Six Sigma Blog

DoN and ASQ Team Up On Lean Six Sigma Project

The Department of the Navy (DoN) will jointly conduct a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification process along with the American Society for Quality (ASQ). An agreement has been reached through which a testing standards program that will meet the needs of the Navy and the Marine Corps team will be developed by both DoN and ASQ, and administered by ASQ. ISixSigma reports:

ASQ will conduct pilot certification program testing with 50 participants at eight sites around the country April 28. Following the pilot program, ASQ will conduct another certification exam in late September 2006 for an expected 100 participants. "We anticipate this experience with the Navy and Marine Corps will lead us to creating programs that will make our fighting forces within these, and all branches of the service more effective in meeting the challenges the United States faces in the coming years," said Jerry Mairani, ASQ president.

Six Sigma Workshop For Textile Industry

“Improving Dyeing and Finishing Operations Using Six Sigma”, a workshop for QC managers, technical managers, production managers, plant and manufacturing superintendents, department heads, lab personnel, fabric and garment development personnel, R&D managers, process engineers, process improvements specialists, dye and chemical suppliers, and shift supervisors, is scheduled to be held at the AATCC technical Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, on July 17-20, 2006, and August 14-17, 2006. The program is being organized by the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) and the North Carolina State University (NCSU), with instructions being delivered by Cliff L Seastrunk, Lead Instructor for Six Sigma programs at NCSU. Fibre2Fashion reports:

A registration fee of $4,995 ($3,495 for individual and corporate AATCC members) will include luncheons, breaks, course materials plus the free 6-month trial version of JMP software. Numerous learning activities will be interspersed with lectures to drive home key principles to insure successful implementation of this approach in their project and later within their organization. Refunds will be made if cancellations are received on or before June 30, 2006.

Lean Six Helps Electronic Cos.

Electronics companies are discovering that implementing Lean Six methodologies will help them stay in business, and even reap profits. An interview conducted by Electronic Business with four electronics companies that are in various stages of deploying Lean Six has proved that three of them are already showing profits, while the fourth one is on the verge of doing so. All of them claim that their business results have improved over the past five years. As a result, they are contemplating applying Lean Six to areas other than manufacturing, like their customers and suppliers. 

Six Sigma Financial Services Conference

The Worldwide Conventions and Business Forums (WCBF), will hold the third Annual Six Sigma in Financial Services Conference in New York on May11-12, 2006. This is heralded as the largest and most highly regarded Six Sigma event in the industry, and is ideal for you if your organization is looking for some insight into the use of Six Sigma in Financial Services. To manage your business for process excellence, you can register using the form on the WBCF website.

Software Cos. Have Poor QA

A study by research firm Compuware has found that most European software developers are falling short in assuring quality during the application development process. In spite of all the buzz about best practice initiatives such as Six Sigma and Capability Maturity Model (CMM), nearly 80 percent of the companies surveyed said they had no formal quality assurance (QA) methodology in place. One fourth of the respondents said they did not have properly trained or experienced members in their QA team, while a third said they did not have a dedicated team manager. 

Six Sigma helps reduce motor vehicle accidents

Motor vehicle accidents are an increasing occurrence in today's fast-paced world. In an innovative measure, Dow's Hydrocarbons and Energy business unit (HC&E) has extended the application of the well-established industry practice of the Six Sigma methodology of MAIC (Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) to develop a practical program for reducing such accidents.

After the initial study in 2002, a control plan was deployed in January 2003. Post-implementation observation of data reveals that there is a 30 percent reduction in motor vehicle accidents witnessed by HC&E over the period 2003-2004. While the accident data for the years 2001 and 2002 showed 23 accidents each year (46 for both the years), only 32 accidents were witnessed for 2003 and 2004 put together (15 for 2003 and 17 for 2004). CCH reports:

Following this success, many of the training materials developed by the project team, such as a Vehicle Pre-Startup Checklist, have been adopted for use at other Dow businesses. OSHA reported this case study but noted that the views do not necessarily represent the official position or policy of the US Department of Labor.

Catch the Error at the Source

Error Proofing follows the common adage that prevention is better than cure. Preventing errors from happening rather than spending time, money and effort to correct them after they occur is a question of using common sense rather than expensive technology. The word is derived from the Japanese term poka-yoke, "poka" meaning "inadvertent errors" and "yokeru" meaning "to avoid". There are three fundamental error-proofing categories:

• Warnings - which prevent the error from occurring in the first place. This involves detecting the possible error-causing defects at the source before value has been added to the product.
• Shutdown - which stops the system as soon as an error occurs, thus preventing further mistakes from happening.
• Auto Correction - which detects a mistake and allows correction or self-corrects the problem before it blows out of proportion.

Maintaining Total Productivity

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) focuses on the continuous maintenance of the plant and machinery used in the manufacturing to minimize the occurrence of downtime that leads to extra costs and less productivity. The concept of TPM assigns responsibility for the maintenance of machinery to the operators who man them, thus including them in the overall quality and productivity process. They are in charge of autonomous maintenance tasks (preventive maintenance) while maintenance staff concentrated on improving the reliability of the machines (productive maintenance).

Preventive maintenance includes daily tasks like cleaning, inspecting, oiling and re-tightening that will prevent deterioration as much as possible, and measure the rate of deterioration. TPM concentrates on the ongoing process of maintenance rather than repairing machines after they break down or are on the verge of breakdown. Among the advantages of TPM are:

• Minimal wastage
• High quality products with zero defects
• Reduced costs

Cellular Manufacturing

Cellular manufacturing, like all other principles of lean manufacturing, stresses on the elimination of waste. Here waste refers to the time taken in moving materials between different stages in the process and the amount of material moved. The aim of cellular manufacturing is to minimize movement of materials and the time taken to move them between workstations, and as a result minimize the cost of the process. For this reason, workstations are usually placed close to each other, and in-process inventory is limited to only those items that are being used. Like JIT, cellular manufacturing utilizes kanban to signal the end of an inventory cycle, and also reduces the need for large inventory storage spaces. This process involves efficient coordination between the production, purchase and cost accounting departments.

Cellular manufacturing uses multiple machines instead of one, multi-process machine. This means that the workers who use these machines have to be trained in efficient multi-tasking. However, this set up helps eliminate defective products by identifying the first such product immediately, instead of after a whole batch has been manufactured. As with JIT, strong relationships with supply partners will decide how valuable your cellular manufacturing process is.

Mapping Values on Paper

Value stream mapping is a tool or diagram that portrays a visual presentation of material and information as it flows from the raw material to the finished product in the hands of the customer. It can be used during manufacture or during the design of the product and helps eliminate waste at each stage. It is a communication tool, strategic planning tool, and change management tool, all rolled into one. It maps the present state of activities and processes with details like cycle times, down times, in-process inventory, material moves, and information flow paths, and shows how you can direct them to the future desired state. Value Stream Mapping:

• Identifies and decreases waste, with waste being defined as anything that does not add value to the process.
• Facilitates easy decision-making by making the flow visible
• Shows the connection between the information and material flows
• Serves as the foundation for the formation of an implementation plan