Professional Documents
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Abstract
Bluvas T-shirt Company has been manufacturing custom printed t-shirts since 1953. Competition and reduced
profitability has forced the management to take a second look at their processes in an effort to improve their
revenues. The management considers customer satisfaction paramount and has decided to use customers as a driving
force for their process improvement project. Using the Six Sigma methodology, the current processes were
benchmarked and improvements made based on customer driven critical to quality characteristics.
Key Words & Phrases: Six Sigma; Process Improvement VOC, CTQ.
The Bluvas T-shirt Company manufactures custom- 1.2 Contain Problem if Necessary
printed t-shirts. Clients pick shirt sizes, fabric color
(white, gray, or navy), image to put on each shirt, and After reviewing the results of the customer surveys,
quantity. Bluvas, Inc. would like to increase sales by the team felt they did a good job of forecasting
improving quality and order delivery for customers. customer concerns during their brainstorming
meeting. Because the customers’ key concerns were
Project Leadership addressed by the CTQs, no containment actions were
needed.
Harsh Marwaha, General Manager
Sanjeev Bhawsinka, Black Belt 1.3 Translate VOC into CTQs
John Strohm, Green Belt
Ranga Magadi, Green Belt Because of the way the team had gathered the Voice
Munish Garg, Systems Engineer of the Customer data—by helping customers identify
CTQs and asking customers for specific, measurable
Define 1: Project CTQs performance requirements—the task of translating
customer feedback into CTQs had taken care of itself.
In addition, the nature of the customer interviews
1.1 Evaluate VOC allowed the team to validate the identified CTQs with
the customer on the spot.
On February 15, 2002, the project management held
a full-team brainstorming meeting. Since the
customers typically ordered by phone, the team 1.4 Prioritize CTQs
agreed that the best way to get the VOC was random
surveys for the customers over the phone after they The next task for the team was to prioritize CTQs
had placed their orders. To elicit responses from the based on the results of the customer survey. The
customers, Harsh Marwaha agreed to give all those prioritization process was facilitated by the survey's
who responded to the survey 2% off their bill. The design, since it required customers to force rank
team believed that a financial incentive would prompt CTQs.
more and more people to respond over the phone and
was an economical way to reach the customer in a A Pareto chart was created for each of the two
short timeframe. categories of the survey to visually display the
customers' prioritization of the CTQs.
A total of 15 customers were randomly asked to
participate in the survey. Even with the financial Voice of Customer
incentive 3 of them declined the opportunity. The
other 12 responses are summarized in the table
Customer Preference
below:
Product price depends on factors such as price of First, the team agreed on a statement of the problem,
materials such as fabric, paint, etc., labor costs, or the unmet customer need targeted for
packaging costs, and shipping costs. While there is a improvement.
possibility of increasing sales by lowering the price,
the company already operates on thin margins. Thus, Problem statement:
reducing the price is not an option without reducing
costs. Certain costs such as shipping costs are not in "Voice of the Customer data indicates that in
the control of Bluvas Inc. While lower cost materials order to promote growth with our customers, we
are available in the market, using such materials is need to improve our process capability in the
not in harmony with the company’s business strategy areas of on-time shipping and product quality."
of increasing sales with increasing quality. Therefore,
the team decided not to focus on product price as a On Time Shipping: Customers want shipping on
strategy. the shipping date notified during ordering.
Previous delays in shipping have caused
VOC shows that on-time delivery and product quality customer attrition.
are the most important factors to customers.
However, since delivery is beyond the control of the Product Quality: Customers want products to be
company, it was decided to use on-time shipping as zero defects. Bluvas is currently operating at
the CTQ about 130,000 defects per million opportunities,
which is less than 3-sigma level. The rework for
Given these considerations, the team identified the defects is costly for Bluvas and customers are
following two CTQs, which are most important usually refunded for any defects.
factors to customers, to target for their improvement
project: Next, the team created a goal statement that described
• On-time shipping the success of their project, as they saw it.
• Image Centering
Goal statement:
1.5 Integrate CTQs with Business "By the end of August 2002, both of these
Strategy processes will be operating at a Six Sigma level."
The goal of the company was simple: to drive its After considering the problem and goal statement, the
growth by 15% above their targeted growth for the team created a project scope, which detailed the
year. During the Voice of the Customer surveys, the process boundaries and project focus.
