Flow Racks - The Ideal Way to Present Material to Your Operators for Lean Manufacturing

IPS built flow racks and stands create an ergonomic and efficient system to reduce labour, increase efficiency and promote lean manufacturing in your facility. Each flow rack consists of one or more inclined roller track and can be designed to gravity feed numerous containers for efficient line side material delivery. By utilizing flow racks you can achieve material handling parts presentation and empty container return all in one structure, which will save both space and time. Unlike a static storage system that causes a lot of unnecessary travel time, reaching and bending, our flow racks provide an easy access, ergonomic way to organize and present products to your operator.

Utilizing flow racks has many benefits, most notably decreasing the amount of restocking needed and increasing the speed of picking leading to greatly improved efficiency. Typical applications for flow racks include storage, material handling, picking, inventory rotation, assembly lines, wash-down and other applications that require the first-in first-out method of inventory handling.

The Ecoflex coated pipe and joint system allows for the complete customization of your application, can be designed to handle any sized box, container or part and can even be personalized to suit your personnel. In addition, unlike welded steel structures, all of our flow racks are completely modular and can be re-used and recycled unlimited times to continually adapt to changes in your facility.

At IPS we design and build everything from simple gravity feed flow racks for parts presentation and empty container return, as pictured above, to more complicated systems such as our automatic return flow rack or the right angle lever stop and tilt flow rack with automatic return, both demonstrated below.

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Integrated Products & Services Inc. was established in 2006 as a lean manufacturing and material handling consultation firm and have grown into a leader in the distribution of modular pipe racking and shelving systems in Canada. 

For more information, to request a quote or to set up an in-house assessment, please contact us.

Ergonomic Height-Adjustable Workstation using the Dyna-Lift System

Introducing the new Dyna-Lift from Bucher Hydraulics. Dyna-Lift has become the standard for ergonomic height adjust-ability. At IPS we understand the ever changing needs of our customers, which is why we are introducing the Dyna-Lift system to our catalogue. The Dyna-Lift system, as demonstrated below, creates an ergonomically correct, height adjustable workstation, which allows for increased comfort for the operator as well as increased productivity. The Dyna-Lift system, which complies with ADA and OSHA guidelines, with its simple installation combined with its smooth and quiet operation is the perfect way to create a new ergonomically designed workstation, but can also be easily retrofitted to existing workstations.

In addition to workstations, the Dyna-Lift system has been used for many applications including office furniture, hospital beds, assembly line fixtures, rehabilitation tables, massage table lifts, podium lifts and many more.

Both manual (hand crank) and electric (115 V AC motor) are available for purchase. Stroke lengths available are 6", 8", 10", 12" and 16" with straight fittings and standard hose lengths of 96"-96"-60"-60".

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Integrated Products & Services Inc. was established in 2006 as a lean manufacturing and material handling consultation firm and have grown into a leader in the distribution of modular pipe racking and shelving systems in Canada. 

For more information, to request a quote or to set up an in-house assessment, please contact us.

Principles of Material Handling

"The Fundamentals of Material Handling"

The Material Handling Institute 2014

Material handling is the movement, protection, storage and control of materials and products throughout manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, consumption and disposal. As a process, material handling incorporates a wide range of manual, semi-automated and automated equipment and systems that support logistics and make the supply chain work. Their application helps with:

• Forecasting
• Resource allocation
• Production planning
• Flow and process management
• Inventory management and control
• Customer delivery
• After-sales support and service

A company’s material handling system and processes are put in place to improve customer service, reduce inventory, shorten delivery time, and lower overall handling costs in manufacturing, distribution and transportation.

There is a variety of manual, semi-automated and automated material handling equipment and technologies available to aid in the movement, protection, storage and control of materials and products throughout manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal. These include automated storage and retrieval systems, castors and wheels, conveyors, integrated material handling systems, lift trucks, storage and flow racks and many more.

These material handling systems are used in every industry including, but not limited to aerospace, automotive, construction, manufacturing, materials processing, pharmaceutical and warehouse and distribution.

