Universia Business Review
ISSN: 1698-5117
[email protected]
Portal Universia S.A.
España
Garrido-Vega, Pedro; Sacristán-Díaz, Macarena; Magaña- Ramírez, Luis Miguel
Six Sigma in SMES with low production volumes. A successful experience in aeronautics.
Universia Business Review, núm. 51, julio-septiembre, 2016, pp. 52-71
Portal Universia S.A.
Madrid, España
Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=43347130003
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Pedro Garrido- ega
Universidad de Sevilla

[email protected]
Six Sigma in SMES with
low production volumes.
A successful experience in
aeronautics.
Seis Sigma en PYMES con bajo volumen de
producción.
Una experiencia de éxito en aeronáutica.
52
1. INTRODUCTION
Macarena Sacrist na
Universidad de Sevilla

[email protected]
Luis Miguel Maga aam re
Ingeniero Industrial.
Máster en Estudios
Avanzados en Dirección de
Empresas

[email protected]
EL C
M ,L
ES:
In the current challenging economic environment, hich re uires
a reduction in roduction costs hile maintaining high levels o
uality and reducing delivery times, the use o methodologies or the
im rovement o roduction and/or organisational rocesses is a very
interesting ro osition or any sector
Six Sigma is considered to be one o the most o er ul im rovement
strategies currently available to com anies Many large organisations
in a ide range o di erent sectors have already ado ted this
strategy or have its ado tion on their agenda umar et al , 2008
It as conceived by Motorola in the 1980s ith the aim o reducing
variability and aste in very re etitive rocesses ith high roduction
volumes, through a systematic im rovement methodology based on
statistical techni ues and tools
Although Six Sigma has been ex loited by many orld class
organisations, there has been relatively little documented evidence
o its im lementation in SMEs Antony et al , 2008 although more
exam les have been ound in a range o di erent sectors more
recently Pasla s i, 201 McAdam et al , 201 Sharma & Sharma,
201 Ho ever, these businesses lay a ey role in the economies
o all countries There ore, it is a matter o interest to no the
contexts in hich Six Sigma can be a lied, the best ay or it to be
im lemented, and the main actors that lead to its success or ailure
Received: 21 October 2015. Accepted:
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
une 2016
DOI: 10.3232/UBR.2016.V13.N3.02
5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Six Sigma is currently one o the most o er ul tools that exists or uality im rovement Designed or highly re etitive and high volume roduction manu acturing rocesses, it has been
ado ted by leading large organisations in many di erent sectors all around the orld Our
goal is to study its a licability to SMEs ith lo
roduction volumes and identi y ey success
actors and obstacles to its im lementation The methodology ollo ed is Action Research in
an SME in the aeronautics sector using the DMAIC im rovement cycle a lied to a s eci ic Six
Sigma ro ect The results con irm Six Sigma s a licability and suggest that success de ends
on ey actors, such as the team s commitment, the availability o resources and rior learning
RESUMEN DEL ARTÍCULO
Seis Sigma es actualmente una de las herramientas más otentes ara la me ora de la calidad Concebida ara rocesos roductivos muy re etitivos y de gran volumen de roducción,
ha sido ado tada or las rinci ales grandes organizaciones de todo el mundo en muchos
sectores Nuestro ob etivo es estudiar su a licabilidad en ymes, con ba os vol menes de
roducción, e identi icar los rinci ales actores de éxito y obstáculos ara su im lementación
Se ha em leado la metodología investigación en acción en una yme del sector aeronáutico,
a licando el ciclo de me ora DMAIC a un royecto Seis Sigma concreto Los resultados con irman su a licabilidad y sugieren ue el éxito de ende de actores claves como el com romiso
del e ui o, la dis onibilidad de recursos y la ormación revia
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
5
Im lementing Six Sigma in SMEs is a challenge because their size,
roduction volumes, levels o or er training and resources are all
much smaller than in the case o large com anies In articular, the
roduction rocesses o these com anies o ten do not resent the
degree o re eatability or hich Six Sigma has been created, either
because o lo er roduction volumes, greater roduct customisation,
continuous changes in the roduct, or other actors
The aeronautics sector is es ecially interesting or the study o
continuous im rovement methodologies such as Six Sigma This is