Project Scope Define 3: High Level Process
The project will focus on the two CTQ’s selected. Map
Within the CTQ’s project will focus on those aspects
that are in direct control of Bluvas, Inc. For example, 3.1 Construct Process Map
Bluvas does not have any control on shipping time.
Therefore, we will not focus on it. Similarly, as the On-time shipping CTQ:
customer selects the t-shirt fabric we will not focus
on fabric quality. The team created a SIPOC map of their process,
which depicted the following steps:
The team then identified the resources required to
complete the project. 1. A client submits an order. Some time later,
the order is received and processed. The
Resources/team members: processing time is incidental, but an order may
sit idle for some amount of time.
A separate team, lead by a Green Belt, was 2. The order sits in the job queue until the
established for each targeted CTQ. manufacturing system is ready to process it.
This delay can be small, or up to a matter of
John Strohm was the team leader for the on-time days.
shipping CTQ. Ranga Magadi led the team targeting 3. Raw materials (plain shirts) need to be
image centering. Sanjeev Bhawsinka (Black Belt) pulled from stock. An request for materials is
would serve in a mentoring role and Harsh Marwaha put into this part of the factory, and some time
(General Manager) would provide overall direction. later the shirts appear on the line for printing.
4. An employee needs to set up the die for
Finally, the team determined the benefits expected printing the run of shirts.
from their improvement project. 5. The employee then prints the run of shirts.
Run times scale with the number of shirts, but
Expected Benefits: run time can be increased by having to change
• Revenue growth by increasing product paint, correct defects, or shut down for
quality. break/the day (if a run is exceptionally long).
• Better customer relations. 6. The shirts need to dry before they can be
• Increase in revenues due to customer packaged. This is often pipelined with the
retention and customer collateral. printing process, but if the drying time is long,
• Identification of other factors affecting extra delay may be incurred.
product quality. 7. After the printing is complete, the shirts
need to be folded and safely packaged for their
2.2 Obtain Key Business journey to the customer.
Stakeholder Signoff 8. An inspector then needs to inspect the shirts.
Based on how busy the plant is, an inspector
The team identified the project's key stakeholders as may be available right away or the shirts may
follows: queue for a while. If the inspection fails, the
shirts need rework, which drastically increases
• Heeralal Pande, Vice President, customer the production time.
service, champion at high level and one who 9. The boxes are then put on the loading dock
could support translation. for the delivery company. When the delivery
• The Inspectors, who inspect the product quality company arrives and picks them up, the
and whose roles could be most significantly delivery is considered “shipped.”
impacted by the projects, and who could help 10.“Delivery” takes place when the consumer
ensure the process stays in place once the project signs for the packages and takes ownership of
is completed. them.
All key stakeholders agreed to the project's purpose Product Quality CTQ:
and other provisions as outlined in the charter.
The team mapped the process when a customer
returns a t-shirt. The most common reason for return
is off-centered image.
The next step for each team was to select the best
3.2 Validate Process Map Against possible Y and establish the metric by which it would
Charter be measured.
Product Quality: The following Ys were considered 4.3 Ensure Project Scope is Manageable
for measuring product quality:
The team discussed the project with the management
• Y1: Number of t-shits returned by the an concluded that the project scope was manageable.
customers due to the image being off centered.
• Y2: The distance between the image center Measure 5: Performance
and the t-shirt center.
Standards for Y
Y Performance standard
On-time The mean should be less than 0 Analyze 11: List Vital Few Xs
Shipment and standard deviation less than 1.
Image The standard deviation of the 11.1 Verify Xs with Data
centering image difference should be less
than 1. Mean should be between – The team used statistical methods to determine
0.3 to +0.3. which of the possible causes led to variations.
Calculations
F-Stat (=sBaseline2/sPilot2) 4.273
F-Crit (=FINV(0.05,599,99) 1.306 15. Control
Since F-Stat is > F-Crit, Reject the Null
Hypothesis 15.1 Develop Control Plan
After the pilot test run which revealed positive results
The above 2 tests revealed that the improvement the team met to develop a control plan to ensure that
strategy used to reduce variance and thus the standard the benefits from the solution continued to be
deviation was driving positive results. realized. The team created a control plan as outlined.
Null hypothesis: "The mean of the pilot Null hypothesis: "The mean of the pilot
response is equal to the mean of the response is greater than or the same as the
baseline response." mean of the baseline response."
Alternative hypothesis: "The mean of the Alternative hypothesis: "The mean of the
pilot response is not equal to the mean of pilot response is less than the mean of the
the baseline response." baseline response."