When designing a material handling system, it is important to refer to best practices to ensure that all the equipment and processes—including manual, semi-automated and automated—in a facility work together as a unified, system. By analyzing the goals of the material handling process and aligning them to guidelines, such as the 10 Principles of Material Handling, a properly designed system will improve customer service, reduce inventory, shorten delivery time, and lower overall handling costs in manufacturing, distribution and transportation. These principles include:

1. Planning: Define the needs, strategic performance objectives and functional specification of the proposed system and supporting technologies at the outset of the design. The plan should be developed in a team approach, with input from consultants, suppliers and end users, as well as from management, engineering, information systems, finance and operations.
   
2. Standardization: All material handling methods, equipment, controls and software should be standardized and able to perform a range of tasks in a variety of operating conditions.
   
3. Work: Material handling processes should be simplified by reducing, combining, shortening or eliminating unnecessary movement that will impede productivity. Examples include using gravity to assist in material movement, and employing straight-line movement as much as possible.
   
4. Ergonomics: Work and working conditions should be adapted to support the abilities of a worker, reduce repetitive and strenuous manual labor, and emphasize safety.
   
5. Unit load: Because less effort and work is required to move several individual items together as a single load (as opposed to moving many items one at a time), unit loads—such as pallets, containers or totes of items—should be used.
   
6. Space utilization: To maximize efficient use of space within a facility, it is important to keep work areas organized and free of clutter, to maximize density in storage areas (without compromising accessibility and flexibility), and to utilize overhead space.
   
7. System: Material movement and storage should be coordinated throughout all processes, from receiving, inspection, storage, production, assembly, packaging, unitizing and order selection, to shipping, transportation and the handling of returns.
   
8. Environment: Energy use and potential environmental impact should be considered when designing the system, with reusability and recycling processes implemented when possible, as well as safe practices established for handling hazardous materials.
   
9. Automation: To improve operational efficiency, responsiveness, consistency and predictability, automated material handling technologies should be deployed when possible and where they make sense to do so.
   
10. Life cycle cost: For all equipment specified for the system, an analysis of life cycle costs should be conducted. Areas of consideration should include capital investment, installation, setup, programming, training, system testing, operation, maintenance and repair, reuse value and ultimate disposal.

Source: http://www.mhi.org/fundamentals/material-handling

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Integrated Products & Services Inc. was established in 2006 as a lean manufacturing and material handling consultation firm and have grown into a leader in the distribution of modular pipe racking and shelving systems in Canada. 

For more information, to request a quote or to set up an in-house assessment, please contact us.

The Benefits of Six Sigma

"What are the benefits of Lean Six Sigma for your company?"

Written by: John Wellwood January 2011

Why should any company undertake Lean Six Sigma?  Lots of companies ask us this question as do people who want to be trained as Green or Black belts and want to explain the benefits to their managers. If you are a company who are thinking of deploying Lean Six Sigma then there are distinct advantages but there are also some potential issues you should consider.  This document is to help you understand the pluses and possible obstacles you need to over come when undertaking Lean Six Sigma.

The benefits of Lean Six Sigma fall in to key 7 categories:

1. Financial benefits
2. Strategic benefits
3. People development benefits
4. Customer benefits
5. Competitive position
6. Stakeholder benefits
7. Standardisation benefits

Financial benefits

The financial benefits associated with Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma are well documented. Companies such as GE, Motorola and Honeywell have been posting amazing numbers for decades based on Lean Six Sigma projects.  Typically we see projects which on average save around £50k. Projects which save less than £50k either have not had the right support or they were not chosen correctly in the first place.  We frequently see projects which save well over £100k.

Allied Signal - Cost savings exceeding $800 million since 1995.
General Electric - Most admired company three years running, and consistently increasing growth and profit – cost saving exceeding $2 billion.
US ARMY- Lean Six Sigma techniques implemented throughout the Army continue to prove successful, and leaders anticipate reaching $2 billion-savings.

