Application of Six Sigma In Process Improvement of Camshafts.

SYNOPSIS

Project name - Application of Six Sigma In Process Improvement of Camshafts.

Introduction to six sigma -

             It is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It seeks to improve the quality of the output of a process by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, mainly empirical, statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has specific value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits.

           Six Sigma projects follow two project methodologies inspired by Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. These methodologies, composed of five phases each, DMAIC and DMADV

DMAIC is used for projects aimed at improving an existing business process.

The DMAIC project methodology has five phases:

• Define the system, the voice of the customer and their requirements, and the project goals, specifically.
• Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data; calculate the 'as-is' Process Capability.
• Analyze the data to investigate and verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered. Seek out root cause of the defect under investigation.
• Improve or optimize the current process based upon data analysis using techniques such as design of experiments, poka yoke or mistake proofing, and standard work to create a new, future state process. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability.
• Control the future state process to ensure that any deviations from the target are corrected before they result in defects. Implement control systems such as statistical process control, production boards, visual workplaces, and continuously monitor the process. This process is repeated until the desired quality level is obtained.

 DMADV  is used for projects aimed at creating new product or process designs.

The DMADV project methodology, known as DFSS ("Design For Six Sigma"),features five phases:

• Define design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
• Measure and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To Quality), measure product capabilities, production process capability, and measure risks.
• Analyze to develop and design alternatives
• Design an improved alternative, best suited per analysis in the previous step
• Verify the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process and hand it over to the process owner(s).

 

Fig.No.1.DMADV Methodology

                This report presents the step-by-step application of the Six Sigma DMADV (Define–Measure–Analyze–Design–Verify) approach to minimizes the rejection in a drilling operations of an automotive company. This has helped to reduce defects in the process and thereby improve productivity . During the measure and analyze phases of the project, data were collected from the processes to understand the baseline performance and for validation of causes. These data were studied through various graphical and statistical analyses. Chi-square test, ANOVA, Design of Experiments (DOE), Control Charts, Taguchi methods, etc. were used to make meaningful and scientifically proven conclusions about the process and the related causes.

             The relationship of Lean and the Toyota Production System. In the late 1980s, Womack, Jones and Roos visited Japan to find out why the Japanese auto industry was performing so much better than the US auto industry. They started with the assumption that it was a result of Japan’s quality control systems that the Japanese had learned from Edwards Deming in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The Machine that Changed World: The Story of Lean Production however, was that there was a big disparity in performance between most auto companies in Japan, all of whom were using quality control, and Toyota, which was at least an order of magnitude ahead of the rest. What Toyota was practicing is now widely known as the Toyota Production System (TPS). 

             Ford Motor Co. made "Quality Is Job 1" a household slogan in the 1980s as it introduced revolutionary new products and used Total Quality Management to drive down costs and capture market share. Lately, however, the No. 2 automaker has been plagued by quality gaffes that have cost it dearly in customer satisfaction and market share. In fact, according to a recent J.D. Power & Associates survey, Ford has fallen behind arch-rival General Motors Corp. in overall quality and now ranks last among the big-seven automakers.

                 Ford didn't just decide to overhaul its quality processes; it has redefined the way it approaches its business. Instead of acting like the manufacturing behemoth that it is, Ford wants to be known as a consumer products company.

                Rockwell Collins, an aerospace company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, decided to use the EPA Lean and the Environment toolkits, their existing Lean and Six Sigma program, and leverage their employee expertise in order to reduce their overall carbon footprint. After analyzing the electricity usage at the largest manufacturing facility using the Six Sigma DMAIC project framework, an air handler setup program was piloted and implemented. It took almost one year to complete the rollout, but the results yielded more than $300,000 in electricity savings, with an implementation cost of approximately $50,000 for labor and materials.   Rockwell Collins is now on track to achieve its goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent. In fact, the company expects its reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to exceed 18 percent by the end of this year.

              Southland CNC in Cornelia, Ga., is a Tier Two supplier of automotive components to domestic and transplant automakers — primarily sand-cast aluminum parts. Established 19 years ago with a single machine in president/owner Keith Armour’s garage, it has 30 employees now using 21 high-capacity machining centers. Southland machines various parts that include production runs of very high volumes, and other production runs of relatively low volume. It uses dedicated hydraulic clamping fixtures on Okuma Howa vertical machining centers for its high-volume production runs, because these fixtures decrease production time significantly, which makes the fixturing highly cost-effective. The dedicated hydraulic fixtures also provide clamping pressure that is consistent and repeatable, which improves machining accuracy.                                                       

Literature Review

• E. V. Gijoa, Johny Scariab and Jiju Antony Six Sigma is a data-driven leadership approach using specific tools and methodologies that lead to fact-based decision making. This paper deals with the application of the Six Sigma methodology in reducing defects in a fine grinding process of an automotive company in India. The DMAIC (Define–Measure–Analyse–Improve–Control) approach has been followed here to solve the underlying problem of reducing process variation and improving the process yield. This paper explores how a manufacturing process can use a systematic methodology to move towards world-class quality level. The application of the Six Sigma methodology resulted in reduction of defects in the fine grinding process from 16.6 to 1.19%. 

