This paper reports a research in which the impact of implementing define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC) phases of Six Sigma concept was examined in the production of submersible pumps. During this examination, the problem of overcoming ovality in a component called stage casing was examined through the application of DMAIC phases of Six Sigma. Conduct of design of experiment formed a core activity of this examination. At the end of conducting this examination, two solutions for overcoming ovality were evolved. One of those two solutions was implemented practically. The calculations carried out during this examination revealed that, on the implementation of these solutions, the Sigma level quality is prone to increase from 3.90 to 3.97. This increase in Sigma level indicates that, the implementation of DMAIC would aid small and medium size pumps manufacturing companies to improve their operations so as to perform at Six Sigma level quality.
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386 Int. J. Process Management and Benchmarking, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Six Sigma implementation through DMAIC: a case
study
K. Prabu*, J. Makesh, K. Naveen Raj and
S.R. Devadasan
Production Engineering Department,
PSG College of Technology,
Coimbatore-641004, India
E-mail: kprabu1991@gmail.com
E-mail: makesh617@gmail.com
E-mail: naveenrj22@gmail.com
E-mail: devadasan_srd@yahoo.com
*Corresponding author
R. Murugesh
Darshan Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Rajkot 363650, Gujarat, India
E-mail: drmurugesh_m@yahoo.com
Abstract: This paper reports a research in which the impact of implementing
define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC) phases of Six Sigma
concept was examined in the production of submersible pumps. During this
examination, the problem of overcoming ovality in a component called stage
casing was examined through the application of DMAIC phases of Six Sigma.
Conduct of design of experiment formed a core activity of this examination. At
the end of conducting this examination, two solutions for overcoming ovality
were evolved. One of those two solutions was implemented practically. The
calculations carried out during this examination revealed that, on the
implementation of these solutions, the Sigma level quality is prone to increase
from 3.90 to 3.97. This increase in Sigma level indicates that, the
implementation of DMAIC would aid small and medium size pumps
manufacturing companies to improve their operations so as to perform at Six
Sigma level quality.
Keywords: Six Sigma; define, measure, analyse, improve and control;
DMAIC; FMEA; Pareto analysis; project charter and DOE.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Prabu, K., Makesh, J.,
Raj, K.N., Devadasan, S.R. and Murugesh, R. (2013) 'Six Sigma
implementation through DMAIC: a case study', Int. J. Process Management
and Benchmarking, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp.386–400.
Biographical notes: K. Prabu received his Bachelor's degree in Production
Engineering (Sandwich Programme) from PSG College of Technology,
Coimbatore, India. His area of research interests includes lean manufacturing
and Six Sigma.
Six Sigma implementation through DMAIC 387
J. Makesh received his Bachelor's degree in Production Engineering (Sandwich
Programme) from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. His area of
research interests includes lean manufacturing and Six Sigma.
K. Naveen Raj received his Bachelor's degree in Production Engineering
(Sandwich Programme) from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India.
His area of research interests includes lean manufacturing and Six Sigma.
S.R. Devadasan is a Professor in the Production Engineering Department of
PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. He holds a Bachelor's degree
in Mechanical Engineering, a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering, a PhD
in Mechanical Engineering and a Doctor of Science (DSc) in Mechanical
Engineering. He has 23 years of teaching and research experience. He has
published over 100 papers in international journals. He is an editorial advisory
board member of the European Journal of Innovation Management . His
research interests include Six Sigma, total productive maintenance and lean
manufacturing.
R. Murugesh is the Principal of Darshan Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Rajkot, India. He has more than 20 years of experience in teaching
and research and has published 18 papers in various international journals. His
area of interest includes strategic productivity management, total productive
maintenance, MIS, web engineering and executive support systems.
1 Introduction
Manufacturing companies have been adopting numerous technologies and management
models to achieve zero defect manufacturing. The need of zero defect manufacturing is
increasingly realised globally for the purpose of reducing the manufacturing cost and
increasing profit. One of the ways of achieving zero defect manufacturing is
implementing a continuous quality improvement model. Of late, manufacturing
companies have been adopting Six Sigma as the continuous quality improvement model
for achieving zero defect manufacturing (Shafer and Moeller, 2012; Lin et al., 2013). Six
Sigma emerged in Motorola in the late 1980s (Black and Revere, 2006). After that, the
popularity of Six Sigma was enhanced by General Electric (GE) (Antony et al., 2012)
which reported achieving zero defect manufacturing on implementing it. During the early
years of emergence of the Six Sigma, it was widely implemented in manufacturing
companies. On realising its capability in facilitating financially beneficial results coupled
with achieving zero defect manufacturing, the Six Sigma has been applied in both
manufacturing and service sectors (Tjahjono et al., 2010; Miguel et al., 2012; Laureani
and Antony, 2012). Furthermore, Six Sigma applications have been reported in sales and
marketing also (Salzarulo et al., 2012). These developments indicate the proven
capability of Six Sigma (Arumugam et al., 2013).
Six Sigma is primarily encapsulated with two pillars which are known as DMAIC and
belt-based training system. DMAIC facilitates the companies to carry out Six Sigma
projects through five phases namely define, measure, analyse, improve and control (Goh
and Xie, 2003; Anand et al., 2007; Sahoo et al., 2008). On the other hand belt-based
training system facilitates the development of trained personnel with designations as
Champion, Master Black Belt, Black Belt and Green Belt (Zu et al., 2008). While
388 K. Prabu et al.
adopting DMAIC is affordable to all companies, implementing belt-based training system
is so expensive that its adoption is affordable only to companies with high financial
strength. This is due to the reason that, the original design of Six Sigma concept that
emanated in Motorola and GE stipulates the spending of high amount of money for
developing belt training system by appointing trainers and using costly infrastructure to
train Six Sigma project team members. This is not only unaffordable to small size
companies, but also, not economical from the point of view of the payback. In this
context, it is observed that, small size companies can benefit by adopting DMAIC
explicitly and belt-based system implicitly. In the context of this observation, this paper
reports a research in which DMAIC was applied in a pump manufacturing company
situated in Coimbatore City of India.