Financially if you put a person onto Lean Six Sigma training and they successfully complete a project then you would typically expect then to save around £50k.  This does depend upon the project.  The typical Green Belt or Black Belt will also complete around 3 projects in a year as well as doing their day job.  Which means that on average a typical Green Belt will save their company around £150k if they are given the projects and support to complete them.  This has to be a major advantage to any company.

Companies can also be confident that the savings are real.  This is a result of a key structural element of Lean Six Sigma.  The finance department sign off any savings, they say if the savings are real or not.  It is no longer just enough for an employee or manager to run a project and say we saved X, Y or Z.  In Lean Six Sigma it is only a saving when finance can see it.  A major benefit of Lean Six Sigma is therefore that the savings are real.  This gives companies the confidence to say we saved X amount and is why GE, Motorola can publish their savings with confidence.

The average savings per project also mean that most delegates will pay for their training many times over just by completing one project a fantastic return on investment.

Strategic benefits

Companies who deploy Lean Six Sigma also see benefits of a strategic nature.  This is achieved by taking your trained Green or Black Belt and asking them to complete projects which are of a strategic importance – solving major problems in the business.  The skill set that a Green or Black belt will obtain through their Lean Six Sigma training will enable them to solve complex problems for good. They will not just put out fires but they will remove the root causes stopping the fires from starting again.  How much time and money have you spend fire-fighting over the last year?  Lean Six Sigma is about putting out major fires permanently.

As Lean Six Sigma Green and Black Belts are trained to analyse data they can also assist you in understanding where your current problems are, how large they are and develop solutions to solve them.  You can then reassess or develop a strategy for the business based on fact.

People development benefits

The vast majority of people who are trained as Lean Six Sigma Green and Black Belts provide many softer benefits for their organisations.  They obtain an amazing amount of self confidence, the training and being able to speak with data enable them to challenge the norm, suggest new ideas and solve problems.  The result of this confidence normally means that Green and Black Belts want to see things in the organisation change and as such become change agents for the business.  If they have influence in the business in any way then they start to affect those around them to change as well.  The result is an organisation that can implement change, develop and grow.

The trained Green and Black Belts also start to understand the need for change in the organisation. They understand and can not only identify but eliminate waste they start to explain this to other members of the organisation and the business improves without formal projects.

Green and Black Belts also become very enthusiastic about applying the tools and spending time solving problems.  They will in fact start to use the Lean Six Sigma methodologies and tools in all aspects of their jobs, meetings and interactions.  Your people will have a whole new set of skills to apply in all aspects of their jobs.  You therefore see that your people change to become more focused, data driven and have more energy.

An issue however becomes the expectations which are set in the Green or Black Belt.  They want to change the business and many become frustrated if the business will not embrace this change.  The result therefore can be a highly fired up individual who becomes frustrated which can lead to many negative consequences for the business.

Customer benefits

The benefits to your customers normally take the form of better service, better delivery and even better quality.  As a result many customers are now asking their suppliers if they use Lean Six Sigma in their business.  We have clients who have started their programs as a direct result of a request from their customers.  So you can start to advertise the fact that you are using state of the art process improvement and problem solving methodologies to further enhance your offering to your customers.  You can also at that point ask them to get involved and as a result become closer to your customer.

The immediate benefit to your customers would of course be the result of your Green and Black Belt projects.  If you have customer issues then having a project in that area will dramatically improve the situation.  So if you have delivery issues or quality issues then your customer will see the difference meaning at worst secured continual sales and at best improved sales.

Competitive advantage

As you improve your performance you will start to see a difference between yourselves and your competitors.  You can then use this in your marketing and sales pitches.  On the other hand if you don’t start to implement Lean Six Sigma you can bet your bottom dollar that your competition either are or will implement Lean Six Sigma.  That will leave you trailing them and will ultimately cost the business.

Stakeholder benefits

The key benefit in this area is the engagement of your workforce in transforming your business.   Companies who have deployed Lean Six Sigma successfully see this engagement and reap the benefits – the whole workforce identifying and solving problems how much power would that give you.

