Six Sigma The Breakthrough Strategy Revolutionizing

Question: Describe about the Six Sigma for The Breakthrough Strategy Revolutionizing? Answer: What would you suggest should be the outcome from this project? Ans. Six-sigma is an essentially a significant set of tools and techniques used and implemented towards the improvement of the processes and systems. As Bob has made up a team for design and implementation of the six-sigma method in the business system, to increase accuracy and thereby increasing the number of good quality Printed Circuit Boards, with minimized flaws. The outcomes of the six-sigma methodology implementation are expected to be improvement of the business processes, through which the PCBs are manufactured with the least possible flaws. The objective is to make the quality assurance, in terms of making the PCBs with no quality issues. The quality control team is expected to implement the full-fledged six-sigma methodology continuously in the business process so that the flaw-less products are manufactured in the company. The new methodology should be able to redefine the processes that will be consistently active for the entire tenure of the business. Fishbone diagram a nd SPC are expected to be the part of finding out the root causes of the possible flaws in manufacturing of the electronic circuits. At the end of the implementation or at the end of the project of implementing the six-sigma methodology, the quality manufacturing and relevant processes should become part of the thought and work processes. The ultimate goal of the project is to enhance customer satisfaction, by delivering the quality PCB electronic devices. Prevention versus Detection Business improvement needs two important factors to be done. The first factor is to find out the wasteful or unproductive or practices and steps in the system. It is usually done through the Lean methods, called Kaizen Events, 5S and Kanban. This is time driven factor analysis and improvement of the lean method in the business can reduce the wastage of time. On the other hand the second factor is quality driven, which is the six-sigma and it is more of analytical approach, based on the statistics of the history. The objective is to reduce the defects of the final products. Though these two methods look to be different, both of them do have the common objective of improving the quality of the products and thereby the customer satisfaction. So, both prevention and detection are required to be done. The important quality characteristics to discuss in the six-sigma project here is to think big and go for larger is the best, so increasing the accuracy and quality of the electronic circuits made. How might the team apply these aspects to the production line above? Ans. The team of six-sigma project is expected to start to collect all the statistics in regards to the entire business processes and the results, in terms of the final products and the quality of the same. Here, if they see only the process, it may look ideal, however, to understand and analyse the effectiveness of the quality of the product, voice of the customer becomes a potential feedback factor. So, it is important to consider the voice of processes and voice of the customers. After analysing the present state of the business processes, six-sigma methodologies are to be adapted in order to improve the business system. It needs to shift the mark of the standards to a specific percentage, in terms of the good circuit boards, with no defects or flaws. When six sigma is going to be implemented, the ideal accuracy of quality expected to be 99.99966% or the number of good boards produced by the company must be not less than this specified percentage. DMAIC Model Phases The specific 99.99966% of good quality production is possible, when any of the six-sigma methodologies are implemented and here we choose DMAIC model phase. DMAIC model phase consists of the processes in the following order of sequence. Define The problem in the production of the electronic boards are to be explored and so the problem has to be defined through quantifying the products, like 700 boards are manufactured every working day and how many are going defective and the percentage of defective pieces and so the percentage of the defect-free boards. Measure The present scenario of the production, the number of good boards, defect boards is to be measured through certain Key Parameter Indicators or metrics, like testing the strength, temperature to withstand, check of the accuracy of the shape at certain calibrated values. Analyse Then the root causes are to be analysed, of which processes are causing these defects, like soldering issues, defective component usage, operative training issues, human errors, etc. Improve Once the root causes are known, the strategy has to be defied and implemented to improve certain processes. It is important to set a target and then certain measures, in terms of the Key Performance Indicators or simply metrics. Control Sustainment strategies are to be identified and practised throughout the life of the business to ensure the set number of good boards is made. It needs clear understanding and monitoring of the manufacturing processes. Since the Pareto principle reveals that the 80% of the problem impact is shown by 20% causes. The important and potential factors are to be displayed in the bar chart. Produce a metric chart for a six-sigma project The present status of manufacturing of the electronic circuit boards is as follows. Electronic boards manufactured in an hour 100 Number of working hours in a shift 7 Boards manufactured in a shift or a day 700 Defect boards per day ~19 Approximate Rejection rate of boards 2.7% Accept rate of boards 97.3% So, making the manufacture of products to be remained the same, the rejection rate of the boards has to be decreased, by decreasing the number of defect boards per day. So, the rejection rate has to be decreased from 2.7% and the accept rate must be increased to 97.3%. It is ideal to get 100% accept level, however, it is not rational, as is near to impossible. So, the accuracy level has to be set according to the six sigma level. So, when six-sigma is implemented, the possible acceptance rate can be improved from 97.3% to 99.99966%. What is the critical to quality characteristics (CTQ) of the PCBs from the electronics line? There are certain important critical to quality characteristics defined for the manufacture of quality Printed Circuit Boards through primary research and secondary research, in terms of customer satisfaction. The primary research is to be done by setting physical standards for the boards, like laminate material, board thickness, hole tolerance, gold fingers, controlled dielectric, logo markings, trace, etc. The secondary research factors can be collected in the form of feedback from the customers like customer service, customer correspondence, industry benchmarking and customer ratings, etc. Where has this requirement has been set? The critical to quality characteristics requirements are to be set by the focus groups and customer service section and these standards are to be kept during the measuring phase of the DMAIC model. Expand on the consequences of not meeting the CTQ requirements. The objective of six-sigma project is to improve the quality of products, thereby increasing the productivity and so the profits of the company. However, in the worst cases, the consequences are also to be considered in case of failure of the project. In case the project gets failed, the initiator of the project will be accountable for all possible damage. The possible damages can be loss of time of project, cost of the project and efforts on the project. In addition, these losses can lead to further losses, like losses found in the finance department, all relevant stakeholders involved in the processes and there can be other manufacturing issues, as there is an attempt of changing the processes. Altogether, there can be damage to the reputation and brand of the company, if the potential working processes are not disturbed or deteriorate. References Hammer, M. 2002. Process management and the future of Six Sigma. MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter Harry, M. and Schroeder, R. 200 Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Strategy Revolutionizing the Worlds Top Corporations. New York, NY Hoerl, R. W. and Snee, R. D. 2002. Statistical Thinking: Improving Business Performance. San Jose, CA: Duxbury Press/Thompson Learning. Henderson, K. M. and Evans, J. R. 2000. Successful Implementation of Six Sigma: Benchmarking General Electric Company. Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 7 Hoerl, R. W. 1998. Six Sigma and The Future of Quality Profession. Quality Progress, Vol. 31 Kerzner, H. 2003. Project Management Case Studies. New York, NY: John Wiley Sons Montgomery, D. C. 2001. Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 4th edition. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.