Coimbatore has been known for the functioning of many numbers of pumps
manufacturing companies. Majority of these companies situated in Coimbatore are small
in size. Due to the intensification of competition, these pumps manufacturing companies
are required to implement the Six Sigma without much investment to infuse high degree
of quality in the manufacturing pumps. As the pumps manufacturing companies situated
in Coimbatore are small in size, the volume of pumps produced by them is less. Hence,
these pumps manufacturing companies cannot afford to implement belt-based training
method. Hence, only DMAIC phase of Six Sigma can be implemented in these pumps
manufacturing companies. This derivation reveals the need of examining the practical
implications of applying DMAIC in pumps manufacturing companies. In this context, the
research reported in this paper was carried out.
In the research been reported in this paper, the production of submersible pumps was
considered as the pilot area for examining the practicality of applying DMAIC. The
reason for selecting submersible pump is that, these kinds of pump find as much as 80%
(prweb, 2013) of production in many pump manufacturing companies. During the
research reported in this paper, DMAIC was applied in a pumps manufacturing company
to avoid ovality in the face of one of the components called 'Stage casing' used in
companies manufacturing submersible pumps. The details of this research are presented
in the following four sections of this paper.
After this Introduction section, the papers surveyed and reviewed in connection with
the application of DMAIC phases of the Six Sigma are elaborated. In the third section,
the efforts made to apply DMAIC in the production of submersible pumps are elaborated.
This research paper is concluded in the fourth section by suggesting the scope for
pursuing further research in this direction.
2 Literature review
The world has witnessed wide applications of Six Sigma concept (Anand et al., 2007;
Desai et al., 2012; Chakraborty and Tan, 2012; Celano et al., 2012; Heavey and Murphy,
2012). The researchers who have studied the pace and trend of implementing Six Sigma
have explained the widespread applications of Six Sigma in different types of
organisations for achieving varied objectives (Lin et al., 2013; Nair et al., 2011; Sony and
Naik, 2012). Most of these researchers have advocated that DMAIC and belt-based
system of training form the integral unit of Six Sigma concept (Chakravorty, 2009).
Some authors have reported the high amount of time and money that are spent by the
companies on developing the belt-based training infrastructure towards implementing
Six Sigma implementation through DMAIC 389
DMAIC. This kind of heavy investment may make Six Sigma implementation an
uneconomical venture in small and medium sized companies. Presumably on realising
this deficiency of Six Sigma concept, a few researchers started to explore the power of
implementing only DMAIC phases in organisations (Li et al., 2008; Taner et al., 2012).
On observing this trend, the literature review being reported here was carried out. During
this literature survey, only six research papers dealing exclusively with the application of
DMAIC phases could be located. The contributions of researches reported in these papers
are briefly described in this section.
Li et al. (2008) have applied DMAIC phases to improve the capability of surface
mount technology (SMT) in solder printing process. During the Define phase, the defects
encountered in SMT process were identified. Then 'solder thickness' was identified as
critical to quality characteristic. During the Measure phase, process capability indices
namely Cp and Cpk were used to measure the performance of SMT process. During the
analyse phase, the cause and effect diagram, Taguchi's S/N ratio and ANOVA were used
to analyse the causes of the defect. During the Improve phase, two steps under the titles
'reducing variation' and 'adjusting process mean' were implemented to improve the SMT
solder printing process. It is recommended to use mean and range charts and gauges for
avoiding variations of solder thickness. On the whole, this project has exhibited that with
the aid of DMAIC phases, it is possible to improve the performance of the process.
Kumar and Sosnoski (2009) have applied DMAIC phases to implement Six Sigma
concept to reduce the amount of warp that occurred in a company by name Wilson Tools
during heat treatment of punches. During the Define phase, 'Pareto analysis' was
conducted to identify the problem occurred in the Wilson tools. One of the problems
identified was the warpage occurred in punches during heat treatment. Hence, the
objective was set to reduce this warpage. During measure phase, 'Process capability
analysis' was used to identify whether the process was capable or not. During analyse
phase, warp of the process was measured by choosing 100 punches and measuring the
same. Mean and standard deviation of warp were identified. Subsequently, 'cause and
effect diagram' was used to narrow down the scope of the project to improve the heat
treatment process. During the improve phase, process map and cause and effect diagram
were used to identify the action that will lead to the development of the warpage of
punches during the heat treatment process. One of the findings of this Improve phase is
that, hanging the punches in the fixture resulted in least amount of warp and variations. In
order to control the process, the use of histogram and control charts are recommended for
the usage. Finally, it is stated that, implementation of DMAIC phases has resulted in the
improvement of process and saving of a considerable amount of money.
Sahoo et al. (2008) have applied DMAIC phases to implement Six Sigma concept in
the case of producing forged components by employing radial forging. During the define
phase, it was identified that, development of residual stresses is the cause for affecting the
achievement of desired dimensions and surface quality. During the measure phase, 24
samples of forged components (sample size was five) were selected and the residual
stresses were calculated. During the Analyse phase, Taguchi's design of experiments
(DOE) approach was used to identify factors contributing to the development of the
residual stresses. The finding was that, the inlet angle and friction coefficients were the
two factors playing major role in causing residual stress. During the Improve phase,
results obtained by conducting the previous phase were improved by conducting response
surface methodology (RSM). Consequently, these authors have found the values of the
parameters namely inlet angle, die land area and corner fillet that will minimise the
390 K. Prabu et al.
residual stresses. In order to control this process, the use of documentation and control
charts has been recommended.
