Overview of Six Sigma Project Example
Its human nature to look into things their own way like positive or negative (“glass is half full or Glass is half empty”). Also, it is always said that it is better to look at both the sides of a coin, or it is good to know both the strength and weakness of your enemy. Here we are talking about six sigma projects and we all know the positive aspects of a six sigma project. So with the help of some Six Sigma Project Examples, we will see the negative aspect as well.
It always occurs to our mind that let’s see, what can cause a six sigma projects to have a slow agonizing death? Here is some reason:
Any project that does not have a manageable scope should not deal with that manner as it should be Like trying to solve the world hunger issue because you cannot solve world hunger but you have a better probability of solving a hunger issue of a village.
Data says that only about 35%of lean six sigma projects have taken are completed. The reasons are:
- Trying to solve the un-manageable problem and hoping for the results,
- Getting away from your tracking needle,
- Non-regular verification of focus,
- Not tracking your progress,
- priority setting and management problems,
- Many more.
Example of Six Sigma Project
Now let us look into an example of how six sigma has proven a benefit for the organization.
1) Increasing first run parts quality from 60% to 90%.
Problem –
When products are scrapped due to programming or any other issue, the company is losing money. On an average, the company is at 60% on the new parts that mean 40% of the new parts get rejected only at the start of the process, which causes overload on team leads and also reduces lead generation. The problem with the wrong parts are many to say some:
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Wrong holes in the wrong location,
Wrong material,
Wrong size of parts,
Wrong program number,
etc.
The problem is causing a loss of 1000’s of dollars to the company.
2) Root cause analysis (RCA) –
There were steps which are causing confusion and also disorganization of the process is a huge thing.
- Business case:
When the first run part is right only for the first 60% the customer has to invest more time to get the whole lot (wait for more time than competitors). Due to the scrapping of material, the product cost increased rapidly means the company has to share some of the cost with the customer which raises the cost of the product as compared to its competitors.
- Product process:
First process step- order comes in.
Second process step – order goes shopping manager.
Third process step- Finn power process.
Last process step- Assembly line to delivery.
- Process improvement table:
(Though the process is completed by putting many graphs and tables, Then analyzing them but we are directly going into the implementation part of it.)
| Measure | Data type | Operational definition | Stratification factor | Sampling notes | Who and how |
| The order comes in. | Continuous. | Cycle time is days from when a customer places an order until when he receives it. | BY order manager, By floor manager, By sales manager. |
Most of the time the order takes 3-5 days in delivery. But with the unavailability of floor/order manager, it creates a bottleneck situation. | When the order/floor manager is out, the order must keep moving, now they get to the secretary to fill the position. Not restricted to a single man job. |
| The order goes to the shop manager. | Continuous. | Cycle time in days once the order is sent to the shop manager. | By floor manager, By assembler, By shop manager. |
Most of the day it will take 3-5 days as the shop manager has to visit the assembler for the stock updates (updates about the product left in stock). | Created an inventory system which reduced the number of visits and streamlines the stock delivery process, Which reduces the processing time substantially. |
| Finn power process | Continuous. | There were much rework happening in this area. We collected data for days and found miscommunication and human error was the most part of it. So a 5S was conducted the whole process was reset. | Floor manager, shop manger, finn power operator, programmer. |
Once the whole process was reset we find that the firm was saving more than 18000 dollars just by labeling and reworking tooling parts. | Everyone must put the tools at their respective place and keep the shadow board updated. The operator has to check a checklist before starting the process. |
| Assembly process | Continuous | The time the order goes to the assembler to the time the assembler completes the process. | Programmer assembler. | The assembler was looking into the order then collecting it from the stock. This was keeping assembler from adding any process to the system. | There was a material handler hired to find what parts needed to be picked and the process picked up. |
3) Project closure –
- Lesson learned:
Remember to involve everyone from all aspects to the project.
Follow up’s should be done frequently.
Boost self-esteem by letting everyone know how things are going good.
- Customer impact:
Employee morale is up, this makes production up.
Customers are not waiting on stoves.
- Final calculation:
The first run part selection ration get increased from 60% to 87% in 60 days.
The company starts to save an average of 650 dollars per day.
Customer wait time went down from 30+ days to 20 days.
Staff satisfaction is up with every staff getting its own value.
Conclusion
The process is complete in itself but the implementation should be done with more carefully because the success rate of the processes is only 35% that is because of the implementation thinking situation. It cannot be applied to each and everything logical thinking always helps but when the process is too big you cannot look into all the aspects. So we see that six sigma can change a process upside down, We just need to implement it perfectly where it is needed in true sense.
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