Achieving customers specifications through process improvment using six sigma: Case study of NUTRISOIL - Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Baía, Amândio
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10314/2335

Tolerance limits are essential in production process management, as they determine consumer satisfaction. The use of statistical quality control tools allows for process improvement and the Cpk index enables its measurement. Above all, the adoption by businesses of lean tools has been crucial in reducing the variation of a process or a product, satisfying the consumer’s specifications, eliminating defects, reducing operating costs, and, in short, increasing profitability. The NutriSoil Company in Portugal, a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), sells fertilizer in bags. The company has bad problems with its filling process due to excess weight of the bags. Results show that by implementing Six Sigma combined with the 5S program, NutriSoil achieved an improvement in its Cpk index for this process, which increased consumer satisfaction and a highly significant cost savings. This resulted in increased competitiveness.