Developing operation measurement strategy during Six Sigma implementation: a foundry case study

It is a conceptual paper that takes at in-depth look on the pros and cons of Six Sigma and describes its DMAIC strategy to realise the significance of measurement phase, specifically. Various prospects have been formulated to understand the reason of failure of Six Sigma particularly in SMEs and it has been found that doing ‘wrong operation measurement’ is one of the major reasons in them. It enlisted the measurement phase in detail and proposed a more applicable methodology to execute operation measurements comprehensively, as far as their industrial applications are associated. It also act as a road map for short listing the relevant measurement tools especially for Six Sigma learners, people working in industry and professional-statisticians. A case study in a medium scale non-ferrous foundry has been conducted which has validated the suggested approach successfully. Basically it is utilising an integrated advantage of both quantitative and qualitative measurement-tools extensively, for producing breakthrough results quickly in real Indian industrial environments.

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