At STEER, Six Sigma is a way of life.
It forms the basis for consistently supplying quality
products on time to our customers. The Six Sigma goal
results in less rework and wastage, improved process
reliability, consistent product quality, and total
customer satisfaction. We constantly monitor our product
quality and processes and make studied improvements
to them with the ultimate aim of being a Six Sigma
company.
To
realize the objective, the company has carried out
various Six Sigma projects. The projects begin with
identifying product characteristics that are critical
to satisfying both the physical and functional requirements
of the product or service demanded by the customer,
known as CTQs (Critical to Quality). This is followed
by studying product capability and product performance,
determining specific product elements that contribute
to achieving the CTQ characteristics and understanding
process steps or process choice that controls each
critical characteristic. Then the process capability
or ability to perform to required specifications,
for the manufacturing parts and processes that control
the critical characteristics are determined and a
list of potential factors to change/improve is generated.
This is done by connecting a customer CTQ to the quantitative
targets (QFD - Quality Function Deployment), establishing
performance goals and analyzing internal/external
benchmarking data and entitlements, conducting G R&R
(Gauge Repeatability and Reproducibility) studies
to assess measurement variability, evaluating various
input factors' effects on dimensional variations and
other statistical tools.
If a process
capability fails to meet Six Sigma level of control,
required actions using the Six Sigma methodology are
implemented (Here courses of actions necessary to
improve process capability and technology capability
are distinguished). Then essential steps are taken
to ensure that the process capability improvements
are sustained or made to last by implementing changes
in the ISO 9001 Quality System Documentation. These
have led to tighter process control or implementation
of better technology.
By continuing
to carry out Six Sigma projects periodically with
enhanced performance standards and by inducing and
sustaining process capability improvements, the company
boldly anticipates Six Sigma outputs satisfying both
customer and internal CTQ characteristics.
