Sigma Level Improvements in MIG Welding using DMAIC Approach

Abstract

There is no substitute to quality and for survival in todays cutthroat market, business corporations must offer products with excellent value. In most instances, more superior the quality the more competitive their product becomes; especially when they are competing in the buyer market. In addition to the need of delivering a quality product, economic factors such as global competition, declining profit margin, customer demand for variety of products and reduced leadtime etc. have a major impact on manufacturing industries. This paper presents a case study regarding the implementation of Six Sigma DMAIC (DefineMeasure-Analyze-Improve-Control) methodology in a welding facility of a Steering manufacturing plant in Gurgaon and discusses the statistical analysis performed for bringing the welding processes in the desired sigma limits. During this study, first of all the vital factors causing defects in welding were identified and forcing the re-work on facility and also affecting the process and then certain improvement procedures were taken to improve the capability of one individual welding process, Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding process. Cost of re-work was also measured before and after implementation to validate the improvement results achieved.