It also means you can engage with suppliers and customers to jointly solve problems.  Even the shareholders can benefit as many city analysts are now asking why if you are not deploying Lean Six Sigma.

Standardisation benefits

Every company’s processes would benefit from standardisation.  If you implement Lean Six Sigma a major benefit would be that all projects would be run in a standardised same way following the same process – DMAIC.  This means that as managers you can be confident that the problem is being solved properly with data to back up any decision.  It means that you can monitor progress of projects easily as you can see which stage each project is in.  If you have to change the person running a project then it is easier for others to pick up where they left off.  It also means that your decisions will be based on accurate data, analysis and processes giving improved solutions.

List of Companies who are implementing Lean Six Sigma

The benefits for any company are therefore vast.  Not only will the training be paid for many times over the culture of the organisation will be changed and the attitude of staff transformed but customers and ultimately all stakeholders will see advantages.  That is why the vast majority of major businesses worldwide are deploying Lean Six Sigma in some way.  Below is a very short list of just some of them.

3M, A.B. Dick Company, Abbott Labs, Adolph Coors, Advanced Micro Devices, Aerospace Corp, Airborne, Alcoa, Allen Bradley, Allied Signal, Ampex, Apple Computers, Applied Magnetics, ASQC, Atmel, Baxter Pharmaseal, Beatrice Foods, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Bombardier, Borden, Bristol Meyers – Squibb, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Campbell Soup, Cellular 1, Chevron, Citicorp, City of Austin, TX, City of Dallas, TX, Clorox, Cooper Ind, Dannon, Defense Mapping Agency, Delnosa ( Delco Electronics in Mexico), Digital Equipment Corp, DTM Corp, Eastmen Kodak, Electronic Systems Center, Empak, Florida Dept. of Corrections, Ford Motor Company, GEC Marconi, General Dynamics, General Electric, Hazeltine Corp, Hewlett packard, Holly Sugar, Honeywell, Intel, Junior Achievement, Kaiser Aluminum, Kraft General Foods, Larson & Darby, Inc, Laser Magnetic Storage, Lear Astronics, Lenox China, Littton Data Systems, Lockhee Martin, Loral, Los Alamos National labs, Martin Marietta, McDonnell Douglas, Merix, Microsoft, Morton Int’l, Motorola, NASA, Nat’l Institute of Corrections, Nat’l Institute of Standards, Nat’l Semiconductor, Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, Northrop Corp, PACE, Parkview Hospital, Pentagon, Pharmacia, PRC, Inc, Qualified Specialists, Ramtron Corp, Rockwell Int’l, Rohm & Haas, Seagate, Society of Plastics Egineers, Solar Optical, Sony, Star Quality, Storgae Tek, Symbios Logic, Synthes, Technicomp, Tessco, Texaco, Texas Commerce Bank, Texas Dept. of Transportation, Texas Instruments, Titleist, Trane, TRW, Ultratech Stepper, United States Air Force, United States Army, United technologies, UPS, USAA, Verbatim, Walbro Automotive, Walker parking, Woodward Governor, Xerox, Lloyds TSB, BAA, BT, Nissan, Renault, Vodafone, Tesco

Source: http://100pceffectivetraining.com/blog/index.php/training/benefits-lean-six-sigma-company/

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Integrated Products & Services Inc. was established in 2006 as a lean manufacturing and material handling consultation firm and have grown into a leader in the distribution of modular pipe racking and shelving systems in Canada. 

For more information, to request a quote or to set up an in-house assessment, please contact us.

How IPS Helped Magna with Lean Initiatives

Magna has become a leading manufacturer in Canada during a time when more and more companies are choosing to move manufacturing overseas, where it is cheaper. By implementing the TPS philosophy, Magna has become a benchmark for lean manufacturing. Integrated Products & Services has been integral in this process by outfitting their shop floor with blind side flow racks and their warehouse with marketplace racks. Below is an article from The Globe and Mail describing how Magna was able to become a leading manufacturer, while keeping manufacturing plants in Canada.