Kumar et al. (2008) have appraised that, the DMAIC phases can be employed to
improve the service of the customers. These authors have described the benefits achieved
by implementing DMAIC phases in service oriented system. However, detailed
description under each phase of DMAIC has not been delineated. Rohini and Mallikarjun
(2011) have described the history of applying Six Sigma in healthcare industry. These
authors have reported the case of applying DMAIC in a hospital situation in India.
During the define phase, these authors have used project charter and high-level process
map to identify the problem. During the measure phase, data on servicing the customers
were ensemble. During the analyse phase, these data were analysed and causes of
deficiencies were depicted using cause and effect diagram. During the improve phase,
brainstorming session was conducted to evolve solution for overcoming the problem
identified. In order to control the process, supervisory activities were designed. These
authors have shown that, after implementing DMAIC phases, Sigma level performance
increased from 2.11 to 3.11 (in the case of first delay) and 3.4 (in the case of
cancellation).
On the whole, the case studies reported in the above research papers have established
the fact that, the implementation of DMAIC explicitly leads to the achievements of the
goals of implementing the Six Sigma concept (Suresh et al., 2012). This observation
implies that, Six Sigma level of quality can be achieved even without applying belt-based
training infrastructure which normally increases the investment. Although DMAIC is
found to be a promising approach of Six Sigma concept, it is yet to find application in
numerous industrial sectors. One of these sectors is those involving the manufacturing of
pumps. In the context of this observation, an implementation study was conducted to
examine the practical implications of applying DMAIC in the case of manufacturing
submersible pumps. The details of this implementation study are presented in the next
section.
3 Implementation study of DMAIC phases
The implementation study being reported here was carried out in a pumps manufacturing
company by name PSG Industrial Institute (hereafter referred to as PSG). PSG is situated
in Coimbatore City of India. In PSG, several types of pumps like centrifugal pumps,
reciprocating pumps and submersible pumps are manufactured. Among them, domestic
centrifugal pumps (known as monoblock) and submersible pumps are produced in large
volumes to meet the high demand of the customers. As mentioned earlier, during the
conduct of the implementation study being reported here, the production of submersible
pump was chosen as the scope for studying the practical implication of DMAIC. The
activities carried out in these phases are reported in the following five subsections.
3.1 Define phase
During the define phase, a component by name 'stage casing' was identified to have
potential for overcoming many defects. The photograph showing a casting and machined
unit of stage casing is shown in Figure 1.
Six Sigma implementation through DMAIC 391
Figure 1 Photograph of casting and machined unit of stage casing (see online version for colours)
Subsequently, necessary data were gathered and supplier input process output and
customer (SIPOC) chart shown in Figure 2 was developed.
Figure 2 SIPOC chart
Then, the statistics on the casting and machined defects reported in the case of
manufacturing 750 stage casing units were gathered. By referring to this statistics, Pareto
chart shown in Figure 3 was drawn. As shown, casting defects and ovality play major
roles in producing defective stage casing components. The castings of stage casing are
supplied by the sister company of PSG. Hence, the competent personnel of the sister
company was informed about the occurrence of the casting defects in stage casing and
was requested to take action to overcome these casting defects. Then, ovality was chosen
as the candidate defect for overcoming the same by applying DMAIC phase.
Subsequently, project charter shown in Table 1 was developed. As shown, occurrence of
ovality after machining the stage casing was defined as the problem of the project.
392 K. Prabu et al.
Figure 3 Pareto chart (see online version for colours)
Table 1 Project charter
Project name:
Stage casing project
Problem/opportunity Scope and constraints
• The scope of this project is to eliminate defect
without increase in cost using DMAIC phase of
Six Sigma.
• The constraints are
a Manufacturing cost must not increase after
implementation
In PSG, stage casings are machined and
assembled in submersible pumps. While
machining some casings are scraped due
to ovality.
b The solution to be proposed to PSG may or
may not be implemented
Goal Team members
• J. Makesh
• K. Naveen Raj
To reduce the amount of rejection incurred
in the manufacturing of stage casing and
increase the productivity by using DMAIC
phase of Six Sigma. • K. Prabu
3.2 Measure phase
During the conduct of this phase, the ovality in stage casing was inspected using a bore
dial indicator. The anvil of the bore dial indicator is pressed inside the bore and rotated
horizontally in clockwise direction. In the absence of ovality, the needle will move only
in the clockwise direction. In the case of ovality, the needle in the bore dial indicator will
deflect in the anti-clockwise direction. Thus, stage casing units were inspected using bore
Six Sigma implementation through DMAIC 393
dial indicator for ovality. After each stage casing was inspected, the data was entered in a
check sheet. The data thus gathered are shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Statistics of defects reported in the manufacturing of stage casings
Total number of machined stage casing units inspected = 750
Name of the
defects
Number of
defects found in
750 units of
stage casing
Proportion of
defects in
percentage
Cumulative
frequency of
defects
Proportion of
defects in
cumulative
percentage
Casting defect 20 65 20 65
Ovality 5 16 25 81
Oversize of bore 2 6 27 87
Face out 2 7 29 94
Others 2 7 31 100
As shown in Table 2, out of 750 stage casing units inspected, 31 of them have been
rejected. Using this data, the sigma value was determined. The procedure followed to
determine the Sigma level is presented below:
Defects per unit (DPU) Total number of stage casing units rejected
Total number of stage casing units inspected
=
÷
31 750 0.0413 ÷=
Since five defects were considered, the number of opportunities that cause the production
of defective stage casing units is five. Therefore,
Defects per opportunity (DPO) DPU O
÷
where O refers to the number of opportunities.
