Application of Six Sigma Methodology in Production Organization

Abstract

In the last years and also due to today's economic situation and crises in the world, each organization is looking for a continuous improvement of processes and business performance. The major task of each production organization or services is the saving of money, which is lost because of scrap, long cycle times, wrong process maps and inventory differences. The goal of this article is to describe the implementation of Six Sigma in a production organization focusing on the production of interior parts for the automotive industry. During the summer time, there was delamination between thermoplastic foil and plastic substrate, which caused increasing of scrap, additional substandard works as well as the risk of quality complaints from customer. Six Sigma and DMAIC cycle were used to find root causes and to implement permanent corrective actions to remove this kind of problem from production.

Sustainable Process Performance by Application of Six Sigma Concepts: The Research Study of Two Industrial Cases

“…In particular, processes that operate with six sigma quality produce at defect levels below 3.4 defects per (one) million opportunities [4]. According to [2][3][4][5][6] a Six Sigma is a statistical measure of process capability, which is equivalent to 99.99966% of good parts.…”

“…Successful results in an automotive industry after implementation of the Six Sigma methodology (SSM) are presented in studies [1][2][3]. Benefits of using SSM in achieving the required process capabilities improvement, hence improving the system stability, were presented by Al-Agha et al [4].…”

“…DMAIC (Define-Measure-AnalyzeImprove-Control) is used to improve an existing business process, and DMADV (Define-MeasureAnalyze-Design-Verify) is used to create new product or process designs for predictable, defect-free performance [28]. DMAIC procedure has been described in several studies concerning application of Six Sigma methodology [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Steps of DMAIC procedure endeavor to adopt a smarter way of doing things so as to minimize the occurrence of errors.…”

“…If we compare the contribution of Six Sigma from various sources [1][2][3][4][5][6]9,[22][23][24][25], it is clear that deployment of this methodology in companies brings increased performance, increased productivity, increased competitiveness, and growth in market share, whilst retaining loyal customers and obtaining new, decreased production costs by decreasing the proportion of costs for repairs and disposal of non-conforming products, new product designs, and, growth in the qualifications and professional level of employees. The study by Aldowiasan, focusing on Six Sigma performance for non-normal processes, showed that less variation reduction was required to improve exponentially distributed processes [26].…”

Sigma Level Verification of a Thermoplastic Industry with the Support of DMAIC Method

“…In light of this, the Six Sigma philosophy is currently one of the most modern quality management concepts [1], causing industries to improve the quality control of this processes. With the advent of Six Sigma since the 1980s, it has been widely recognised as the most effective methodology for obtaining a breakthrough improvement [2], i. e., is a process focussed program and aims to improve the process through systematic methodology [3].…”