Six Sigma Process Quality Improvement in Automotive Industry

A complex quality initiative that address leadership, tools and infrastructure issue at the same time, called Six Sigma, have recently emerged. The objective of Six Sigma is to improve organization efficiency as well as effectiveness in meeting customer needs, ultimately creating economic wealth for the customer and provider. The application of Six Sigma methodology in process design and manufacturing is addressed in the paper. On the example of compressor housing machining are process design and development issues explained, as well as possibilities of some Six Sigma tools applications. Also, in the paper is presented a Six Sigma project which deals with identification and reduction of production cost in the deburring process for gravity die-castings. The initiated Six Sigma project employ several Six Sigma tools such are thought process mapping, Pareto diagrams, analysis of variation and capability studies. Furthermore, the structured DMAIC methodology for running Six Sigma projects is presented.