Abstract
In this era of globalization, as competition intensifies, providing on timely delivered products and services has become a competitive advantage and a need to ensure survival. The Six Sigma’s problem solving methodology DMAIC has been one of the several techniques used by organizations to improve the deliveries of their products and services. This paper is based on an application of Six Sigma and DMAIC to improve on time deliveries within a MDF boards manufacturing organization in Sri Lanka. The paper follows the DMAIC methodology to systematically investigate the root causes of delivery failures and provide a solution to improve them. It begins with the past data analysis of the problem to find out major causes for delivery failures and after finding major causes further analysis is done to find out sub critical causes. Then reasons are analyzed for these sub causes and for these analyses Pareto charts, Brainstorming, Fish bone diagrams and verification sheets are used as tools and techniques. Finally to find out key root causes 5Y analysis is used and solutions have been proposed to overcome these issues. Product quality issues and Plant availability issues were the most problematic cause for delivery failures. Further analysis noted, Shives, Crack marks and Rough surface were the most problematic quality defects and to loss plant availability several mechanical and production related plant down time issues were caused. Metering belt broken, Doffing rolls drive chain broken and fibers leaking from gland packing at refiner 01 were the most significant causes identified as mechanical related plant down times and out feed board blockage, refiner 01 blow line blockage and forming line scalper exhaust line blockage were the most significant production related plant down time causes. This paper can be used as a guiding reference for managers and engineers to undertake specific product and process improvement projects, in their organizations, similar to the one presented in this paper. This study presents an industrial case which demonstrates how the application of Six Sigma and DMAIC can help manufacturing organizations to achieve product quality and plant availability improvements in their companies and thus contribute to their search for improvement of on time deliveries.
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