CONSUMER DRIVEN SIX SIGMA AT FORD.SUMITTED BY: SUMIT KUMAR(10BSP0528) KIRTI PANNU(10BSP1037) RUPALI NAGWANI(10BSP1402)

INTRODUCTION

2001:- JD power association (JDPA) announced the result of Initial quality study ranked ford motor company seventh in the world . 2003:- ford was ranked 4th in the IQS result. Analyst felt that the improvement was due to the initiative taken by the Ford in long back since late 1999 in the field of six sigma. Company trains the employee upto black belt and they take the leadership initiative. Pauline Burke I liked the philosophies of six sigma . I liked the disciplinary approach to solving the problems.I feel great fixing problems for customers and making the company stronger for improving the quality. When employee is happy they do better work , the customer wins.

BIRTH OF SIX SIGMA

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Journey of Six Sigma in FORD begin in 1999 for improving the quality of ford vehicle. Phong Vu, the director of quality for global truck business conducted a research on leading companies who implemented Six Sigma and then he suggested Six Sigma in Ford. Six Sigma in Ford was called as Consumer Driven Six Sigma. Objectives:Enhancing vehicle quality Improving customer satisfaction level.

TRAINING

The first step for implementing Six Sigma was the training of employees. By Jan 2000, the top 50 executive had received executive training including CEO Jacques Nasser. They went though a two day training workshop where they were given an orientation to the six sigma process and its applications.

Following this company started training in four categories:1. Green Belts: Green Belts were imparted a weeks training which comprised of basis of Six Sigma. Their role was to assist Black Belts in quicker implementation of projects. The training was classified in three types: Technical Manufacturing Transactional

2. Black Belts: Played an important role in six sigma . Trained for total duration of four weeks spread over a period of four months. Training was imparted on different Six Sigma tools:i. Process mapping ii. Cause and effect diagram iii. Failure mode and effect analysis iv. Design of experiment v. Mistake proofing in their daily work

3. Master Black Belts:

Chosen by the management and the project champion. Responsible for providing training to green belt and black belts, with main focus on black belts. Helped black belt in in necessary steps. Looked after mega projects of Ford and trained senior leaders.

4. Project Champions:

Belonged largely to managerial class. They were trained for three to five days Together with the Master black belt they spotted the Six Sigma projects within the company and provided the resources required for completion of the project.

The DMAIC Cycle: After the projects has been selected and the necessary top management approvals were received, the black belts embarked upon the DMAIC cycle (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control). Any project at Ford was considered to be complete only when it successfully completed the DMAIC cycle

SIX SIGMA IN ACTIONThough Six Sigma sounded a good concept with promising benefits, its actual implementation was much tougher than expected and required the total support of top management. DEFINE: In this stage, Ford made efforts to identify the problem. The problem was with the transit protection film on the vehicles which was getting pealed off. MEASURE: The Six Sigma project team used a cause and effect diagram to find out the main reasons for the defects pertaining to the transit film.

Analyze and Improve: The next step for the project team was to study the impact of changing input variables already identified in the existing process. The team decided to use a transit film made of a new material. Then the company used a software developed by Minitab to conduct the analysis This analysis revealed that by using the new transit film, the defect rate can be reduced to 1.29 defects per vehicle from 2.89 defects. CONTROL: The success of Six Sigma project encouraged Ford to implement the changes made in the process to 11 more manufacturing plants.

THE IMPLEMENTATION

Phase I of the implementation of Six Sigma concentrated on the issues related to customer satisfaction which demanded significant attention during that time Fords initial Six Sigma efforts concentrated on addressing these issues in all its assembly plants. The success of Phase I encouraged the company to roll out phase II in Sept 2001 This phase was named as Design for Six Sigma In this phase, the emphasis was on applying Six Sigma right from the product design stage so that defects could be prevented even before they were actually made.

THE BENEFITSFord reaped several benefits by implementing Six Sigma. Some of these were: Financial Gains. Customer Satisfaction. Found a talented group of Six Sigma pioneers which the company groomed during the period. Improvement in overall vehicle quality.

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