a highly com etitive industry, here the riority is to ensure sa ety
and air orthiness Due to their o erating conditions, aeronautics
roducts are sub ect to very high uality, reliability and
Six Sigma is sustainability2 standards There ore, the use o continuous
considered to be one im rovement methodologies to enhance internal uality
levels becomes virtually indis ensable
of the most powerful In recent years, there have been many incursions in this
improvement strategies sector ith Lean Production and they have inally started
currently available to to achieve ositive results internally Crute et al , 200
Mathaisel, 2005 Bhuiyan et al , 2006 Prida & Gri alvo, 2011
companies. Martínez-Jurado & Moyano-Fuentes, 201 and, to a more
modest degree, externally ith regard to achieving a more
e icient su ly chain Sacristán-Díaz et al , 2012 Al alla-Lu ue et
al , 201 The same is not true o Six Sigma, hose im lementation
has been scarce One study o aeronautics com anies immerman
&
eiss, 2005 ollo ed Six Sigma im rovement rogrammes
and sho s that the outcomes ere totally unsatis actory in a nonnegligible ercentage over 50
Other studies or di erent sectors
sho similar results e g , Feng & Manuel, 2007 In most cases,
it a ears that the absence o a ractical model or achieving the
targets may doom the Six Sigma im rovement ro ect to utter ailure
This last oint as a decisive incentive to conduct this study o a Six
Sigma ro ect im lementation at an SME in the aeronautics sector
There ore, the ob ective o this a er is to study the a licability o
Six Sigma in this context and to identi y the main success actors
and obstacles to its im lementation in order to rovide relevant
im lications and recommendations or ractitioners
The methodological a roach ollo ed is Action Research AR in
order to roduce research that, hile contributing to theory, is o
s ecial value or ractitioners,
estbroo , 1995 To this end, and
ta ing advantage o the Six Sigma training o one o the authors,
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
it as ro osed to the com any that it could use this methodology
to address some o the roblems in its roduction area The coauthor or ed or three months on the Six Sigma ro ect at the irm
being analysed This enabled a close detailed study o the system,
interaction ith com any members, and learning through the
ractical im lementation o the activity Coughlan & Coghlan, 2002
KEY WORDS
Six Sigma DMAIC
Quality Aeronautics
Action Research
PALABRAS CLAVE
Seis Sigma DMAIC
Calidad Aeronáutica
Investigación en
Acción
2. SIX SIGMA PROJECTS IMPLEMENTATION: KEY FACTORS
AND OBSTACLES
The maximisation o inancial er ormance that is ty ical o any
business organisation, and the ay to achieve it by reducing aste
and increasing customer satis action are t o ey as ects usually
combined in the de inition o Six Sigma Harry & Schroeder, 2000
Linderman et al , 200
a & Anbari, 2006 Thus, Six Sigma is
considered to be a a business strategy used to im rove inancial
er ormance and the e ectiveness and e iciency o all o erations
ith the rimary ob ective o satis ying customer needs, as ell
as b a statistical tool hich ursues de ect rates o
units er
million e uivalent to a uality level o 99 9997
Six Sigma ma es use o many tools yet most o them are not original
or s eci ic to its methodology For exam le, statistical tools such as
EDA ex loratory data analysis , SPC statistical rocess control ,
ANOVA analysis o variance and DOE design o ex eriments ,
and non-statistics tools, such as FMEA Failure mode and e ects
analysis , QFD Quality Function De loyment and Po a o e -all
available to com anies long be ore Six Sigma a eared- are used
Ho ever, as in other im rovement a roaches, Six Sigma re uires
uality to be measured ob ectively and rovides a measurement
metric or this that ent on to give the name to the methodology
Linderman et al , 200
he Sigma () variable represents the parameter that measures the
variability o a statistical distribution, that is, its standard deviation I
the result o a rocess is a unction that ollo s a normal robability
distribution most rocesses it into the bell curve and the tolerance
range is eual to  which means si standard deviations each
side o the nominal value, then the de ect rate o a centred rocess
ould be 0 002
m arts er million, hich re ers to the ratio
bet een the number o de ective arts to one million arts that
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
55
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
56
ould orm the analysed sam le In this case, the rocess is said to
have a  uality level.