DPO 0.0413 5 0.00827 =÷=
Now, Defects per million opportunities (DPMO) = DPO × 1,000,000 = 8,266.67.
From the Six Sigma conversion table (Park, 2003), it was found that Sigma value
against 8,266.67 DPMO in the case of producing the stage casing units in the research
being reported here is 3.90. Since, this value is quiet less than 6 Sigma, it was discernable
that opportunities exist to improve the Sigma level by overcoming defects in producing
stage casing units. In line to this observation, as mentioned earlier, in the research being
reported here, efforts were made to overcome ovality in the production of stage casing
units.
3.3 Analysis phase
During the conduct of analyse phase, in order to estimate the severity of ovality in
affecting the Sigma level quality of producing stage casings units, failure mode and
effects analysis (FMEA) was carried out. The FMEA table developed while conducting
this analysis is shown in Figure 4.
394 K. Prabu et al.
Figure 4 FMEA (see online version for colours)
As shown, the ovality dominated the defects while producing stage casing by exhibiting
highest risk priority number (RPN) of 252. This domination justified the selection of
ovality for overcoming the same to increase the Sigma level quality of producing stage
casing.
In order to identify the causes of getting ovality, several observations were made in
the work place where stage casing is machined. During each observation, the operators
were interviewed with the purpose of identifying the causes that lead to the ovality in
stage casing. These information and knowledge were used to draw the cause and effect
diagram shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 Cause and effect diagram (see online version for colours)
Six Sigma implementation through DMAIC 395
As numerous causes are depicted in this cause and effect diagram, it was decided to
consider only the major causes to pursue further implementation study. By inspecting the
rejected stage casing units and subsequently discussing with the operator, following three
major causes were recognised for achieving the rest of Sigma level quality.
• tool wear
• chuck holding pressure
• high depth of cut.
After the identification of the above causes for further consideration, the Sigma level of
the quality was projected in the absence of ovality that happened due to the above three
causes. The calculations carried out in this regard are presented below:
Total number of defective stage casing unitsproduced 31
Total number of defective stage casing units rejected due to ovality 5
Number of defective stage casing units in the absence of ovality
Total number ofdefective stage casing units produced
Total number of defective stage casing units rejected due to ovality
31 5 26
=
−
=−=
umber of opportunities 5
Hence,
DPU 26 750 0.034 =÷ =
DPO DPU O 0.034 5 0.0069 =÷= ÷=
DPMO DPO 1,000, 000 6, 933.33
×=
Projected Sigma level 3.97 =
Thus, on overcoming ovality, the Sigma level quality of producing stage casing units is
expected to increase from 3.90 to 3.97.
3.4 Improve phase
During the conduct of this phase, the theory was studied. Ovality occurs when differences
between major and minor axis emanate after m achining. Ovality during machining occurs
due to reasons like high holding pressure, tool life, and depth of cut and uneven feed.
During the implementation study being reported here, out of these reasons, three of them
namely holding pressure, depth of cut and tool life were considered to design factorial
experimentation. After designing this experiment, the stage casing units were machined
by inputting the factors and levels of experiments. The details of this experiment and
ovality observed in each case are shown in Table 3.
As shown, ovality observed after conducting experiment numbers 1 and 2 is
0.01 millimetre (mm). This is the lowest ovality observed on conducting experiments
whose results are presented in Table 4. The factors and levels used during experiment
numbers 1 and 2 are tabulated in Table 3. As shown in Table 4, except the tool wear,
396 K. Prabu et al.
levels of two parameters namely chuck holding pressure and depth of cut remain the
same in the experiments through which least ovality could be obtained. In future,
operators may use the values of factors and levels indicated in these experiments to get
least ovality in stage casing units.
Table 3 Factorial DOE
Experiment
number
Chuck holding
pressure (bar) Depth of cut (mm) Tool wear (μm) Ovality (mm)
1 12 2 15 0.01
2 12 2 16 0.01
3 12 3 15 0.04
4 12 3 16 0.03
5 13 2 15 0.02
6 13 2 16 0.02
7 13 3 15 0.04
8 13 3 16 0.03
Table 4 Values of factors and levels indicated in these experiments to get least ovality
Experiment
number
Chuck holding
pressure (bar) Depth of cut (mm) Tool wear (μm) Ovality (mm)
1 12 2 15 0.01
2 12 2 16 0.01
Besides conducting experiments and deriving the best factors and levels for obtaining
least ovality, special devices were designed to prevent ovality in case of machining the
stage casing units. It was found that, stage casing units were held using three jaw chucks
over a very limited length of 5 mm. Because of the limited area of holding, the operators
applied high pressure for preventing the stage casing units from slipping away from the
chuck. This caused unevenness in applying holding pressure. In order to impart uniform
holding pressure, for the purpose of avoiding ovality while machining stage casing units,
an attachment was designed, fabricated and welded with the three jaws of chuck. This
attachment is shown in Figures 6 and 7. Because of this attachment, operators are now
applying uniform pressure and occurrence of ovality in stage casing units is prevented to
the considerable extent.
Figure 6 Attachment of fixture without stage casing (see online version for colours)
Six Sigma implementation through DMAIC 397
Figure 7 Attachment of fixture with stage casing (see online version for colours)
In order to eliminate stage casing defects, the employment of non-destructive testing
(NDT) of cast units of stage casing on their arrival from foundry unit was suggested.