"Built to lead: Magna's mission to be a world-class manufacturer"

The Globe and Mail

Written by: Greg Keenan March 2013

The threat to Dortec Industries at the turn of the century could be summed up in one word: China.

The Magna International Inc. plant in Newmarket, Ont., had been around since 1985, making door latches for cars, trucks and minivans. Latches take a lot of work to put together, they’re easy to package and can be easily shipped anywhere around the world, so Magna’s customers wanted the Canadian auto parts giant to open a plant in China to keep costs in check. Magna complied with the requests and opened a latch plant in Kunshan in 2001. But it kept Dortec open as well. The boom in North American auto production in the first half of the 2000s ensured there was enough work to go around, and the plant was even able to generate higher profits than the average Magna factory.

By 2006, however, the business was being battered by soaring commodity prices and demands by the auto makers for price cuts. Executives at Magna Closures Inc., which oversees both the Newmarket and China operations, turned for help to a retired Toyota Motor Corp. vice-president to teach the company how to develop a first-rate manufacturing system.

Seven years later, Dortec is at the head of the class. It is also defying the notion that low-cost countries have sounded the death knell for manufacturing in Canada – so much so that side-door latches assembled in Newmarket are shipped from “high-cost” Canada to auto makers in China, Thailand and other low-cost regions.

Its turnaround holds lessons for other Magna plants as the company puts its so-called world-class manufacturing system in place at more than 300 auto parts plants around the world. Dortec is the plant Magna points to any time a chorus of “Canada can’t compete” breaks out. But the factory is also a beacon for other Canadian manufacturers that are struggling to stay competitive as they contend with a high dollar and globalization. At stake are 1.5 million jobs and the billions of dollars those jobs contribute to the economy annually.

“If you’re efficient, if you’re world class, you can compete and your customers will want to use you in high-cost countries to supply their product,” says Frank Seguin, president of Magna Closures.

A visit to Newmarket last December by Benson Wong, the China plant manager, showed just how far Dortec has come.

“He came over to here to benchmark and he saw a latch going together every 3.2 seconds and he says ‘I’m in trouble,’ ” recalls John O’Hara, vice-president of North American operations for Magna Closures. “He left here thinking: ‘I’ve got some work to do.’ ”

To succeed in the way that Dortec has, manufacturers need to focus intently on the design of their products, integrate information technology into all aspects of their manufacturing and harness the knowledge of their employees, says David Wolfe, a University of Toronto public and economic policy professor. “It’s critical if they want to survive,” Prof. Wolfe says.

All those elements are part of Magna’s system, which borrows heavily from the fabled Toyota production system, with its emphasis on lean manufacturing, elimination of waste and relentless focus on quality.

Upgrading all Magna operations to meet world-class manufacturing standards represents a key pillar underpinning the company’s future in the hyper-competitive auto parts business. “Our vision is to be the best manufacturing company in the world in all the operations we have,” Magna chief executive officer Don Walker says in an interview in Dortec’s conference room, where one wall is lined with the various types of latches Dortec employees put together.

“Ultimately ... if we’re not going to be the best, we won’t be successful as a company.”

The Toyota influence

A door latch is among the many unglamorous components of a car that drivers and passengers never see. But a single latch can contain up to 80 individual parts and they have become more complex in recent years with the proliferation of power sliding doors on minivans and power liftgates on minivans and crossovers.

“They’re very, very critical and highly engineered,” Mr. Seguin says.

Magna never discloses publicly the costs of the thousands of parts it sells to auto makers, but on such a small component as door latches, reducing that cost by even a penny makes a big difference. Taking one second out of the time it takes to assemble them also matters. That’s where Yasumasa Sano, the retired Toyota vice-president, comes in. When the Magna Closures executives began to look at the operation in 2006 – before the near collapse of the auto industry in 2008 – Mr. Sano would visit Dortec every three months, giving advice on how to improve quality and put lean manufacturing techniques in place.