Since P-value is > 0.05, FTR the Null Since P-value is < 0.05,Reject the Null
Hypothesis Hypothesis
Control Test - Hypothesis Testing - Image An F-test was also conducted; it revealed that the
Centering - F-Test
standard deviation of this Y has reduced
Null hypothesis: "The variance of the pilot significantly, confirming that the process Y has
response is greater than or the same as the improved and is under control. The F-test results are
variance of the baseline response." shown below:
Alternative hypothesis: "The variance of the
pilot response is less than the variance of
the baseline response." Control Test - Hypothesis Testing -
Shipment Variability - F-Test
BaselineImageDiff ControlImageDiff
Count 600 600 Null hypothesis: "The variance of the pilot
St. dev. 2.10 1.001 response is greater than or the same as the
Variance 4.423 1.003 variance of the baseline response."
Alternative hypothesis: "The variance of the
Calculations pilot response is less than the variance of
F-Stat (=sBaseline2/sPilot2) 4.408 the baseline response."
F-Crit (=FINV(0.05,599,599) 1.144
BaselineShipVar ControlShipVar
Count 80 89
Since F-Stat is > F-Crit, Reject the Null St. dev. 3.015 1.035
Hypothesis Variance 9.088 1.070
Calculations
With the above results, we can conclude with F-Stat (=sBaseline2/SPilot2) 8.3493
statistical certainty that the variation of the image F-Crit (=FINV(0.05,79,88) 1.4341
centering has decreased and the process is very much Since F-Stat is > F-Crit, Reject the Null
under control. Hypothesis
Y: On-target Shipment The impact of the project’s success was evident in the
Near the end of the month, in July, in order to prove following ways:
that we are moving close to our goals of attaining 6-
• Less amount of seconds were produced due to electronic magazine for CIOs of big Fortune 500
proper image centering companies. While currently pursuing an M.B.A. from
• Customers were getting their products before R. H. Smith School of Business at the University of
they expected or the most on the scheduled time. Maryland, Munish holds a B.Tech. in Computer
• Business was starting to pick up with more Sciences from Kakatiya University.
satisfied customers
Sanjeev Bhawsinka is a Project Engineer at Tamko
The projects conducted by the Six-Sigma team were Roofings Products. As a project engineer, he works
truly making a difference in Bluvas total service on designing equipment and developing processes for
levels. Profits were expected to improve this year and manufacturing chemicals and related compounds to
so would employees’ profit sharing. create roofing products. He is currently pursuing his
MBA at R.H. Smith School of Business and holds a
MS and a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from
References University of Illinois, Chicago and University of
Pune respectively.
1. Pyzdek T., (2000), The Six Sigma
Handbook, McGraw-Hill Trade, ISBN: Harsh Marwaha is a consultant with Oracle Corp. He
0071372334. has over 6 years of experience in information
2. Albright S. et al, (2001), Data Analysis and technology consulting. Harsh is currently pursuing
Decision Making with Microsoft Excel, Duxbury M.B.A. from R. H. Smith School of Business at
Press, ISBN: 0534389325. University of Maryland. He also holds a Masters in
3. Deming, W., (2000), Out of the Crisis, MIT Mathematics and Computers from Indian Institute of
Press, ISBN: 0262541157. Technology Delhi.
4. Pande, P., et al, The Six Sigma Way: How
GE, Motorola, and Other Top Companies are
Honing Their Performance, (2000), McGaw-Hill
Trade, ISBN: 0071358064.
5. Chowdhary, S., (2001), The power of Six
Sigma: An Inspiring Tale of How Six Sigma Is
Transforming the Way We Work, Dearborn
Trade, ISBN: 0793144345.
6. Forrest W. Breyfogle III, et al, (2000),
Managing Six Sigma: A Practical Guide to
Understanding, Assessing, and Implementing the
Strategy That Yields Bottom-Line Succes,
Wiley-Interscience, ISBN: 0471396737.
7. Breakthrough Management Group, Six
Sigma Blackbelt Training Handbook.
8. Tamko Roofing Products, Total Quality
Management Handbook.
Autobiographical Notes
Ranga Magadi is a Technical leader at First Data
Merchant Services, having extensive experience in
credit card transaction processing industry. He is
graduating from the University of Maryland with an
M.B.A in Finance and IT in Summer 2002. Ranga
also holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics
from Bangalore University.