Product Quality is the Differentiator

Product quality may be the key brand differentiation as we move forward. ...

... "The price and the sales of your product are not a function of your brand name - they are a function of the quality, utility and reliability of the product - its value to the consumer. " ...

Via Evolving Excellence: New Manufacturing Age

Game Time Lean Manufacturing

GameTime sets the leadership pace with lean manufacturing contributing to its product quality and streamlined workflow. ...

... "Norquist said, in the past five years, GameTime has embraced a lean manufacturing process that has tremendously improved the quality in our product and evened out the workflow. GameTime isn’t just known for quality, either – the company has also established itself as a leader in workplace safety. " ...

Via The DeKalb County Times-Journal: GameTime

Honeywell Performance Excellence

Honeywell has a Kansas City manufacturing site that was part of its business unit recognition for the 2009 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. The company’s customer quality is driven by Six Sigma performance levels and is delivering sustained tangible benefits. ...

... "The combined product quality and reliability performance level has been at 99.9 percent for traditional customers during the past three years. Honeywell’s use of the Six Sigma Plus Continuous Improvement Model resulted in cost savings of $23.5 million to $27 million each of the past three years. " ...

Via Kansas City Business Journal: Honeywell Unit Baldridge Award

TRW Automotive Product Quality through Six Sigma Programs

TRW leverages Six Sigma to achieve low defect levels in its product quality. ...

... "This broad portfolio of technologies will serve TRW well as the industry volumes rebound. Our quality and Six Sigma programs ensure recently launched and future products are delivered with world-class quality. During the first nine months of the year our quality averaged approximately six parts per million defects at zero kilometer across all products and customers. This is truly a world-class performance. " ...

Via Seeking Alpha: TRW Automotive Q3 2009 Earnings

Using Charts to Detect Process Trends

Traditional statistical process control charts may obscure signals of process instability, especially if there is a product-only focus. Charting process performance can catch instability sooner. ...

... "The Short Run Control Chart takes care of those problems by coding the expected variation (in this case the target) out of the data and plotting data for all the parts on one chart. " ...

Via Hertzler Systems Blog, The Data Heads: Short Run SPC Example

Supplier Quality Recognition

GM recognizes 99 suppliers for their performance. Many are repeat performers. ...

... "The award recognizes the significant contributions of GM's suppliers in 2008 as part of the company's global product and performance achievements. The Supplier of the Year program started in 1992, and each year a global team of purchasing, engineering, quality, manufacturing and logistics executives determines the winners. The decisions are based on supplier performance in the areas of quality, service, technology and price. " ...

Via GM: Best Global Suppliers

Lean Culture Leads to Recognition of Excellence

Carestream Health's Rochester manufacturing facility is recognized with a Shingo Silver Medallion for its excellence in lean manufacturing. ...

... "The Rochester facility, which makes approximately 70 percent of all dental X-ray film sold worldwide, uses lean manufacturing practices to optimize the quality and consistency of the product it delivers to customers while also enabling financial savings for the company. By committing to a lean culture, the facility is able to deliver goods and services with higher quality, fewer defects, and within shorter timelines than traditional production methods. " ...

Via Carestream Healthcare: Shingo Prize Award

Vectron Six Sigma Manufacturing

Vectron practices lean and Six Sigma to improve its manufacturing process and product quality. In doing so, it embraces the methodology and creates a enterprise variant that works in its culture. ...

... "The facility has adopted lean manufacturing practices such as Kaizen and Six Sigma methods, all with an eye toward continuous facility and product improvement. The company follows a 16-point plan that has cut manufacturing cycle times in half compared to earlier attempts to reduce overall production times. " ...

Via Vectron: Frequency Control

Six Sigma Data Mining

HP and PolyVista implement warranty chain management solution for Trane in eight weeks to enable the identification of product quality and warranty-related issues. The solution automates early detection and supports root cause analysis. ...

... "HP and PolyVista's warranty and quality analytics solution worked immediately, allowing us to effectively mine our warranty and production data, said Jerry Brinks, senior quality engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt, Trane. This helps us to identify potential product defects and warranty management challenges, trends and anomalies for faster identification and resolution of product quality and warranty-related problems before we start hearing about it from anywhere else. " ...

Via HP: Trane Warranty Chain Management Early Warning Solution

Warranty Chain Management Enables SixSigma Defect Reduction

Trane uses HP and PolyVista warranty chain management solution to rapidly identify product quality and warranty-related issues through automated early detection and root cause analysis. ...

... "The solution, which was up and running in eight weeks, helps Trane quickly identify product quality and warranty-related issues through automated early detection and root cause analysis. After correcting any current issue detected by the solution, manufacturing teams at Trane can pass the information on to the design or engineering teams to help avoid problems in future products, as well as to vendors and suppliers to help improve long-term product reliability. Through this process, the solution offers reduced warranty costs, improved product development, sourcing and manufacturing processes, and better customer satisfaction. " ...

Via HP: Warranty Chain Management Early Warning System For Defects