Define Phase - Fig 2 Schematic - Project Metrics

Objective: Identify what's important to the customer and what we are failing to provide.

It was very clear from written and verbal customer feedback (Business Y) that rejection levels for painted components at the customer end (Project Y) were causing the biggest dissatisfaction. To reduce this dissatisfaction the team realized that they had to eliminate defects in our painting processes (lower-level Ys). The linkages between the different project metrics are schematically shown in Figure 2.

The next task for the team was to narrow the scope of the project. Paint shop supplies a total of nine parts to this customer.

A Pareto analysis for rejections at the customer end (Figure 3) indicated that almost all rejections were due to three components. Thus, the team narrowed the scope of the project to focus only on these three specific parts.

Next, the team went ahead with defining the charter of this project. Figure 4 displays pictorially the project definition and scope.

A benchmarking study (to understand performance gaps) with other world-class paint shops revealed the urgent need for improving if we had to survive in this competitive environment. The team very painfully learned that our competitors' quality levels were at least 4 to 5 times better than ours. This benchmarking exercise led the team to set an aggressive goal of improving our quality levels by 4-fold in four months. A detailed timeline was made to monitor the progress of the project, and our team committed to achieving this target.

Continue On: Measure Phase

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the management support of Mr. Bakshi, CEO; Mr. Babu, VP Operations; Mr. Vamburkar, VP Finance of TAPS; and Mr. Asokan, VP Supply Chain Business Group, TACO.

Valuable contributions from team members Sanjeev Pandit and Prashant Wadekar are also very much appreciated. Without their hard work and enthusiasm this project could not have been completed.

About the Authors

M. M. Kapadia is Head of the Quality Engineering Group and a Six Sigma Master Black Belt at Tata Auto Comp Systems, Pune, India. He has a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Quality Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India. He also has a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, USA, and a master's degree in Business Administration from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, USA. He has over eighteen years of experience in quality control and engineering in various industries in the USA and India. Dr. Kapadia is also an American Society for Quality (ASQ) certified quality and reliability engineer.

A. Mishra is Head of the Paint Shop at Tata Auto Plastic Systems, Pune, India. He has bachelor's degrees in science and in chemical technology, both from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur, India. He has a total of fourteen years of experience in painting processes in scooter, motorcycle, and automobile component manufacturing with specialization in process control and mass scale production.

S. Hemanth is a member of the Quality Engineering Group and a Six Sigma Black Belt at Tata Auto Comp Systems, Pune, India. He has a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Surathkal, India. He also has a diploma in Total Quality Management from the University of Pune, India, and is a member of ASQ. Mr. Hemanth has been working in the field of quality for the last three years and has successfully completed several quality improvement projects.

V. Limaye is Head of the Customer Service Group at Tata Auto Plastic Systems, Pune, India. He has a diploma in Mechanical Engineering and a bachelor's degree in Production Engineering, both from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India. He has a total of fifteen years of industrial experience in the field of materials and logistics. In his current assignment at Tata Auto Plastic Systems, Mr. Limaye is responsible for various aspects of quality, cost, and delivery for customers.