team is ready to draw the pareto graph. They draw a horizontal axis (x) that represents the different causes, ordered from the most to least frequent. Next, they draw a vertical axis (y) with percentages from 0 to 100%.

Now, they construct a bar graph based on the percentage of each cause. They construct a line graph of the cumulative percent. Finally, they draw a line from 80% on the y-axis to the line graph, and then drop the line down to the x-axis. This line separates the important causes from the trivial ones.

Now it is easy to see that approximately six factors are responsible for 80% of the waiting time problem. The other 14 factors are responsible for only 20%. Mrs. Alvarez decides to focus her attention on the most important (most frequently occurring) causes and begins working toward choosing the interventions that will be effective and cost-effective at solving this problem.