Ho ever, rocesses do not remain stable ith an average ixed
at the nominal value. f the nominal value is moved . to either
side, the de ect rate ould increase by u to
m There ore, the
goal o Six Sigma is to achieve de ect rates o
units er million
o ortunities d mo or a de ect to be able to a ear in the sam le
Given the nature o its measurement metric, it is not unusual or
traditional Six Sigma techni ues to be ad udged severely limited in
highly changeable roduction contexts characterized by small batch
roductions and customized, or even one-o -a- ind roducts, as ell
as in-line roduct ins ections Colledani et al , 201 , hich are all
eatures that, to a greater or lesser extent, are resent in most SME
rocesses, and articularly in the aeronautics sector
Regarding SMEs, a ilot survey in
manu acturing irms sho ed
that SMEs are not a are o Six Sigma and do not have the resources
to im lement Six Sigma ro ects Antony et al , 2008 In addition,
the lo im lementation o Six Sigma in the aeronautics industry,
erha s due to some o the s ecial eatures o the sector mentioned
above lo
roduction volume, long roduction time, etc , means
that its im lementation in aeronautics SMEs oses an even more
di icult challenge, but a challenge that should be aced, considering
the huge re ards that it can bring
Studies re orting on Six Sigma im lementation essentially
em hasise the same obstacles and the same ey actors that
under in its e ectiveness, and these can be ound in Table Most
oint to management commitment, education and training, cultural
change, and the lin to business strategy being the most critical
success actors in Six Sigma im lementation As or obstacles,
some studies have investigated the reasons or not im lementing
Six Sigma, among hich lac o a areness, no erceived bene its
and insu icient resources stand out Other studies have ocused on
actors that may lead to its ailure, inding that the lac o resources
inancial, human and time , lac o leadershi , lac o training and
internal resistance are among the most im ortant As ith many o
the im rovement methodologies that organisations use to enhance
the er ormance o their rocesses, Six Sigma o ten involves dee ,
mainly structural changes that sometimes roduce re ection rom
or ers Six Sigma urther aggravates these otential setbac s,
since its success de ends largely on the training that or ers
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
receive and, there ore, on a ro ound cultural change that enables
the methodology to be assimilated ith su icient e iciency
Table 1. Implementation of Six Sigma Projects: ey factors for success and main
obstacles
E FACT
SF
SUCCESS
1. Mana ement involvement and commitment
2. Cultural chan e
3. Or anisation in rastructure
. Trainin
5. Pro ect mana ement s ills
6. Pro ect prioritisation and selection
. Understandin Si Si ma methodolo , tools and
techni ues
8. Lin in Si Si ma to business strate
. Lin in Si Si ma to the customer, customer ocus
10. Lin in Si Si ma to emplo ees
11. Lin in Si Si ma to suppliers
12. ttaching the success to nancial ene ts
13. Or anisational understandin o wor processes
1 . Clear per ormance metrics
15. Include all emplo ees and all aspects o business
appropriatel
MAI
BSTACLES
1. Not aware o Si Si ma
2. No perceied ene ts
. isting ualit Sstem is suf cient
. Not re uired b customers
5. Lack of resources this includes nancial resour
ces, human resources, time, etc.
6. Lac o leadership
. Poor trainin and coachin
8. Internal resistance especiall political resistance
and technical resistance
. Poor pro ect selection lac o methodolo ,
scope too lar e, unimportant or uzz ob ectives,
and poor process per ormance metrics
10. Lac o tan ible results
11. Team too lar e
Source: ased on Antony
anuelas 2 2 , ohnson S isher 2 3 , Antony et al 2
Antony et al 2 8 , Cha rabarty Tan 2 7 , run 2 11 , and slund 2 13
5,
a
Anbari 2
6,
From the above discussion it can be deduced that SMEs encounter
greater di iculties in the im lementation o Six Sigma than larger
irms, and it is easy to understand hy its use is much less
ides read Lac o no ledge o its existence, lac o inancial,
human and time resources, and lo em loyee training levels are
some o the main obstacles This is cou led ith a lo er volume
o roduction that ma es it di icult to use Six Sigma metrics and
achieve its ultimate goal It could be said that Six Sigma is too big
or most SMEs
One im ortant characteristic that de ines Six Sigma is the use o
a structured method Schroeder et al , 2008 Six Sigma Pro ects
usually a ly the DMAIC De ine, Measure, Analyse, Im rove,
Control cycle Thomas et al, 2009 or rocess im rovement The
route that this rocess has to ollo is sho n in Figure
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
57
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
i ure 1. The
MAIC Cycle in Six Sigma Projects
58
This similarity to the She hart and Deming PDCA im rovement
cycle leads to hat has been reviously stated about Six Sigma
ma ing e contributions o its o n There ore, its greatest merit
