Title: Six Sigma implementation in a manufacturing unit - a case study

Authors: Hemadri Chadalavada; D. Samuel Raj; M. Balasubramanian

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, R.M.K. College of Engineering and Technology, Puduvoyal-601206, Thiruvallur Dist, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai-60025, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, R.M.K. College of Engineering and Technology, Puduvoyal-601206, Thiruvallur Dist, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: The Six Sigma approach has been increasingly adopted in the manufacturing sector in order to make the process robust to quality variations, thereby, improving the quality and performance. In any manufacturing industry, Shainin Six Sigma methodology is highly adopted because of lesser data collection required for the study. Six Sigma improves the process performance of the critical operational process, leading to better utilisation of resources, decrease in variations and maintaining consistent quality of the process output. The DMAIC approach has been followed here to solve an underlying problem of reducing process variation and the associated high defect rate. This paper describes an application of Six Sigma define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC) methodology in a manufacturing unit, which provides a framework to identify, quantify and eliminate sources of variation in an operational process to improve the quality. The current investigation focuses on using DMAIC methodology to reduce the rejections in the pasting process during product X manufacturing, resulting in a saving of Rs. 3.96 lakhs per annum

Keywords: six sigma; DMAIC; Shainin DOE; design of experiments; process improvement; manufacturing industry; case study.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2016.080150

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2016 Vol.19 No.4, pp.409 - 422

Received: 17 Jun 2014
Accepted: 09 Apr 2015
Published online: 06 Nov 2016 *

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