According to this suggestion, on arrival, all the castings of stage casings are required to
be subjected to NDT and defective castings particularly with blow holes need to be
stopped from entering into the machining phase. However, the issue of spending
considerable amount of money for buying NDT unit needs to be explored in future to
prevent the castings of stage casing to enter into the machining phase.
3.5 Control phase
While implementing the control phase, it is to be ensured that, the suggestions are
implemented and sustained. In order to ensure this aspect, the supervisors need to be
instructed to check whether the operators implement the suggestions. A separate
inspection room is to be created in which NDT facilities are installed and castings of
stage casing are continuously inspected. Inspectors are required to prevent the defective
casting from entering into machining phase. A separate bin is to be created to keep the
rejected castings of stage casing.
4 Conclusions
Right from the middle part of the twentieth century, the world began to witness the
emergence of continuous quality improvement approaches under different titles like
TQC, CWQC, and TQM (Breja et al., 2011; Nudurupati et al., 2011). All these
approaches are not specifically pointing out the goals that the companies have to attain
for achieving zero defect manufacturing. This deficiency has been overcome in the case
of Six Sigma approach which was first implemented in Motorola in 1980s (Yusr et al.,
2012). Later, GE implemented and practiced Six Sigma and propagated its essential
features (Swink and Jacobs, 2012).
The Six Sigma approach embraces two main activities. One is the execution of
project to solve quality failures by applying DMAIC phases (Easton and Rosenzweig,
2012). Other activity is the creation of belt-based training infrastructure by assigning
designations namely Champion, Master Black belt, Black belt and Green belt (Shafer and
Moeller, 2012). The process of creating belt-based training infrastructure has been
consuming a lot of money in organisations while implementing Six Sigma projects. This
398 K. Prabu et al.
created an impression that Six Sigma is an expensive approach which is not economical
to implement in small and medium size manufacturing companies for achieving
continuous quality improvement.
In order to overcome the economical hurdle of implementing Six Sigma, researchers
and practitioners began to apply only DMAIC approach for enabling the companies to
move towards achieving Six Sigma level quality (Rohini and Mallikarjun, 2011; Mast
and Lokkerbol, 2012; Antony et al., 2012). In line to this development, the research
reported in these papers was carried out. During this research, defects that occur in the
case of manufacturing the stage casing units were considered. After considering five
major defects, ovality was zeroed on to solve and increase the Sigma level quality of
machining stage casing. After consulting the operator and deriving the theoretical
knowledge from books, an experiment was designed and conducted. This experiment was
useful to identify the combination of factors and levels that could result in least ovality
while machining stage casing.
The conduct of DMAIC phases triggered to fabricate an attachment for holding stage
casing units in the three jaw chuck. Further, the use of NDT was suggested to prevent the
castings of stage casing with defects from entering into machining phase. Thus, DMAIC
was useful in zeroing on the most critical to quality defect and evolve solutions to prevent
the recurrence of these defects. The limitation of this research work is that, all the
solutions could not be actually implemented in PSG. However, the calculations carried
out in this research work indicated that on implementing the suggestions evolved during
the research, Six Sigma level of machining stage casing units was expected to improve
from 3.90 to 3.97. This value indicates that, more factors are required to be considered
and analysed to identify more solutions that would enable the achievement of Six Sigma
level quality in the case of machining stage casing units. The results of this analysis need
to be used in small and medium sized companies to prevent the occurrence of ovality
while machining stage casing. Overall, this research work has revealed the
implementation of DMAIC alone is prone to aid the manufacturing companies to move
towards achieving zero defect manufacturing by overcoming defects by carrying out the
Six Sigma projects.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Prof. A. Gunasekaran, Editor-in-Chief and the anonymous
reviewer whose expertise has been used to significantly improve the presentation of this
paper.
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... At present, Six Sigma is believed to be one of the best concepts for management. Management based on Six Sigma was initially focused on the manufacturing industry (Prabu et al., 2013), however, the methodology has been successfully used in other industrial branches, such as the hotel industry (Kumar and Singh, 2015), services (Chakraborty and Tan, 2012), and finance (Ansari et al., 2010). ...
... Projects most often aim at reducing costs and improving client satisfaction, efficiency, or eliminating waste. Initially, Six Sigma projects were associated with the improvement of processes that take place within production (Prabu et al., 2013). At present, however, they have come to be successfully used in other areas, such as the hotel industry (Kumar and Singh, 2015), services (Chakraborty and Tan, 2012), and finances (Ansari et al., 2010). ...
Abstract: Purpose: The objective of this paper is to present the possibilities of using the Six Sigma (SS) methodology in the management of city logistics processes in the Polish city of Szczecin. Design/Methodology/Approach: The Six Sigma methodology is used in this study. We discuss the possibility of managing city logistics based on the Six Sigma methodology. In the first stage, the city logistics processes are analysed, and the customer of this process and their needs are defined. For this purpose, a SIPOC (Suppliers Inputs Process Outputs Clients) diagram is used, as well as a CTQ (Critical to Quality) tree. Subsequently, an overall concept for the management of city logistics processes is developed. Findings: Based on the literature review, possible process evaluation indicators are proposed. Finally, an example of a Six Sigma project is presented, to improve the city logistics process in the city of Szczecin in Poland. Practical Implications: The presented research results show the possibility of using the Six Sigma (SS) methodology in the management of city logistics processes. Originality/value: The Six Sigma management concept in city logistics presented in the article is the first study of this type according to the authors' knowledge. The in-depth analysis of the literature on the subject, presented in the article provides for a possibility of applying the Six Sigma methodology in logistics processes and in city management. The management concept according to Six Sigma has not been previously applied to the management of city logistics processes to the authors' knowledge.