• Dr. Rajeshkumar U. Sambhe:- Indian automotive ancillary units are one of the swift growing within the small and mid-sized group of industries which are influential contributors to the complete production of auto components. With the ascent in interrogation of growing customers and presuming for resplendent quality of their product, some of giant Indian organizations are inspiring their suppliers to employ Six Sigma in order to improve the quality of their process and products for embellishing competitive advantage. This paper focus on a case of provoked mid-sized auto ancillary unit consisting of 350-400 employee and employed Six Sigma (SS) methodologies to elevate towards the dream of SS quality level. The methodology is executed on one of product assembly for trimming down defects level which are critical to customers and its implementation has  a significant financial hit on the bottom-line of the enterprise.
• Mageshwaran. G, Jeya Jeevahan, Ramkumar Raja SK The aim of this work is to Improve the Gear Box Fork Quality by using Six sigma tool. The fork component coupled in fork shifting rail and the fork pan located inside the gear by using the coupler. In Fork component the following problems as arrived while assembly & shifting the gear, Fork perpendicularity issue, Thickness taper issue, Positional dimensional deviation issue. Rectification of the problem to improve the fork quality using the mythology of six sigma and take ting the corrective action & preventive action. 

• Nagaraja Reddy K M, Dr. Y S Varadarajan, Raghuveer Prasad   The two major challenges that industries are facing are continuous improvement in productivity and quality of the product. An alternative to the Classical and Taguchi experimental design is the lesser known but much simpler Shainin DOE approach. Shainin methods refer to a collection of principles, which make up the framework of a continually evolving approach to quality. Bosch Production System (BPS) - one of the leading manufacturers in Diesel system equipments, has been successfully employing the strong statistical tool ‘Shainin’ for the root cause identification and Design of Experiments (DOE) techniques for analysis and optimization of the quality related issues. Shainin is popular tool being simplest to employ in the manufacturing related problem solving and very effective tool in identifying quality achievement hurdles. The present paper deals with one of the quality issues resolved by using Shainin methodology at Bosch Ltd, Banglore. 

• S. Suresh, A. L. Moe and A. B. Abu  Six Sigma is one of the best emerging approaches for quality assurance and   management in automobile parts manufacturing. In this research, Quality Management tools such as COPQ analysis, Data Analysis, Pareto charts, Cause and Effect diagrams, Process Capability Study, Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA), Design of Experiments (DOE), Visual and Control Charts etc. are used in defining the problems in order to find the root causes for the problem and carrying out experiments in order to suggest improvements, through which the company could bring in Quality and Stability in their process. Two main reasons that strongly effect the product rejections are discovered. The new improved process is validated through a Pilot batch run. Using the six sigma method, the rejection percentage is reduced by 13.2% from the existing 38.1%  

• Niranjana B, Dr. H. Ramakrishna,Kailashkumar P Gehlot currently all the manufacturing industries are facing major challenges in continuous improvement in productivity and quality of the product. In this highly competitive environment customer satisfaction plays a vital role. Reducing internal customer complaints is one of the critical tasks at engine assembly. This requires the use of continuous improvement methodologies, such as lean six sigma which enable companies to improve customer satisfaction and meet their expectation. This paper is a six sigma project, undertaken within the company for reducing the internal customer complaints of camshaft binding problem, which deals with identification and reducing the internal customer complaints of camshaft binding in engine assembly line. The data collection of 11 months has shown that 26% of ICC (internal customer complaints) is due to camshaft binding. The applied six sigma approach includes works through several phases: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC). The problem was defined by selecting the core issues concerned. The possibility of application of several six sigma tools such as Pareto diagrams, project charter, critical to quality (CTQ), in define phase. In measurement phase data related to engine block – camshaft binding was collected following the validation of measurement system by MSA study and process capability is determined. During analysis phase root cause of engine losses were identified. In improvement phase the damage of camshaft due to metal contact during handling and storage were solved. And finally in control phase various tools were implemented for tracking the process and putting it under control. The study reports quality improvement through reduction in defects, from 11374 PPM to 4450 PPM.

Objectives -

• Reduce manufacturing errors.
• Increase the production rate.
• Design automation if required.