Metalworking Production and Purchasing 25 www.metalworkingcanada.com April 2008 department BUSINESS SURVIVAL STRATEGIES J eff Holman, President of Micro- pump, a Lean Six Sigma manu- facturing company, captures the challenges of how to best use engi- neering staff. According to Holman, “I had these two high-powered and highly compensated engineers spend- ing hours scrubbing data and building databases to get the information they needed for their projects.” The Six Sigma community puts up with amazing amounts of busy work in order to become data-driven. Evan J. Miller, president and chief executive officer of Hertzler Systems, (and man- ufacturer of GainSeeker), notes that, “Frequently manufacturing executives define this data collection process as “the every day junk work that we do that we call our jobs.” The roots of this situation are deep within Six Sigma itself: Black Belts are brought into training, assigned to a project, and told to go start measuring some- thing. They are rarely IT people, but they are smart, resourceful, and very driven. They go and get some data.” Manufacturing firms intent on cap- turing and distilling rich streams of data will find it. Often companies will look at a Capability Maturity Model (CMM); a typical format will show a data source, viewed in Excel. View- ing by rows and columns is common across many industries and many ap- plications. Most data dumped from a database ends up looking like a data- rich grid-whether it is manufacturing or transactional data. According to Miller, “The time this takes is substantial. Even if only 20 variables are being tracked, it of- ten takes 20 to 25 minutes to capture data for each part number. Since most companies, particularly those in met- alworking production, produce multi- ple products simultaneously, it is easy to see how an otherwise productive manufacturing professional can spend their entire time preparing reports.” Six Sigma’s holy-grail is to become data driven; it is a culture where truth in the form of objective statistical analysis of reliable data trumps per- sonalities and politics. Royce Binion, operations manager for BAE Systems, Fort Wayne, IN, says, “Real-time ac- cess to accurate, actionable data is the number one tool that has enabled us to move to a data driven culture.” Miller, a strong proponent of sta- tistical process control (SPC) insists, “Maybe it is time to stop spending so much effort training people and in- stead give them the data so they can use the training.” Holman at MicroPump decided to establish a system for capturing real- time process data across the company. Holman set up a team to develop a list of Critical to Quality Characteristics (CTQs) for this system. The list his team developed included: SPC must be used for process control in manufac- turing; the ability to accurately track transactional process performance; a way to link information from many databases for use in operations; one source for process and product data; mistake-proofing of data; real-time in- formation about all processes; ease of use by operators, supervisors, engineers and Black Belts; compatibility with sta- tistical analysis software; and limited resources required for initial set-up and ongoing system maintenance The MicroPump team then consid- ered several options for meeting the CTQs from dedicating a portion of a Black belt resource to data integ- rity to investing in an enterprise wide knowledge-management system. They quickly recognized that having clean, reliable data was absolutely essential to driving Six Sigma projects; the act of getting that data added absolutely no value to business. MicroPump con- sidered investing in training and devel- oping other people to harvest the data needed, but the investment costs in lead time and training resources were considerable. Enterprise-wide knowl- edge management systems had great summary reporting tools, but lacked several key essential capabilities. The firm’s efforts were focused on the manufacturing shop floor. These systems lacked the connections needed for gauges and manufacturing equip- ment as well as a serious weakness in real-time statistical analysis capa- bilities. Most of these tools could tell when something missed a target; they could not identify a statistical shift or trend in real-time. Most solutions did not readily interface to statistical analysis software (MINITAB), or help the company scrub the data. Investigating the capabilities of dif- ferent SPC software packages made the most sense according to Holman: “This proved to be the best course… while these systems have a reputation for belonging on the shop floor, the good ones do much more. We found a system that met all of our criteria and it has been deployed now for nearly four years; it continues to provide us with clean, reliable data in real time so that we can deploy continuous im- provement across the company.” For Micropump, projects are scoped, prioritized and chartered faster in the