... The defective product indicator value per one million opportunities decreased drastically from 81,038 ppm or equal to 2.9 Sigma, to 39,636 ppm DPMO or equal to 3.3 Sigma. 48 (Prabu et al., 2013) Quality improvement in foundry Process. ...
Organizations must be able to meet customer needs in today's complex market situation and business environment, the needs and essentials for their satisfaction such as high product quality, competitive costs and faster delivery. Organization need to apply a comprehensive concept and method on managing this requirement. This systematic review intends to identify how Lean Six sigma implementation in many industries. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a method that has been widely used in research in various fields and continues to grow, to get the most common solution it is necessary to review the method. This research is to observe concept and method still relevant to be use and effectively improved the business performance and customer satisfaction. For the identity of the LSS Papers, a total of 50 research papers were reviewed which met the criteria, Research object, country of research and year of publication and Result of research. The result show that LSS is still being used and successfuly help the organization to improve their competitiveness, improve quality, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, increase productivity, and increase employee morale.
... It was developed by Bob Galvin and Bill Smith, who, in the 1980s, implemented it in Motorola [15]. Management based on the Six Sigma principles was first applied in production operations [16], but, now, it is successfully used in other areas, such as: hotel industry [17], services [18], and finance [19], as well as logistics. The in-depth analysis of the studies of Tjahjano [20] or De Carvalho [21] provides for a possibility of applying the Six Sigma method in logistics processes. ...
A city as a system that constitutes one of the most important areas of human activities. The significant role to fulfill their expectations pay the goods transport and deliveries. These issues are the subject of urban logistics. In broad terms, urban logistics may be construed as a number of processes focused on freight flows, which are completed in cities, including deliveries, supply, goods transfer, services, etc. Due to the different urban logistics stakeholders' expectations, these systems generate many challenges for managers, especially in the context of city users' needs and their quality of life. Today, there is a lack of broadened approach and methodology to support them from the processes' efficiency perspective. To fulfill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to apply the Six Sigma method as a support in last mile delivery management. Six Sigma method plays important role in production systems processes management. However, it could be useful in much wider perspective, including transport and logistics processes. The Authors emphasize that the Six Sigma method could be efficient approach in the last mile delivery processes' analysis in the context of their efficiency. It helps positioning the customer satisfaction level and quantify the delivery processes defects, related to the undelivered goods. Following that it could improve significantly the last mile delivery processes efficiency. The concept is illustrated by a sample evaluation of one of the urban logistics processes: completion of deliveries. To this end, urban logistics processes were defined. In particular, the delivery completion process was mapped, and the process client was defined along with their expectations. The defects that occurred in the process were identified and analyzed. A DPMO (Defect per Million Opportunities) indicator was established for three randomly selected months. In addition, a root cause analysis of errors was performed. The sigma level for the studied process ranged from 2.61 to 2.89. The factor that had the greatest impact on the number of defects defined as failed deliveries was customer's absence. The obtained results indicate that the delivery process should be examined in more detail.
... Kumar et al. have applied the DMAIC process and reduced production of leaking gloves by 50% [8]. Prabhu et al. implemented DMAIC on manufacturing of submersible pumps and improved sigma level quality from 3.90 to 3.97 [9]. Kumar et al. have implemented DMAIC in the piston manufacturing industry and have proved to reduce scrap and save around Rupees 52 lakhs/annum [10]. ...
Process improvement is a key for any company to make profits and improve their quality standards. One of the widely used techniques to do process improvement is by implementation of Six Sigma. In this paper, a Six Sigma analysis was done to reduce the scrap and rework of pistons which are rejected in order to improve the quality and decrease the wastage from money invested. The process variations of skirt diameter and pinhole diameter were controlled by changing a few manufacturing parameters which produced good results.
- Octa Bimansyah Untoro
- Irwan Iftadi
The research was conducted at PT. XYZ where there were defect problems in bed series products so that additional time is needed to repair a product. One way to make improvements and improve quality in a production process is the Six Sigma method with the stages of DMAIC. The results of the calculated average of DPMO values and Sigma Level have the result 58558.56 and 3.07 which are still not good because still far from 6 sigma. After that analyzing the root causes of defect product problems, then the priority problem is carried out using (RPN) where the highest value is at the assembly work station because the material that has been used up in the warehouse has an RPN of 405 so that it becomes a top priority for repairs. With the standardization and documentation, proposed improvements that have been given then the possible defects of Electric Lovina Bed 3 Motor will be reduced.
