1. Think of a current Operations process in which you are involved, one in which you have been involved in the past, or one in the world around you. Think of some aspect of it that needed to be or needs to be improved. Assume you have been designated to lead an effort to apply to the Six-Sigma DMAIC cycle to improving the process. Discuss how you might apply those steps.
For example, as a Production Manager, I used the DMAIC cycle extensively. When a specific cell producing inner combustor liner assemblies was achieving only 20% on-time delivery, I led the application of the DMAIC steps as follows.
Define: I set up a team involving the Technicians working in the cell, a Manufacturing Engineer, a Production Planner, a Buyer, and a Customer. We defined the expectations of the cell as 100% on-time delivery, no accidents, 100% quality, and overtime within budget.
Measure: We mapped the production process for that cell and identified the points at which interruptions to flow most likely occur (some of these included "delivery of kit of parts from storeroom," "furnace," "application of braze," and "delivery of tooling to cell.") We brainstormed and devised a means of recording at each of these stages "turnbacks" or problems that were encountered. This was a simple standardized data-collection form with the most common problems listed and a place for Technicians to record "tick-marks" when that problem occurred.
Analyze: After collecting data for 2 weeks, we applied Pareto Analysis to create a simple histogram of the data to find those problems occurring with the greatest frequency. We then applied fishbone diagramming (or "cause-and-effect diagramming") to further analyze the causes of the top 3 most frequently occurring problems. In this case, the biggest problem was a specific part procured from China, so we identified the potential causes of that. These included Order Placement, Customs Delays, Quality Inspection Time, etc. Further analysis by the team determined that the orders for the part were placed assuming that it would take 10 days to deliver the parts to our plant. In fact, it routinely took 20 days.
Improve: We modified the work instructions for the Buyer placing the orders for the parts to account for the actual shipment and delivery time.
Control: We continued to collect data in the production cell and verified that the instances of delivery of kits from the storeroom with this part missing declined to zero and the on-time delivery of the cell was 100%.
2. What are the 5 S's? Think of a physical situation in an organization with which you are familiar. How could each of the 5S's be applied? Think of an electronic situation in an organizatin with which you are familiar. How could each of the 5S's be applied? You will have to look beyond your course materials to answer these questions.
3. Describe ISO 9000 and its role in supply chains. Search the Internet for an example of a company that is ISO 9000 certified and search its website for any reference to why it became certified and/or what that means to its customers. Share your findings.