Define phase. In the Measure phase, there is an average 10% reduction in cycle time, and they have an almost painless transition to Control. Hertzler Systems’ research demonstrates that, “Organizations that make sure their people have accurate, actionable data available in real-time have more effec- tive and focused Six Sigma programs.” Thomas R. Cutler is the president and chief executive officer of Fort Lauderdale, FL-based TR Cutler, Inc. (www.trcutler- inc.com). Cutler is the founder of the Manufacturing Media Consortium-a con- sortium of journalists and editors writing about trends in manufacturing. by Thomas R. Cutler Eliminating data massaging, scrubbing, and manipulating The Cypress MM1 is a computer controlled machine that automates the cutting of profiles, holes and shapes on pipe with diameters from 4" to 16" (10 - 40 cm). Pre-programmed shapes such as saddle, hillside, lateral and miter cuts can be made by simply selecting the type of cut from the menu, then entering the diameters of the pipe being processed and pressing the run button to cut your pipe. CYPRESS WELDING EQUIPMENT, INC. 3001 West Carson Street Pittsburgh, PA 15204 www.cypressweld.com For more information call: 1-800-245-3186 Economical, Automated Pipe Cutter Saves Layout and Fit-Up Time. Economical, Automated Pipe Cutter Saves Layout and Fit-Up Time. Linde Canada Limited | 1-888-256-7359 | www.lindecanada.com ©2008 The Linde Group 901RE Shield the weld and the welder with MISON ® Ar. Composition: Ar and NO mixture Better performance Better working conditions No compromise Applications: Shielding gas for TIG-welding of stainless steel, aluminum and mild steel Shielding gas for MIG-welding of aluminum and pulse MIG-welding of aluminum Advantages: Reduces the production of ozone Deeper penetration compared to argon A more stable arc due to the NO content The best alternative for TIG welding 1-800-344-1488 CALL TOLL - FREE www . dynabrade . com Power & Performance! Dynabrade 1 . 3 hp Grinders /Sanders Dynabrade and the Dynabrade logo are registered trademarks of Dynabrade, Inc. Ideal for Grinding Welds and Countless Material Removal Applications NEW! Models accept 4" to 5" (102 mm – 127 mm) diameter Type 27 Depressed Center Wheels, Abrasive Discs or Flap Discs. Convenient Spindle Lock allows easy accessory change. Unique wick-lube system extends gear life with simple lubrication. Model 52632 (12,000 RPM)
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Metalworking Production and Purchasing 25www.metalworkingcanada.comApril 2008
department BUSINESS SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
Jeff Holman, President of Micro-pump, a Lean Six Sigma manu-facturing company, captures the challenges of how to best use engi-neering staff. According to Holman, “I had these two high-powered and highly compensated engineers spend-ing hours scrubbing data and building databases to get the information they needed for their projects.”
The Six Sigma community puts up with amazing amounts of busy work in order to become data-driven. Evan J. Miller, president and chief executive officer of Hertzler Systems, (and man-ufacturer of GainSeeker), notes that, “Frequently manufacturing executives define this data collection process as “the every day junk work that we do that we call our jobs.” The roots of this situation are deep within Six Sigma itself: Black Belts are brought into training, assigned to a project, and told to go start measuring some-thing. They are rarely IT people, but they are smart, resourceful, and very driven. They go and get some data.”
Manufacturing firms intent on cap-turing and distilling rich streams of data will find it. Often companies will look at a Capability Maturity Model (CMM); a typical format will show a data source, viewed in Excel. View-ing by rows and columns is common across many industries and many ap-plications. Most data dumped from a database ends up looking like a data-rich grid-whether it is manufacturing or transactional data.
According to Miller, “The time this takes is substantial. Even if only 20 variables are being tracked, it of-ten takes 20 to 25 minutes to capture data for each part number. Since most companies, particularly those in met-alworking production, produce multi-ple products simultaneously, it is easy to see how an otherwise productive manufacturing professional can spend their entire time preparing reports.”
Six Sigma’s holy-grail is to become data driven; it is a culture where truth in the form of objective statistical analysis of reliable data trumps per-sonalities and politics. Royce Binion, operations manager for BAE Systems, Fort Wayne, IN, says, “Real-time ac-cess to accurate, actionable data is the number one tool that has enabled us to move to a data driven culture.”
Miller, a strong proponent of sta-tistical process control (SPC) insists, “Maybe it is time to stop spending so much effort training people and in-stead give them the data so they can use the training.”