- Sri Lestari
Kualitas adalah target utama dalam pembuatan suatu produk. kualitas produk yang dihasilkan adalah cerminan keberhasilan perusahaan dimata konsumen. Pengendalian kualitas perlu dilakukan dikarenakan kualitas memiliki tujuan untuk menjaga, mengarahkan, mempertahankan, dan meningkatkan kualitas produk agar tetap sesuai dengan standart yang telah ditetapkan. Perusahaan ban di jawa barat sebagai salah satu perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang produksi berbagai jenis ban kendaraan bermotor, mobil, maupun bus dan truck di Indonesia. yang dihasilkan disebarkan ke banyak daerah di Indonesia maupun di Mancanegara. yang berada di Tangerang-Banten. Metode peningkatan kualitas salah satunya adalah Six Sigma. Six Sigma memiliki fokus pada mengurangi tingkat cacat, dengan mencapai standar 3,4 cacat perjuta peluang, Six Sigma memiliki 5 fase, Define, Measure, Analyze, Improvement dan Control (DMAIC). Pada penelitian ini, Six Sigma di terapkan di bagian plant mixing center yang memproduksi compound AT-807, dengan tujuan untuk menganalisis pengendalian kualitas dan meningkatkan kualitas dengan cara mengatasi dan mengurangi banyaknya cacat yang timbul sehingga diharapkan adanya perbaikan pada produk yang dihasilkan. Perubahan yang sangat jelas terjadi dari sebelum perbaikan dan sesudah perbaikan yang dapat peneliti rasakan dengan adanya perbaikan ini perusahaan dapat menghemat pengeluaran reject compound yang sebelumnya perusahaan dapat rugi dengan kisaran nominal uang sebesar 6,6 Milyar dan dengan adanya perubahan perbaikan ini perusahaan dapat mengehamat biaya reject dengan sebesar 4,9 Milyar menjadi 1,7 Milyar, dan adanya perubahan perbaikan ini jumlah reject berkurang, dari yang rata-rata reject sebanyak 1910 batch dapat ditekan menjadi 481 batch. Kata Kunci: Kualitas, Pengendalian Kualitas, Six Sigma, Quality Improvement, 5W+1H
- Finsaria Fidiyanti
- Novie Susanto
This research aims to manage the amount of defective packaging of capsule products in the department of capsule product at PT SM. It is important because the number of defective packaging of capsule products is high and exceeds the limits of maximum, i.e. 5% of the total production. In addition, the defective packaging of capsule products cannot be reworked and will cause losses in terms of time and finances. This research uses the Six Sigma method to find out the capabilities of the production process from the defective packaging of capsule products. Application of the method of Six Sigma through DMAIC process to eliminate the number of defective products and Fishbone diagram is used to identify the cause of the defect and provide recommendations on improvements to the production process. The data for this research is the amount of production, defective packaging of capsule products and interviews with the department of quality control, department of capsule product and operator. Data processing using Six Sigma methods showed that the value of sigma is 3.41σ with the number of DPMO is 27,951.202. Using Fishbone diagram, there are 9 causes of the defective packaging of capsule products.
Purpose ‐ Six Sigma program is an approach currently adopted by many companies, which involves a highly disciplined and guided process, in which applications of many different tools and techniques aim at generating a cycle of continuous improvement. In this sense, a survey-based research was conducted in a developing country from which the aim of this paper is to identify and analyse the tools and techniques used in the stages of the DMAIC. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The paper presents parts of the results of a descriptive survey conducted by a postal questionnaire answered by more than 60 Six Sigma users. Specific results of tools and techniques applied in Six Sigma are compared with those prescribed in the literature. Findings ‐ The results confirm the use of Six Sigma tools and techniques suggested by the literature. It also points out that Six Sigma needs to be supported by measurable and reliable data, and thus that the use of tools and techniques is indispensable to the use of the DMAIC. Research limitations/implications ‐ This is not a probabilistic survey and, therefore, the generalisation is not feasible. Practical implications ‐ The paper may assist either academic and practitioners when teaching, researching and applying tools and techniques in Six Sigma. Originality/value ‐ This paper is one of the few published studies that report tools and techniques applied in Six Sigma programme in developing countries.
Nowadays in the hypercompetitive marketplace companies try to adopt and apply many strategic approaches and initiatives that have proved its success to improve the competitive advantage, innovative abilities, and business performance in general. Thus, this study attempts to figure out the relationship between Six Sigma and innovation performance, and examine the mediating role of AC in this relationship. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from the manufacturing companies in Malaysia and Partial Least Square (PLS) was adopted to analyze the data obtained. Based on the literature review, the conceptual framework of this study is introduced. The hypotheses were tested and supported through the findings.
- Rohini R.
- J. Mallikarjun
Aligning Total Quality Management (TQM) by applying SIX-SIGMA in the health care setup gives a strategic dimension to hospital manager to reform the system & functions to obtain zero error hospital. This study proposes the DMAIC Six Sigma approach of Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve/Implement and Control (DMAIC) to improve the process in the Operation Theatre of a corporate multi specialty hospital in Bangalore, India. The DMAIC approach showed a wider application and how the healthcare organisation can achieve competitive advantages, efficient decision-making and problem-solving capabilities within a business context. The paper identifies each stage in detail, discusses the tools required and points out the limitations to the success of the improvement initiatives. The paper develops a Design DMAIC Model that can be used as a template for improving the Operation Theatre Process in hospitals. Six Sigma is complimentary to other initiatives such as ISO, JACHO, TQM, NABH etc. The study recommends many OT related solutions for framing policies, for consultants and for supportive staff, engineering and IT services.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of adopting Six Sigma on corporate performance. Although there is a fairly large and growing body of anecdotal evidence associated with the benefits of implementing Six Sigma, there is very little systematic and rigorous research investigating these benefits. This research extends previous research in several important ways including utilizing a sample of 84 Six Sigma firms that represent a wide variety of industries and firm characteristics, utilizing rigorously constructed control groups to ensure the validity of our comparisons and conclusions, and investigating the impact of adopting Six Sigma on corporate performance over a ten year period. To carry out this investigation, the event study methodology is employed. The ten year period consists of three years prior to Six Sigma implementation, the event year corresponding to the year Six Sigma is adopted, and six years post Six Sigma implementation. To assess the impact of adopting Six Sigma on corporate performance we utilize commonly used measures including Operating Income/Total Assets (OI/A), Operating Income/Sales (OI/S), Operating Income/Number of Employees (OI/E), Sales/Assets (S/A), and Sales/Number of Employees (S/E). The sample Six Sigma firms are compared to different benchmarks including the overall industry performance and to the performance of carefully selected portfolios of control firms. The results of the study indicate that adopting Six Sigma positively impacts organizational performance primarily through the efficiency with which employees are deployed. More specifically, enhanced employee productivity results were observed in both static analyses that assessed the performance of the sample Six Sigma firms relative to their control groups at discrete points in time and dynamic analyses of the Six Sigma firms' rate of improvement relative to the rate of improvement of their control groups. Benefits in terms of improved asset efficiency were not observed. Finally, there was no evidence that Six Sigma negatively impacts corporate performance.