lies in no ing ho to structure each o these ste s systematically,
roviding Six Sigma Pro ect managers ith statistical and nonstatistical tools to enable the in uts and out uts to be better identi ied
in each hase The results and discussion ill be resented in
Section ollo ing these ive stages
3. COMBINING ACADEMIC RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH
Action Research AR is the methodological a roach ollo ed As
reviously mentioned, this a roach roduces research that, hile
ma ing contributions to theory, is o s ecial value or ractitioners
estbroo , 1995 According to Al aro & Avella 201 , AR can be
highly use ul or management since roblems are analysed inside
the com any, in situ, ma ing it ossible to close the ga bet een
academic research and irms activities and needs ith artici atory
AR, in any s eci ic context, a roblem or o ortunity or im rovement
and an academic ob ective hich constitute the research goal are
identi ied, a oint action lan is develo ed, and some results are
obtained or both the irm s ractitioners and the research team
Conse uently, since both researchers and ractitioners actively
artici ate in all the stages o the research, and the aim o the
researcher is not to solve a roblem or ractitioners, but ith
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
them Johansson & Lindhult 2008 consider that through this
direct interaction bet een all the eo le concerned, AR manages
to combine research and develo ment or their mutual bene it
As a result, AR is very recommendable or the im lementation o
changes and considered to be a very use ul tool or im roving irms
com etitiveness Al aro & Avella, 201 Avella & Al aro, 201
Since it avours the success o any intervention in irms activities,
AR is re uently used by organizations to im rove their strategies,
ractices and rocesses
Indeed, AR has re uently been used or management research in
di erent sectors Avella & Al aro, 201
In aeronautics, the or s
on uality management by Prybuto & Ramasesh 2005 and by
Prida & Gri alvo 2011 on lean manu acturing im lementation can
be cited Our research has s eci ically ocused on roblems in the
aerostructure inal aint area in an SME in the aeronautics sector: a
ne ly established local com any designed to res ond to the integral
management services needs o the aeronautics industry, rom ra
materials to build-to- rint subassemblies The com any s roductive
organisation is based on three core technologies: machining, sur ace
treatments and assembly
The com any in uestion is local and does not belong to any
com any grou , although it is art o the Andalusian aeronautical
cluster Its osition in the su ly chain is Tier II In 201 , the year
in hich the ro ect as conducted, it had a turnover o 15 Million
and a lat unctional or orce o close to 150 eo le, o hich 120
ere o eratives Average seniority as three years, and there ere
10 managers, engineers or the most art The com any had limited
ex erience o continuous im rovement ro ects, hich ere usually
the outcome o customer re uirements The ro ects ere small and
on an ad-hoc basis, ithout any ormal develo ment rocess, and no
cham ion o continuous im rovement existed
The com any as ex eriencing some uality roblems in the
aerostructure inal aint area in some o its contracted rogrammes
This area generated about 10 o turnover and sta there made u
about 20 o the total or orce The irm s end goal as to solve
these roblems, and the research team ro osed a Six Sigma
im rovement ro ect, even though theoretically the context as not
a ro riate
A ter both arts had agreed on hat, uestions on ho
ere also
develo ed together, hich started ith the creation o a Six Sigma
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
59
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
Committee to address the roblems in the ainting area This
committee com rised the members sho n in Figure , all o hom
ere instructed in Six Sigma methodology ith the aim o conveying
the im ortance o the ro ect and as ing all artici ants to create
synergies that avoured continuity and the ra id de loyment o
solutions
i ure 2. The Six Sigma Committee
60
Once the Six Sigma Committee had been instructed, several
brainstorming sessions ere held to select the s eci ic ro ect
to be executed The roblems aligned ith the organisation s
business strategy that best ada ted to the methodology according
to the selection criteria viability, business bene it and im act on
the organisation ere set out, ith s ecial em hasis laced on the
easibility actor
T o ossible ro ects ere considered or analysis PG001 and
PG002 A ter analysing these ro ects on the basis o the de inition
given in the Pro ect Charters, a ro ect rioritisation matrix Figure
as develo ed ith the evaluation criteria that the com any
considered to be o greatest interest
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
i ure 3. Project prioritisation matrix
61
From this matrix, the Six Sigma Committee decided to study
the de ects resented in PG001 Production o these elements
as about 28 units er month during the analysed eriod The