Holman at MicroPump decided to establish a system for capturing real-time process data across the company. Holman set up a team to develop a list of Critical to Quality Characteristics (CTQs) for this system. The list his team developed included: SPC must be used for process control in manufac-turing; the ability to accurately track transactional process performance; a way to link information from many databases for use in operations; one source for process and product data; mistake-proofing of data; real-time in-formation about all processes; ease of use by operators, supervisors, engineers and Black Belts; compatibility with sta-tistical analysis software; and limited resources required for initial set-up and ongoing system maintenance
The MicroPump team then consid-ered several options for meeting the CTQs from dedicating a portion of a Black belt resource to data integ-rity to investing in an enterprise wide knowledge-management system. They quickly recognized that having clean, reliable data was absolutely essential to driving Six Sigma projects; the act of getting that data added absolutely no value to business. MicroPump con-sidered investing in training and devel-oping other people to harvest the data needed, but the investment costs in
lead time and training resources were considerable. Enterprise-wide knowl-edge management systems had great summary reporting tools, but lacked several key essential capabilities.
The firm’s efforts were focused on the manufacturing shop floor. These systems lacked the connections needed for gauges and manufacturing equip-ment as well as a serious weakness in real-time statistical analysis capa-bilities. Most of these tools could tell when something missed a target; they could not identify a statistical shift or trend in real-time. Most solutions did not readily interface to statistical analysis software (MINITAB), or help the company scrub the data.
Investigating the capabilities of dif-ferent SPC software packages made the most sense according to Holman: “This proved to be the best course…while these systems have a reputation for belonging on the shop floor, the good ones do much more. We found a system that met all of our criteria and it has been deployed now for nearly four years; it continues to provide us with clean, reliable data in real time so that we can deploy continuous im-provement across the company.”
For Micropump, projects are scoped, prioritized and chartered faster in the Define phase. In the Measure phase, there is an average 10% reduction in cycle time, and they have an almost painless transition to Control. Hertzler Systems’ research demonstrates that, “Organizations that make sure their people have accurate, actionable data available in real-time have more effec-tive and focused Six Sigma programs.”
Thomas R. Cutler is the president and chief executive officer of Fort Lauderdale, FL-based TR Cutler, Inc. (www.trcutler-inc.com). Cutler is the founder of the Manufacturing Media Consortium-a con-sortium of journalists and editors writing about trends in manufacturing.
by Thomas R. Cutler
Eliminating data massaging, scrubbing, and manipulating
The Cypress MM1 is a computer controlled machine that automates thecutting of profiles, holes and shapes on pipe with diametersfrom 4" to 16" (10 - 40 cm). Pre-programmed shapes such as saddle,hillside, lateral and miter cuts can be made by simply selecting the typeof cut from the menu, then entering the diameters of the pipe beingprocessed and pressing the run button to cut your pipe.
CYPRESS WELDINGEQUIPMENT, INC.3001 West Carson StreetPittsburgh, PA 15204www.cypressweld.com
For more information call:1-800-245-3186
Economical, Automated Pipe CutterSaves Layout and Fit-Up Time.
Economical, Automated Pipe CutterSaves Layout and Fit-Up Time.
Linde Canada Limited | 1-888-256-7359 | www.lindecanada.com
©20
08 T
he L
inde
Gro
up 9
01RE
Shield the weld and the welder with MISON® Ar.Composition: Ar and NO mixture
Better performance Better working conditions No compromise
Applications:
Shielding gas for TIG-welding of stainless steel, aluminum and mild steel
Shielding gas for MIG-welding of aluminum and pulse MIG-welding of aluminum
Advantages:
Reduces the production of ozone Deeper penetration compared to argon A more stable arc due to the NO content The best alternative for TIG welding
Untitled-1 1 4/10/08 8:56:41 AM
1-800-344-1488CALL TOLL-FREE
www.dynabrade.com
Power & Performance!Dynabrade 1.3 hp Grinders /Sanders
Dynabrade and the Dynabrade logo are registered trademarks of Dynabrade, Inc.
Ideal for Grinding Welds andCountless Material RemovalApplications
NEW!
Models accept 4" to 5" (102 mm – 127 mm) diameter Type 27Depressed Center Wheels, Abrasive Discs or Flap Discs.Convenient Spindle Lock allows easy accessory change.Unique wick-lube system extends gear life with simple lubrication.
Model 52632(12,000 RPM)
MP&P_April08.indd 25MP&P_April08.indd 25 4/10/08 9:08:57 AM4/10/08 9:08:57 AM
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