Dortec is a fairly typical auto parts plant inside, although its bright lights and cleanliness distinguish it from many other factories in Ontario’s manufacturing heartland. That’s one of the more obvious influences of the Toyota production system. During a recent 45-minute tour of the factory, Mr. O’Hara, Mr. Seguin and other Magna Closures executives explained how the rest of it played out.

Assembly lines were shortened. On some lines, several workstations were combined into one to reduce the amount of time it takes to create a latch.

There are no motorized forklift trucks – in part because it permits narrow aisles between assembly cells, which reduces the amount of wasted floor space and enables it to be used for new machinery.

All the employees were empowered to stop assembly lines if they spotted a quality problem.

The plant established standard practices “so that we produce the same product the same way across multiple shifts or multiple lines,” Mr. O’Hara says.

Quality improved by 60 per cent, capital spending on new projects fell by 20 per cent and the changes cut the amount of floor space being used by 15 per cent.

The plant was one of the few Magna operations that remained profitable through what became a perfect storm for the company and the auto industry as a whole, as North American vehicle production plunged to 8.7 million in 2008, less than half the peak hit in 2000. Dortec’s ability to stay profitable “was a sign that we got it before it was too late,” Mr. O’Hara adds.

But the slump also brought lessons, teaching executives that buying flexible equipment is essential so that when orders fall because a customer cuts production, the plant doesn’t have to keep cranking out latches to keep expensive machinery in use. Continuing to produce parts so that equipment isn’t sitting idle creates excess inventory, one of the cardinal sins in Toyota’s manufacturing ethos.

The workers buy in

Magna also adopted another element of the Toyota production system for use in its world-class manufacturing program – employee suggestions. In 2009, employees offered 27 suggestions to streamline production processes, improve ergonomics or eliminate waste.

By last year, that number had grown 17-fold to 473 ideas – more than 98 per cent of the workers on the factory floor had contributed. For example, workers suggested reducing the size of some of the racks next to an assembly line so less material has to be stored there, opening up floor space for other use.

There are monetary rewards for suggestions, a policy that catches the attention of Prof. Wolfe. “When you give [employees] a greater stake in how the organization is working, the results always reflect it,” he says.

After all the changes, Dortec has increased productivity by 25 per cent since 2006, even though auto production is still far from pre-recession levels.

The numbers highlight that the plant has become world class, but when asked how he knows it, Mr. O’Hara points to a change in attitude that can’t be quantified: “When people stop talking about how good they are and how good we are and just look at what needs to be done next. How do we continually improve?”

The world-class manufacturing project is one of three critical priorities at Magna, Mr. Walker says. The others are innovation and a leadership development system that seeks to identify the company’s best people. And while he believes everyone in the company is convinced of the need for continuous improvement, Magna as a whole is about halfway to where he wants it to be.

The Magna Closures executives say the streamlined production system will have a dramatic impact in reducing costs and improving efficiency at other divisions that make much larger parts, such as Cosma International Inc., Magna’s metal-bashing subsidiary that makes frames and chassis components and the division that makes engine and transmission parts.

And Mr. Walker has kicked off a program to examine every action taken at the company’s head office in Aurora, Ont., studying why activities are done, whether they can be done more efficiently and if overhead costs can be cut. “At the end of the day, we’re paid by our customers to make parts,” he says. “We’re not paid to run any office anywhere, so really all value added comes from the shop floor.”

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/canada-competes/how-magnas-door-latch-is-teaching-canadas-manufacturers-to-compete-with-china/article9235011/

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Integrated Products & Services Inc. was established in 2006 as a lean manufacturing and material handling consultation firm and have grown into a leader in the distribution of modular pipe racking and shelving systems in Canada. 

For more information, to request a quote or to set up an in-house assessment, please contact us.

What is Lean Six Sigma?

