COLLABORATION OF TAGUCHI IN

QUALITY METHODS QUALITY

TECHNIQUES USED BY HARLEY
DAVIDSON

BY,
GOPAL KRISHNA
&

PRANSHU GUPTA

Taguchi was born and raised in the textile town of Tokamachi, in Niigata
prefecture. He studied textile engineering at Kiryu Technical College.

In the escalation of World War II, he was drafted into the Astronomical
Department of the Navigation Institute of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

After the war, he joined the Ministry of Public Health and Welfare, where he
generated his interest in the design of experiments.

In 1950, he joined the Electrical Communications Laboratory (ECL) of

the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation just as statistical quality
control was beginning to become popular in Japan.

ECL was engaged in a rivalry with Bell Labs to develop cross bar and
telephone switching systems, and Taguchi spent his twelve years there in
developing methods for enhancing quality and reliability.
He was beginning to consult widely in Japanese industry and Toyota being an
early adopter of his ideas.

CONTRIBUTIONS & HONOURS

Taguchi loss function , used to measure financial loss to society resulting from poor quality.

The philosophy of off-line quality control, designing products and processes so that they are
insensitive ("robust") to parameters outside the design engineer's control.

Innovations in the statistical design of experiments, notably the use of an outer array for
factors that are uncontrollable in real life, but are systematically varied in the experiment.

1986 - Willard F. Rockwell Medal of the International Technology Institute

1989 - Indigo Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan

1990 - Honored as a Quality Guru by the British Department of Trade and Industry

1995 - Honorary member of the Japanese Society of Quality Control

1997 - Automotive Hall of Fame Inductee

1998 - Honorary member of the American Society for Quality

1998 - Honorary member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

1999 - Honorary president of the Robust Quality Engineering Society (Japan)

ABOUT HARLEY DAVIDSON

Started in 1901 by William Harley, Walter and Arthur

Davidson.

It was available from 1903 onwards.

In 1904 it opened its first outlet in Chicago.

In 1906 it opened its first factory in Chestnut St. (Juneau ave).

In 1907 William Davidson joined the journey and the company

was incorporated.

WHEN THE COMPANY BANKRUPTS

IN 1970S

It was sold to AMF (American machine and Foundry) in $21 million.

The quality technique they used is TQM (Total Quality Management).

They also implemented two additional strategies :

1)

Lobbied Washington to temporarily raise import tariffs from 4 to 40

percent on non-US motorcycles, and

2)

Began their well-known and highly embraced branding and

marketing strategy.

PROBLEMS

Overproduction and Sale at high price.

They do not care about the quality as their goal was SALE AS
MUCH AS YOU CAN .

This results in defocusing SCM (Supply Chain Management).

The low number of the Inventory Turns led to a high level of Stocks.
They had no control over the suppliers and supplier quality was
unpredictable which added to customer dissatisfaction.

REMEDIAL MEASURES TAKEN

In 1980 Harley Davidson really had bad time so the management

decided to take action by organizing there company with new start,
management launched production schedule which increased
inventory turns.

Inventory Turns is define as the ratio of cost of goods and average

inventory.

The inventory dropped to 4 million Dollars, with high level of

productions. Inventory turns increased from 16 to 28 million per
year.

Supplier base was reduced from 320 to 120 it leads to focus on

supplier and better relationship with supplier.

Set up times were reduced drastically, it made smaller life size

feasible which increased the production.

CONT..

Harley Davidson introduced SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT and

JUST IN TIME MANAGEMENT which help to achieve continuous
improvement in quality and delivery services, so there was drop in
warranty cost also helped to eliminate inventory.

Shift of production focus from PUSH (anticipating demand) to PULL

(responding to orders).

Supplier involvement program was evolved to improve the product

development efficiencies and effectiveness which lead to development cost
and reduction of developed time and reduce the cost and increase product
value.

Suppliers must install JIT, Statistical Operator Control, and should work
for continuous improvements. Supplier development must increase the
performance and capability to meet the long term supply need.

