VOC - Powder Paint Quality

8/11/2019 VOC - Powder Paint Quality

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DMAIC Case Study - Powder Paint Quality

Background

This project begins in an industrial transmission manufacturing facility located in a town namedMars. The facility produces three major product lines that vary in complexity, but are considered

customized product. The order-to-remittance (T!" process involves intensive expertise, from#uoting the order through design engineering, manufacturing, and shipping. The Mars facility ispart of a business whose head#uarters are located in the city of $luto. %oth locations areconsidered by many to be &out of this world.'

The Mars plant is considering a major capital plant and e#uipment investment to expand itspowder coat paint line which paints the housing for each of the transmissions produced at theplant. owever, before this initiative is launched the plant manager as)s the employees involvedin the powder coat paint production to evaluate the capabilities of the existing process andimprove control of that process.

*n the course of this evaluation, the internal customers (the assembly personnel on the threeproduct lines" complain bitterly about the poor #uality of the painted parts they receive. +veryassembled product they ma)e for the end-user contains many painted parts. Thus, any part thatmust be repainted reduces the ability of assembly personnel to deliver the final product to thecustomer.

Cast of Characters

Fred %lac) %elt

Neal rea leader (reen %elt"

Dae $rocess +xpert (reen %elt"

Sara ourly process operator

!eorge ourly team leader

Irene ssembly team leader

Ste"hanie +mployed by the powder paint supplier

#ans +mployed by the paint system supplier

Business !eneral Manager!esponsible for the entire business operationin Mars mar)eting, design, manufacturing andsupport operations such as finance, humanresources, and information technology

Ally$lant Manager responsible for themanufacturing operation in Mars

Quality Manager!esponsible for the #uality system, focusedprimarily on manufacturing and design #uality

Marketing Manager!esponsible for mar)eting the three productlines produced in Mars

lly the plant manager charges /red and 0eal with understanding the process, determining what

improvements need to be made, and implementing the improvement and control plan. /red and0eal decide to use the 1M*2 roadmap to start this project.

To get started, /red and 0eal begin planning for the first phase of this new 1M*2 project (i.e.The 1+/*0+ phase". To begin their wor), /red and 0eal must develop the 2T34s for the project.5pecifically, /red and 0eal will have to

*dentify the true customer

+valuate the customers6 needs and concerns, also called voice of the customer, or 72


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2ontain the problem, if necessary

Translate the 72 into product or process re#uirements that are critical to customer

satisfaction8 these re#uirements are critical to #uality, and so are called 2T3s

This tells them their first job is to define the problem. %ecause they understand that the customermust define the problem, they must first identify the customer.

ere is where 0eal and /red run into their first hurdle. 9ho is the customer: *s the customer theexternal customer who purchases the transmission: The assembly personnel: r maybe, thecustomer is lly. fter all, isn6t she the person who as)ed them to start the project: 5he should bethe real customer, shouldn6t she:

/red thin)s the end-user should be the focus of the project. fter all, isn6t this what 5ix 5igma isall about: 0eal maintains that the assembly people are the true customers, because they are theones demanding a better coat paint process.

fter considerable debate, they decide to investigate this idea further. /red agrees to loo) intoexisting end-user information regarding paint #uality. 0eal will tal) to the assembly personnel andthe plant manager, lly. They agree to meet the next day with more data.

Fred and the end-user

/red consults with the product service team and the #uality manager. e learns that the productservice people have been )eeping customer-complaint data for years. *n reviewing the prioryear6s record, /red finds that a very small percentage of customer complaints have anything to dowith paint #uality (see the $areto chart below". /red ascertains that the end-users are notcomplaining about paint #uality.

*n his discussions with the #uality manager, /red also learns that customers6 biggest complaintdoes not even show up on the $areto chart. pparently, customers complain most vehementlyabout the fact that only ;5chedule ttainment.6 To verify this concern, /red spea)s with themar)eting manager and the business general manager. They shared information from recentvisits with the facility6s top ten customers. 1uring these visits, the majority of customers identifiedthe low schedule attainment ratio as the most critical factor deterring them from continuing to dobusiness with the company. s a result of this direct customer feedbac), the general manager


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and his staff identified improving schedule attainment as one of three major business thrusts.

Neal and the asse$%ly crew

0eal decides to tal) with the leader of the final assembly team for products from in the second ofthe three product lines. /irst, he listens to the team leader complain strongly about the paintproblem. The team leader as)s if 0eal )nows that the assembly team sends two to three hugebins of painted parts to the scrap area every day. 1ue to the high volume of waste parts from allcauses, the assembly people dump them in a single scrap bin to save time. 0o attempt is madeto categorize the defects causing the parts to be rejected.

Questions for Discussion in &our !rou"

?. %ased on the information 0eal and /red gained, *dentify the customer for this project.

lly

The final assembly team

The team in the powder paint operation

The purchasers of the final assembled transmissions

5omeone else:

@. 9hat does the voice of the customer (72" data indicate is needed by the &customer' thatyou4ve identified:

A. *s there any evidence that immediate action is needed to &contain the problem' before the1M*2 project continues: *f so, what type of action:

B. Translate the 72 information into one or more 2T34s for this project. !emember the2T34s must be measurable but need not be #uantitative. That is, each 2T34s must be clearlyenough stated so that anyone can unambiguously determine if the process output satisfiesthat 2T3.

C. $rioritize the 2T34s (if there is more than on", indicating which is the most critical, which isthe next most critical, etc.

D. 9hat evidence do you have that your top-priority 2T3(s" are either consistent with thecurrent business strategy or that they conflict with that strategy:

Documents

VOC - Powder Paint Quality