"Lean and Six Sigma - A General Introduction"

ARIS Community
Written by: Alex O. March 2014

Six Sigma is a business strategy first introduced by Motorola in 1986 (and arguably most popularized by GE) that aims to increase a company’s profitability by improving its business processes. While many other business philosophies often claim to be doing the exact same thing, Six Sigma distinguished itself with its approach to eliminating variances that bleed away a company’s profitability.

The Six Sigma methodology (DMAIC and DMADV) emphasizes on the fact that a business’s quality and output can be improved by changing the process within the company to such a point that errors or mistakes within the processes are minimized or outright eliminated. The degree of efficiency that Six Sigma requires is that, out of a million outputs (products manufactured, services rendered), only 3.4 will turn out defective. This translates to roughly 99.999966% error free operations (here's a Six Sigma calculator to help you calculate your own Sigma Level!). In case this seems like an impossible goal I'm immediately prepared to give an example with an industry that has achieved an even bigger Sigma rate - Airplane safety.

Then there is Lean. It's a concept of eliminating wastes and is often times called lean manufacturing (or management) which when combined with the Six Sigma approach is called by most Lean Six Sigma, or Six Sigma Lean or more accurately Lean AND Six Sigma - since they are still two distinctively different methodologies, that are simply used in conjunction. Lean eliminates waste, Six Sigma improves the process.

There are various different Six Sigma tools used to improve the process. One however must first get Six Sigma training and then pass a Six Sigma certification test to become one of the main Six Sigma belt levels:

Six Sigma Yellow Belt - the beginner level, which will give you basic skills to use the Six Sigma tools,
Six Sigma Green Belt - the next level that would allow you to run your own projects,
Six Sigma Black Belt - becoming a supervisor for Six Sigma projects and
Six Sigma Master Black Belt - the head of the management.

As we all know mistakes within the process do cost a company a hefty sum: companies lose out between 20-30% of profits merely because of an error, a mistake within the organization, a product recall, or an inefficient system or a customer complaint. The goal is to create quality control measure that help businesses create outputs that are high in quality and satisfy customer/client demand beyond reproach.

As mentioned earlier Lean is a management technique that seeks to eliminate wastes within a process or operation in order to increase quality. There are eight “wastes” that a company has to look out for, namely:

• Overproduction: making more than what the customers demand.

• Over processing: adding perceived value to a product that doesn't need it.

• Waiting: for resources, people, approvals, etc. Loss of time.

• Transportation: Movement of products during or after production.

• Defects: Error, non compliance of products.

• Rework and Scraps: products not meeting specifications that have to be reworked marked down or reprocessed.

• Motion: usually about people, document searching, etc.

• Inventory: Buffer stock or other resources, which could include people

• Unused Creativity: Employee’s knowledge and skills that are untapped by the company.

When a company operates within set parameters and targets, it in turn produces quality. When its output falls below or beyond the target, this could be a considered a defect/waste/mistake and this is what the Lean principle seeks to avoid.

The slant towards manufacturing jargon may be attributed to the origins of Six Sigma. It was originally conceptualized within the Motorola offices, and was a response to the upper-echelon’s critical observation of Motorola’s lackluster bottom line. Thus the Six Sigma was born, and was first implemented back in 1986.

Many companies have seen the virtue of the system set up by Motorola, and have since implemented the Six Sigma within their companies. Some of the earliest adherents to Six Sigma (excluding Motorola, or course) were General Electric and Bank of America. The integration was so successful, that at present, most of the Fortune 500 companies are using the Six Sigma methodology (DMAIC and DMADV) within their companies.

Source: http://www.ariscommunity.com/users/sixsigma/2012-03-14-lean-and-six-sigma-general-introduction

Overall, Lean Six Sigma is a fact-based, data driven viewpoint that focuses on reducing waste and variation and promoting work flow and reproducibility. By applying the principles of Lean and Six Sigma together, the benefits to a company, which will be discussed in a future post, can be drastic and can affect many different aspects of the business. Integrated Products & Services can help eliminate the waste listed above and allow your company to become lean, streamlined and vastly more efficient.

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Integrated Products & Services Inc. was established in 2006 as a lean manufacturing and material handling consultation firm and have grown into a leader in the distribution of modular pipe racking and shelving systems in Canada. 

