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This section is dedicated to provide links, information, articles, services, products such as Quality Management software, Quality  books and resources of interest to the Quality Control, Quality Assurance  and Six Sigma Professional. Lean Manufacturing topics such as 5S, Value Stream Mapping, TQM, DMAIC, Kaizen  Etc. are included or links are provided.

 

QUALITY AND SIX SIGMA

 

Lean  Manufacturing Principles and Tools:

Article by Engitek.com, Copyrights.

 

Lean is a manufacturing philosophy  based in no waste principles involving all aspects related to productivity and economics.

In short Lean Manufacturing can be summarized in these simple principles:

 

1) No waste on human resources, money, time or other resources.

2) All actions must produce an added value.

3) All work must be measurable, standardized, recorded,verifiable and constantly improved

4) All employees in the organization must perform a productive activity

 

Lean manufacturing has identified seven causes of waste and make use of  many disciplines to achieve lean results, here are some of the most recurred:

 

The Seven Causes of Waste:

1-Overproduction: Causing use of raw materials that otherwise could be used on actually demanded products, inadequate use of  personnel, additionally creates product and material accumulation in the production floor that difficult the manufacturing process.

2-Unnecessary inventories: Results in captive monetary resources that aren’t producing profit, increases tax liability, make use of valuable storage space that can’t be used for other purposes and are in high risk of being damaged or rendered obsolete.

3-Unnecessary transport of people, materials or equipment

4-Inadequate or obsolete manufacturing process: causing low productivity and defects prone operation

5-Bad quality from process or design: Causing reworks, waste and bad customer rating and products returns

6-Waiting time for materials, tools or persons: Lack of synchronization to show up during process or sourcing

7-Bad process design and layouts causing unnecessary actions or movement of people, tools, materials or equipment

 

5S’s

This term was originated in Japan in order to emphasize order, cleanness and standardization.

The meaning of the 5S comes from the initial letter of each of these Japanese words:

Examples include standard containers if practical and economical, standard manufacturing and administrative procedures, etc.

 

1-Seiri (Sort)

Sorting: Separate useful from useless and necessary from unnecessary

2-Seiton (Set in Order)

Organize the working area for easy control and access of tools, materials etc. One place for each item and each item

in his place.

3-Seiso (Shine)

Cleanness and neatness of working area, no dust trash etc.

4-Seiketsu (Standardize)

Standardization of work, process, documents, inspection methods, shelf, storage boxes, transport units

5-Shitsuke (Sustain)

This term means the maintenance of the other 4S points and the procedures for audit, verification, improvement and recording.

 

Problem solutions tools:

The  5 Why’s

This method is quite simple but highly effective in finding the problems root causes,  and basically it consist of making a progressive

questioning of what caused the effect and then repeat the same procedure backwards.

 

Example:

What caused  the machine failure? Answer:  A loose bolt.

Why the bolt was loose? Answer: Because the torque meter readings were wrong.

Why the torque meter gave wrong readings? Answer: Because the torque meter calibration was overdue  for more than a month.

Why the torque meter was overdue for such a long time? And so on........

You don’t have to use 5 whys, it can be as short as two or as long as ten or more as necessary  until a credible root cause is found.

 

The 4 M’s +1

The name for 4M’s comes from the four initial letters of the words Man, Machine, Materials and Method. However I have added one more to emphasize the importance of  Management in the overall success of failure of a manufacturing unit, whatever this could be just a production line or an entire factory. If the Management is not properly involved in the other four M’s and sufficiently aware of the process and outcomes, the whole operation and even the problems solution process could yield only mediocre to poor results. So Management is fundamental in establishing the proper policies, clear guidelines, work and effective solution methods plus the proper work culture. This problem solution method is fundamentally oriented to manufacturing but it can be adapted to be used in almost any scenario.

The 4M’s name has to due with the concept that all problems or quality issues are related in one way or other to these five elements.

In a process one or more of these M’s can go wrong and produce a bad output or product, however the root cause couldn’t be evident at glance and a cause effect analysis involving these elements could be necessary.

  

The Cause Effect Diagram Integrating The 4M’s +1

 

                    

 

    

The 4W’s +H+W
The 4W’s+H+W name comes from the initial letter of the words: What, Where, Who, When and  How. I have added one  more that in accordance with my long manufacturing experience gets many times overlooked, this is With What (Resources).

I want to remark that this particular tool  has also a strong application in project management and in production pilot planing or just planing, also could be integrated as part of a problem solution process.

                               

 

     

                   

                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DMAIC   

It is a problem solving methodology very often and also as normal part of a KAIZEN project. The word comes from the initial letter of the words denoting the following actions:

 

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control

 

Define:

Define the team, the team leader, what is the problem or current situation, what improvements are required, define dates for accomplishment , resources required (money, human resources, technology), the Return On Investment ROI and gets  management approval. In other words a Project Charter document needs to be generated.

What is a Project Charter? A Project Charter is a document that defines and makes official the most important aspect of  the project. The Project Charter in a common ground and simple communication tool, it is the “Magna Carta” of the project and as such needs to be approved by the Management and Direction.

Sample of a Project Charter document.

Note: This project is based on a real similar actual case.

 

   

Please note that they are many Project Charters Formats and you may need to customize one for your specific situation and project, this one is a simple one and goes direct to the point.

 

 

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Cause Effect Diagram

Use of  the 4W’s +H+W in pilot planing and as part of a problem solution process