How can you use the latest quality control tools and methods in manufacturing?

Six Sigma is an incredibly powerful tool in manufacturing, but fully implementing it can be challenging. Many people may not be familiar with its methods, such as DMAIC , which can make adoption difficult. It's often more effective to focus on one improvement at a time and progress gradually. As you make small, consistent changes, you'll start to see significant improvements in waste reduction and customer satisfaction. By integrating Six Sigma with tools like SPC, you’ll achieve a more streamlined and controlled process. Over time, these steps will lead to better overall performance and more efficient manufacturing operations. The key is steady progress, ensuring each improvement builds on the last, leading to long-term success.

SPC is a powerful tool; however, what is often over look is the readiness of the reaction plan. It is very easy to create a control limits for any given process and apply as many as SPC rules as your wish. This will guarantee you have a lot of "signals" representing abnormalities in your process. However, without knowing what those signals mean and hence what to do with your process, you will not make your process more consistent. In the other word, one should start to collecting signals that represent bad product quality or unstable process already in the process development phase. Then, the SPC control limits and rules should be tailored to identify those undesirable signals. As a result, you get a stable process.

I believe a more effective approach begins with standardizing the process first. Once you have a standardized workflow, applying SPC on top of that allows you to identify gaps and inefficiencies more easily. This way, you're not just reacting to signals but proactively improving production by fixing root causes. The goal should be to create a system where SPC enhances consistency, not just highlights problems.

I have been in Precision sheet metal fabrication for over 40 years. The real truth is that you have to build quality into your process. Control your bill of materials. Purchase what you need to complete the job, per Purchase order. Control your costs and always evaluate every job and give the customer the price quickly. To help secure the Purchase order. Above all else make a profit! 25 to 30 % is good.

In today's environment businesses are backing off on ordering, which is hurting the manufacturer. We are finding it a struggle to get some goods in a reasonable time. We have to control our costs,due to the lower receivables that we can count on. Lowering costs to improve profit.

DOE is often used to identify a robust operation window during the product development or process development. However, it is also useful in root cause analysis. During an investigation of a quality issue, many possible causes can be collected from relevant SMEs. An DOE can be designed to identified the primary cause. Cause identified this way will lead you to effective corrective action. Since the relationship between the cause and effect is identified via a DOE, one can even tailor a specific corrective action depends on the change needed on the effect.