Weights and Measures in International Trade

Accuracy and Precision

• Calibration is the process of verifying the capability and performance of an item of measuring and test equipment compared to traceable measurement standards.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) maintains national measurement standards.
• NIST calibrates the reference-level standards of organizations requiring the highest level of accuracy.
• Working-level standards are used to calibrate the measuring instruments used in the field.
• Many organizations must ensure traceability by keeping records that their own measuring equipment has been calibrated by laboratories or testing facilities whose measurements can be related to appropriate standards.

Process Capability Measurement

• Process capability is the ability of a process to produce output that conforms to specifications.
• A process capability study is a carefully planned study designed to yield specific information about the performance of a process under specified operating conditions.
• Typical questions in a process capability study include:
  • Where is the process centered?
  • How much variability exists in the process?
  • Is the performance relative to specifications acceptable?
  • What proportion of output will be expected to meet specifications?
  • What factors contribute to variability?

Types of Process Capability Studies

• Process characterization study: how a process performs under actual operating conditions

Process Improvement and Six Sigma

A. Learning Outcomes

• Identify process improvement methodologies
• Explain what is Six Sigma
• Discuss the difference between Six Sigma and TQM

B. Time Allotment

• 2 sessions (3 hours)

C. Discussion

PROCESS IMPROVEMENT and Six Sigma

• Process improvement depends on the ability to effectively identify problems, develop good solutions, and implement them.
• A systematic fact-based problem-solving approach is vital in accomplishing this.
• Common themes in process improvement methodologies include:
  • Redefining and Analyzing the Problem
  • Generating Ideas
  • Evaluating and Selecting Ideas
  • Implementing Ideas

Deming's Cycle

• Walter Shewhart introduced the three-step process:
  1. Specification
  2. Production
  3. Inspection

Six Sigma

• Six Sigma is a business improvement approach that seeks to find and eliminate causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and service processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers and a clear financial return for the organization.
• The term Six Sigma is based on a statistical measure that equates to 3.4 or fewer errors or defects per million opportunities (dpmo).

Evolution of Six Sigma

• Motorola (mid-1980s)
• General Electric (mid-1990s)

Principles of Six Sigma

• 1. Think in terms of key business processes and customer requirements with a clear focus on overall strategic objectives.
• 2. Focus on corporate sponsors responsible for championing projects, supporting team activities, helping to overcome resistance to change, and obtaining resources.
• 3. Emphasize quantifiable measures such as dpmo that can be applied to all parts of an organization.
• 4. Ensure that appropriate metrics are identified early in the process and that they focus on business results, thereby providing incentives and accountability.
• 5. Provide extensive training followed by project team deployment to improve profitability, reduce non-value-added activities, and achieve cycle time reduction.

Root Cause Analysis

• Root cause: "that condition (or interrelated set of conditions) having allowed or caused a defect to occur, which once corrected properly, permanently prevents recurrence of the defect in the same, or subsequent, product or service generated by the process."
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is an approach using statistical, quantitative, or qualitative tools to identify and understand the root cause.

Types of RCA

• 1. "5 Why" technique: forces one to redefine a problem statement as a chain of causes and effects to identify the source of the symptoms by asking why, ideally five times.
• 2. Cause-and-effect diagram: a simple graphical method for presenting a chain of causes and effects and for sorting out causes and organizing relationships between variables.
• 3. Scatter diagram: the graphical component of regression analysis.

Lean Tools for Process Improvements

• Lean production refers to approaches that originated at the Ford Motor Company in the early 1900s, but which were refined and modernized by the Toyota Motor Corporation later in the century.
• Lean approaches focus on the elimination of waste in all forms, including defects requiring rework, unnecessary processing steps, unnecessary movement of materials or people, waiting time, excess inventory, and overproduction.

Tools of Lean Production

• 1. The 5S's: seiri (sort), seiton (set in order), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardize), and shitsuke (sustain).
• 2. Visual controls.