Weight-loss Percentage Improvement of PVC Artificial Leather Products in Automotive Part Industry by Six Sigma

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to improve the weight-loss percentage of PVC artificial leather products manufactured by the calendering process. It was noticed that the weight-loss percentage was greater than 5% which did not pass the specification given by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Hence, the DMAIC Six Sigma methodology was applied to improve the situation. The cause-and-effect matrix and the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) were adopted to identify the potential factors that affect the quality of the products. After that, the design of experiment (DOE) was used to determine significant factors and optimal parameter settings for the production process to prevent a recurrence. The result shown that the average weight-loss percentage was reduced to only 0.9% after applying new parameter settings.