For more information, to request a quote or to set up an in-house assessment, please contact us.

An Introduction to Six Sigma

"Explaining Six Sigma in Plain English"

Bright Hub Project Management
Written by: Karishma Sundaram Edited by: Jean Scheid November 2013

Six Sigma can be a number of things: a metric or a management system depending on how it is applied. It is used for quality control, focusing mainly on making processes as constant as possible in order to avoid defects. This article explains Six Sigma in easy-to-understand terms.

Its Genesis

The goal of any organization is to streamline its processes, thereby maximizing resources to their fullest extent. One of the most visible results of streamlining processes is the reduction of defects in their products. The reduction of defects means less waste and, therefore, the resources are fully utilized.

The Six Sigma concept was originally conceived in a manufacturing context in which the defects were literally found in products being churned out of industries. The manufacturing unit applied a scale based on the number of defects found where the sixth sigma had a fraction of one percent defects, and the first sigma referred to a unit with almost thirty percent defects.

The term became popular because of Motorola, who set a goal to achieve Six Sigma in all their manufacturing units. The concept quickly took off after that. This article presents the concept of Six Sigma, explained in plain English.

Services As Well As Products

It is easy to quantify defects in physical products of the manufacturing industry. However, it was a little more difficult to apply the same quality management tool in the service sector. Therefore, the process became the product, and any process that generated an outcome that was against the customer’s wishes became a defect. Defects are believed to be cause by variations in the outcomes of the process. The goal of the Six Sigma, explained in plain English, is using a business improvement methodology to make the process as constant as possible.

Methodologies

There are two methodologies commonly used for Six Sigma projects: the DMAIC methodology, implemented on existing business processes, and DMADV, used to formulate new business processes using Six Sigma tenets during the design stage.

DMAIC is an acronym standing for the five phases used in the streamlining process:

1. Define the customer’s wishes, the goals of the project, and what the end product should be

2. Measure all the current parameters of the process in question, carefully collecting data to analyze

3. Analyze the data

4. Improve the process based on the analysis performed

5. Control the process to minimize variations

DMADV is also an acronym and, similar to DMAIC, has five phases used for designing processes according to Six Sigma:

1. Define the goals that the process should have based upon customer requirements

2. Measure all parameters that are associated with the process

3. Analyze the parameters and the data collected during measurement, and create a design that suits the goals best

4. Design the process

5. Verify that the process runs according to set goals

Implementation Roles

Earlier on, all quality improvement programs were implemented away from the actual process. The employees were not an integral part of the quality process, as this function was looked after by an entirely different department. This system was not working optimally because the employees who had hands-on experience with the work could not implement the quality controls imposed upon them. On the other hand, the quality control supervisors were unable to understand the core working process properly and, therefore, could not define proper quality controls.

Six Sigma changed that paradigm entirely, borrowing heavily from martial arts disciplines. In the new structure, the organization has multiple levels, each trained in stages of Six Sigma methodology. The improvements come from the employees who actually work with the processes.

There are six major roles defined for implementation: Executive Leadership, Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts, Green Belts, and Yellow Belts. The roles are designed to divide the tasks of implementing Six Sigma successfully throughout the organization.

Source: http://www.brighthubpm.com/six-sigma/69146-explaining-six-sigma-in-plain-english/

The Principles of Six Sigma can also be used in conjunction with the concept of lean manufacturing to create the idea of Lean Six Sigma. At Integrated Products & Services we use these concepts ourselves in order to not only meet, but exceed our customer's requirements of reducing waste and defects, leading to more streamlined and efficient processes within your organization. The idea of Lean Six Sigma and the benefits that arise from its use will be addressed in future posts.

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Integrated Products & Services Inc. was established in 2006 as a lean manufacturing and material handling consultation firm and have grown into a leader in the distribution of modular pipe racking and shelving systems in Canada. 

For more information, to request a quote or to set up an in-house assessment, please contact us.