CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1 PROJECT INTRODUCTION

In this project, we are working with Advatech Industry Pvt. Ltd. in order to increase the
production volume and quality of their product. This company is focused on the production of
refractory bricks. As Refractories is the most looked back sector of the current Industrial phase
and the same old techniques for quality checking and production are used till date. Thus,
improvement in this sector was necessary. So, with the help of the Lean Six Sigma methodology,
we decided to implement the DMAIC process.
Why use Six Sigma over other methodologies?
- After Motorola started promoting its Six Sigma methodology in the late 1980s, there have been
many sceptical of its true value. Even Jack Welch of General Electric (GE) initially dismissed the
idea of Six Sigma as a passing fad in the early 1990s. However, once GE had a successful launch
in one of its divisions, Six Sigma quickly became a driving force in the mid to late 1990s that
started spreading across various industries. The Six Sigma buzz, fad, or whatever name it was
called, started proving that it was something different, something more than the numerous other
business fads that had preceded it.
- The real power of Six Sigma is the use of many parts or elements of other methods that have
been proven to work, in tandem with a managerial focus, to create an organizational network of
activities that support the efforts to continually improve on all aspects of the organization, in
conjunction with standard accounting practices that demonstrate the impact of continual
improvement and variation reduction on the organization’s bottom line.
- Six Sigma should be a large collection of tools that the organization can bring to bear as
appropriate on identified issues to achieve continual improvement across the entire organization.
Learning to use these various tools effectively takes time and practice and leads to the distinction
of what are called levels of competence, or belts. Typical titles include White, Yellow, Green,
Black, and Master Black Belt (some organizations use fewer or more belts depending on their
organizational structure or needs). At least one consultant even has a level that he calls a Six
Sigma Money Belt.

Significance of Six Sigma

- Six Sigma is just the latest term for the more general concept of continual improvement.
Continual improvement can be defined as the use of problem-solving techniques and quick
deployment to implement improvements and then using process behavioural studies (Wheeler) to
maintain the gains. Six Sigma has been described as a breakthrough system (Juran) and is being
used in many organizations today in a variety of applications.
- Basically, Six Sigma is about collecting data on a process and using those data to analyse and
interpret what is happening in that process so that the process can be improved to satisfy the
customer (Kano and Taguchi). A basic process can be defined as an input, transformation, and
output.
- Six Sigma was first started at Motorola and was then developed more into what we know today
at General Electric. By following a prescribed process, the entire organization starts to look at
everything that it does in the light of reducing variation and reducing waste, with the result of
increasing customer satisfaction.
- Customers could be anyone from the next person who uses the work we do (internal customer)
to the ultimate customer who uses the products or services that our organization produces
(external customer). To assist in this process, sometimes the supplier and customer will be added
to the basic process definition listed above, creating the SIPOC identification: suppliers, inputs,
process, outputs, and customers. This is used specially to help define the boundaries of what is to
be studied.
- For some, the idea of improving a process is a waste of time that should not be bothered with
(“we are already working the hardest that we can”). But as Juran once said, “Changes creep up on
us week by week, a little bit at a time. Over a year or two, there are 50 or 100 of these bits, which
amounts to quite a bit. The skills of the men have not necessarily kept pace, and we wake up to
the existence of a wide gap.”6 This is one explanation for why accidents and product rejections
happen in our shops.
- By using Six Sigma methodologies, we will be able to find those bits of changes and decide
which ones should be kept for process improvement and which ones need to be corrected. This
process is not meant to be a quick fix (magic bullet) approach. The logical use of the tools over
time will save us resources and effort in doing our daily jobs.

As we prepare for the Six Sigma journey, here is a quick view of the suggested map that we can
follow:
1. Recognize that variation exists in everything that we do; standardize your work.
2. Identify what the customer wants and needs. Reduce variation.
3. Use a problem-solving methodology to plan improvements.
4. Follow the DMAIC model to deploy the improvement.
5. Monitor the process using process behaviour charts.
6. Update standard operating procedures and lessons learned.
7. Celebrate successes.
8. Start over again for continual improvement