By Creating a perfect product might seem like a farfetched expectation for your business. But, six sigma can get you one step closer to achieving that. With six sigma, you could see a reduction in defects which will lead to higher customer loyalty. Put simply, six sigma is a process focused on eliminating faults so that you can improve your customer’s experience whilst keeping costs down. We all know that a happy customer equals a happy business, so you want to lessen those flaws to increase their loyalty. If you’re not convinced that six sigma is what your business needs, the Marketplace have some evidence which might make you change your mind.
The Marketplace is one of the business consultants working with the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP). The Marketplace can give your business an extra boost by showing you who are the best providers to work with and how to improve your procurement and supply chain. If you’re worried about covering the costs of consultants then speak to MGP, because they have funding on hand that you can use to help cover these costs.
One business, Internal Pipe Solutions* approached The Marketplace with hopes of decreasing the imperfections on their products. With six sigma in mind, the Marketplace started chasing up potential defects, what the manufacturing process was, and what the possible causes could be. Nearly all the defected products had long straight marks or scuffs on the outside surface. Even a minor issue like this meant the products had to be rejected, wasting time and money.
Finding the answer for why defects are happening might not be obvious. People at the Internal Pipe Solutions said: “It’s the guys who make the finished product in there” and “It’s the forming mandrels, they are old and need replacing” to justify the fault. The Marketplace spotted a different concern – inspection of the product wasn’t done until the end of the production. Without the Marketplace bringing a fresh perspective, the business may have never noticed this key aspect that needed to be tackled.
When watching the manufacturing process at the end, the consultants couldn’t see any potential cause for the marks. However, they did notice the marks were already on the material being supplied into the factory. So, they needed to track back through the production process to the material store.
The rubber was being extruded from a machine and came out as a continuous length of hot rubber hose, which was then cut into 2m or 3m lengths for easy handling. Every time the hot hose was cut, it was being tapped with a 10” knife blade. 1m………2m……….and cut – this was revealed as the source of the straight marks. It was helpful to mark each metre of the hose without a tape measure, but this was damaging the product in the process.
This wasn’t the only defect being made to the products either. The hot and soft hose would then be dragged over the edge of a cooling bath and into the water within and the edge of the cooling tank was scraping the soft rubber. Once the partly cooled hose was taken from the tank, it was placed onto a plywood topped trolley for transport to the material store. The trolley was made from two separate sheets of plywood which, thanks to the water pouring off the hoses, had swollen at the edges and was leaving scratch marks on the product.
The morale of this story is that something incredibly simple had been ruining the Internal Pipe Solutions’ product, and without the Marketplace, they would never have determined and eradicated the cause. In fact, it had been incorrectly diagnosed and not resolved for a number of years. This business is a market leader in their field and has a turnover of over £25m, showing even businesses at the top of their field have benefitted from the extra support. With the help of the MGP, you’ll be able to afford this support without straining your finances.
*Business name has been changed for data protection purposes.
If your business would benefit from some part funded manufacturing support you can get in touch at support@howsbusiness.org We aim to respond to all enquiries in 24 hours.