- December 2006 -
Twelve Months to Make a Difference
No matter how good the performance of your canmaking plant, there is always room for improvement.
December is already upon us, with the New Year in sight. This year was a productive one for our industry and hopefully prosperous for all involved, both canmakers and suppliers. I spent this year in this column laying down a foundation for the concept of “quality” and how it relates to canmaking. The following is a month-by-month synopsis of the subjects covered.
January: Quality is not a game of football, where one receives points for putting the ball through the goalposts. Quality requires driving the ball as close to the center of the goal as often as possible. In other words, being “in specification” is insufficient.
Click here to read the entire January article.
February: Statistics is different from Arithmetic; most manufacturing plants attempt to quantify what they perceive as their “quality” through Arithmetic. However, Arithmetic necessitates one wait for defects to occur and subsequently count them to establish “quality” measures; Statistics predicts quality without having to produce any defects.
Click here to read the entire February article.
March: Speaking of Statistics, did you know this branch of Mathematics is heavily dependent upon Calculus? Statistics allow for the quantification of the capability of a manufacturing line by identifying the characteristics of variation, regardless of whether or not the produced products are “in spec.”
Click here to read the entire March article.
April: Many measurement systems used in mass production, whether in a factory’s quality control lab or on the line, will fail a Gage R&R. This is not to say they will fail calibration tests, but rather the ability to be repeatable and reproducible, which is much more important.
Click here to read the entire April article.
May: A production line cannot be expected to manufacture “quality” products without quality supplies. This includes materials and machinery; unless your suppliers are able to statistically quantify their quality, you cannot hope to quantify yours.
Click here to read the entire May article.
June: There are myriads of statistical interactions occurring on a can line every day. Just because they are not being measured does not mean they do not exist. Identifying and quantifying these interactions – as with any mass-production process – is key to moving forward with trouble-free production.
Click here to read the entire June article.
July: A can line may be represented by a huge statistical equation. Moving into the realm of world-class quality necessitates identifying and manipulating all aspects of this “equation.”
Click here to read the entire July article.
August: Design of Experiments (DOE) is a powerful tool that enables the study of the can line “equation” by identifying not only primary root causes of issues, but the aforementioned interaction(s) among them. One Factor at a Time (OFAT) experimentation is time-consuming and generally ineffective.
Click here to read the entire August article.
September: ISO9001-2000, Lean, TPM, and Six Sigma are not variations on the same theme, but instead complimentary elements of a total quality system. They are used for overlapping – but generally completely different – tasks.
Click here to read the entire September article.
October: Design for Six Sigma will one day make the need for traditional Six Sigma obsolete. When processes, machines, materials, and even entire production lines are designed via DFSS, the need for constant “tuning” will be over.
Click here to read the entire October article.
November: There is never a good time to improve quality. When things are good, the ability to make budget, coupled with resources stretched to the limit, preclude many mass-production companies from taking action. Conversely, when times are bad, the possibility of not making budget, now coupled with insufficient resources, make this a non-preferred time as well. The moral of this story: do it now before your competitors beat you to the punch.
Click here to read the entire November article.
Keep in mind that during the year we have only skimmed the surface of the subject of “quality.” However, I hope to have shed some light on what can be a daunting subject. It is still my contention that however well we are already performing, there is – pardon the cliché – “always room for improvement.