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![Michael Sony]()
- Subhash Naik
Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Six Sigma, organizational learning and innovation performance. Also, whether organizational learning advance innovation performance by playing a mediating role between Six Sigma and innovation performance, probing the moderating effects of organizational types between six sigma and organizational learning, and also testing a proposed model to explain the relationships among Six Sigma, organizational type organizational learning, and innovation performance through an empirical examination in the Indian industry context. Design/methodology/approach ‐ Correlations are used to analyze the degree of relationship between constructs and to further understand the direct and indirect effects, as well as the moderating and mediating effects among the constructs in model, structural equation modeling is conducted using AMOS 6.0 on data collected from Indian industries. Findings ‐ This study proves the positive relationship between Six Sigma and organizational learning. It also confirms that Six Sigma role structure and Six Sigma focus on metrics contributes positively to organizational innovation, however, Six Sigma structured improvement procedure was found to be negatively related to organizational innovation, thus contributing to Six Sigma-Innovation Paradox. This study also rejects moderating effects of organizational type between Six Sigma and organizational learning. Research limitations/implications ‐ Cultural context is a critical factor not only on Six Sigma, but also organizational learning, and organization innovation for investigating hence future study should consider this aspect. This research suggests the need for more intensive research to explore in more depth the relationship between Six Sigma structured improvement procedure, and the administrative and the technical innovation to identify the existence of potentially mediating variables in order to understand what is named the Six Sigma-Innovation Paradox. Practical implications ‐ The findings are useful for business managers in developing countries such as India, who want to enhance business performance through implementing Six Sigma practices that support their firm's product and services innovation efforts. Originality/value ‐ The study has contributed to establishing an empirical research between Six Sigma, organizational learning and organizational innovations that facilitates more quality management research in developing countries. It has contributed to clarifying the disputed relationship between Six Sigma practices and the firm's learning and innovativeness, and shows empirical evidence in India to confirm that the Six Sigma practices deployed by a firm has a positive impact on its organizational learning. Six Sigma focuses on role structure and metrics contributed positively to innovation, however the Six Sigma effect of procedure on organizational innovation is negatively related, thus opening new areas of Six Sigma-Innovation Paradox.
- Peter A. Salzarulo
- Timothy C. Krehbiel
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![Stephen Mahar]()
- Lance S. Emerson
Purpose – Today's economic climate has fueled intense competition for entertainment dollars, including those spent on professional and intercollegiate sports. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight and demonstrate the use of the Six Sigma methodology as a way to improve event attendance in a sports marketing setting. Design/methodology/approach – The research utilizes the define‐measure‐analyze‐improve‐control (DMAIC) sequence to evaluate customer requirements and develop recommendations. Surveys, focus groups, and descriptive statistics comprise an important set of tools utilized to accomplish this aim. Findings – The paper concludes that Six Sigma can be readily applied to a sports marketing setting by explicitly demonstrating the steps employed to reverse a four‐year decline in attendance for a collegiate men's basketball program. Originality/value – The paper is unique in detailing the use of Six Sigma, a traditional quality improvement methodology, in a sports marketing setting. It also highlights the unique elements associated with fully implementing a Six Sigma project in such a seasonal setting as an athletic enterprise.
Recent learning-by-doing research highlights the importance of examining multiple measures of experience and their relationship to the performance of work teams. Our paper studies the role of individual experience, organizational experience, team leader experience, and experience working together on a team (team familiarity) in the context of improvement teams. To do so, we analyze successful and failed six sigma improvement team projects at a Fortune 500 consumer products manufacturer with multiple business groups. Such improvement project teams focus on deliberate learning, which differs from the primary focus of work teams. Our analysis uses archival data generated by these improvement project teams over a six year time span. Of the four experience variables we study, we find that team leader experience exhibits the strongest relationship with project success, followed by organizational experience. Further, in contrast to prior-related research on work teams, we find no relationship between individual experience or team familiarity and project success beyond that explained by team leader and organizational experience. These results suggest that a well-developed and deployed structured problem-solving process—characteristic of effective six sigma deployments—may reduce the importance of team familiarity in the context of improvement teams.
- Jeroen de Mast
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![Joran Lokkerbol]()
The DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) method in Six Sigma is often described as an approach for problem solving. This paper compares critically the DMAIC method with insights from scientific theories in the field of problem solving. As a single authoritative account of the DMAIC method does not exist, the study uses a large number of sources, consisting of prescriptive accounts of the method in the practitioner literature. Five themes are selected from the problem solving literature for the analysis of DMAIC—generality versus domain specificity of methods; problem structure; generic problem solving tasks; diagnostic problem solving; and remedial problem solving. The study provides a characterization of the types of problems for which DMAIC is a suitable method, but also identifies problems for which it may be ineffective. An important limitation of the method is its generality, which limits the methodological support it provides, and which fails to exploit task-domain specific knowledge. Domain-specific adaptations of the method partly overcome these weaknesses. Among the method's strengths are the powerful statistical techniques for fact finding and empirical verification of ideas, and the DMAIC stage model, which acts as a problem structuring device. The most prominent limitation identified in this study is Six Sigma's inferior methodology for efficient problem diagnosis. Methodological support for the identification of potential problem causes is offered as an incoherent and poorly structured collection of techniques, without strategic guidance to ensure efficiency of the diagnostic search. Adopters of the method should be aware of its potential limitations.
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264819873_Six_Sigma_implementation_through_DMAIC_a_case_study
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