ANALYSIS

Supply chain management:-It is an activity which is defined as planning of

operations, implementing the operations and controlling the operation of
the supply chain to satisfy customer requirement as efficiently as possible.
It includes production scheduling; Order processing, inventory
management and customer services.

Just in Time or Man: Just in time helped Harley Davidson by eliminating

waste by using quality of raw material, producing right quality of product
in right place at right time. It also improves the product quality, increase
the productivity and decrease the cost. Harley Davidson called just in time
as man (material as needed).just in time help Harley Davidson to develop
trust between suppliers, it also helped to increase inventory turns which
generate the cash flow.

PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUE OF JUST IN

TIME USED BY HARLEY DAVIDSON

Total quality control

Reducing batch size production

Reduce set up time

Pull system (kanban)

Supplier development

Total employee involvement

Supplier selection

Supplier relationship

CHANGES OCCURRED

Inventory turns up from 5 to 20.

Inventory levels down 75 %.

Percentage of motorcycles coming off the line completed up from

76 % to 99 %.

Scrap and rework reduced by 68 %.

Productivity up by 50 %.

Space requirements down by 25 %.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF LEAN SIX SIGMA

Leadership commitment: A senior leader who can set priorities, commit

resources, break down barriers, overcome resistance and is committed to
improving profitability is necessary for Lean Six Sigma to work.

Focused resources: Six Sigma Black Beltsemployees formally trained as

internal expertsshould be placed in full-time roles focused on applying Six
Sigma tools and strategies to one or two high-priority projects.

Common tools and language: Training needs to be used to develop common

language, knowledge, tools and problem-solving approaches throughout the
organization.

Disciplined project approach: Regular project reviews should be conducted

with process owners, Champions and senior management.

Bottom-line business measures: The bottom-line financial impact of

every Six Sigma project must be measured and reported.

WHO BENEFITS FROM SIX SIGMA ?

Customers: As Lean Six Sigma projects are completed and process

capability improves, customers see an increase in the value they receive.

Stockholders: Removing variation from manufacturing and business

processes dramatically reduces operating costs by eliminating the cost of
rework and requirements for capacity, staffing and capital. For example,
Allied Signal Inc. has realized savings of $2 billion since adopting Six
Sigma as a strategy to avoid bankruptcy during this challenging economic
period.

Employees: Employees learn new skills and improve performance on the

job with Lean Six Sigma, which leads to growth and prosperity.

Suppliers: Sources of variation often include raw materials or components.

With specific knowledge suppliers are able to go back to their factory and
identify and eliminate the root cause of the variation. This reduces the cost
for the supplier.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Continuous improvement is a management policy that sees quality

improvement as an on-going process, and increasing improvement rather
than once and for all improvement efforts. It helps to improve the supply
chain as a whole.

FUTURE TRENDS

Harley Davidson has diversified futuristic plans. Apart from being a

leader in the Motorcycle manufacturing, they are into Branding of their
logos. Supplier trainings, which includes a detailed study of their past
strategies, problems and the way they have approached the solutions.
The innovative Supply Chain Management systems which they
inculcated in the organization. Also their aim is to be.

Being world class customer.

Make worlds profitable motor cycle.

To have best supplier in the world.

To be recognized by customer for quality ,value of product and services.

ANALYSIS

Cause and Effect diagram.

Control Chart.

Pareto Chart.

REFERENCE

http://
www.slideshare.net/abdallaibrahim/quality-improvement-methods
http://
buad306murphy.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/1/4/16142892/harley_davidson
_case_study.pdf
https://
www.linkedin.com/pulse/comprehensive-analysis-burberrys-rebrandin
g-1856-2014-omoloro-fasuyi
http://www.ceptara.com/blog/harley-davidson-worst-in-class-quality
https://
www.ukessays.com/essays/management/problems-faced-by-harley-dav
idson-management-essay.php
http://
essaymonster.net/business/110504-harley-davidson-case-study-a-critic
al-analysis.html
http://
www.processexcellencenetwork.com/lean-six-sigma-business-transform

Buy a Harley, buy the best

ride a mile and walk the rest

THANK YOU