im rovement ursued consisted o reducing the number o de ects
in certain inished aerostructures that caused a high re or rate
ith conse uent costs and delays It must be highlighted that one
s ecial eature o this sector that had to be ta en into account hen
im lementing the ro ect is that scra is not ermitted and that all
ieces have to be chec ed and re rocessed until they ully com ly
ith customer standards
A DMAIC cycle as ollo ed or rocess im rovement Mast &
Lo erbol, 2012 , hich is the most common ay or a Six Sigma
ro ect to be executed Various Six Sigma tools ere used at each
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
stage, including Pro ect Charters, Flo charts, chec lists, Ishi a a
diagrams, FMEA and -charts
Figure sho s a summary o the goals set, activities carried out
and results obtained in this research considering the three basic AR
ste s suggested by Al aro & Avella 201 : oint identi ication, oint
start u , and results
i ure . Action esearch developed
62
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
ith the roblem to be addressed in the Six Sigma ro ect duly
stated, belo
e summarise some o the activities er ormed in
each o the DMAIC ste s and discuss the results achieved
4.1. Step 1: Define
In this ste , both the ro ect ob ectives and the constraints ere
de ined, i e , the roblem to be solved and ho it as to be measured
The com any as a are that there as a serious roblem in relation
to the ro ect under revie It as no n that about 70 o the arts
had to be re rocessed but, exce t or the in ormation rovided by the
eo le involved in the Processes VOE, Voice o Em loyees , there
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
as a atent lac o data Ho ever, it as estimated that a realistic
goal as or the ercentage to be reduced to 10
A data collection lan as also re ared For this, both the
de inition o an NCP Non-Con orming Product and the ay that the
in ormation as to be gathered had to be clari ied For the ormer,
the Critical to Quality eatures CTQs, variables included in the
customer standards ere ta en into account There ere 1 o
these: ores, lum s, orange- eel e ect, crac s, etc For the latter,
chec -lists ere re ared to collect data on the number and ty es
o de ect or each o the re erences rocessed, the area here the
de ects ere concentrated on lan ty es, and the location o the art
in the aint booth
As art o this DMAIC de inition hase, a lo chart as re ared
o the ay that the arts ere rocessed This included all the
o erations carried out rom the time that the ac age as signed
in to the organisation s acilities until delivery as signed o The
chart as also used to identi y and uanti y NCP costs that ere
attributable to re rocessing These costs could be bro en do n
into labour, aint, o er consumed by tools sander, s ray gun,
dryer blo gun, etc , direct rocess-lin ed costs electricity and uel
consumed by the generator and other non- uanti iable costs This
in ormation as used to ma e an initial estimate o the total monthly
value lost to the uality roblems analysed, ith the inal igure
calculated at , 0 85
This same in ormation as used to calculate the de ect rate er
million o ortunities ith each o the 1 ty es o de ects listed in the
customer standards counted as an o ortunity and, subse uently,
the initial sigma uality metric or the rocess, hich as
6
4.2. Step 2: Measure
This hase included executing the in ormation collection lan designed in the revious hase This lan laid do n the arameters
that the or team considered that it ould be interesting to monitor de ects and their location in arts, roduct arts or traceability,
aerostructure ositioning in the aint booth, etc
or ers involved
ere also instructed as to the ste s in the rocess s eci ically, the
ins ectors and ainters, so that data could be collected e iciently
Data collection orms ere used to uanti y these de ects according to the most interesting evaluation criteria or decision ma ing
as to the con ormance o the art There ere three as ects to the-
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
6
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
6
se evaluation criteria: uantity, size and location Each o these as
measured on a discrete scale o 1, and 9 The arithmetic mean o
these as ects rovided an indicator o the seriousness o the de ect,
hich enabled art con ormance or non-con ormance to be s eciied Plans/gra hics ere also used to sho
here the de ects ere
located on the arts and here these arts ere laced in the aint
booth
This hase lasted 5 ee s and the in ormation gathered as used
to dra u a su iciently coherent Pareto diagram to allo some initial conclusions to be dra n The diagram sho ed that around hal
o NCPs ere mainly caused by debris This ointed to dirt and dust
in the air and in the aint booth being the main cause o the de ects
ound The second most common de ect around 1 5
as caused by the resence o ores during the aint-drying rocess These
could have been caused by the inade uate re aration o the aint
Finally, silicones lac o stic ing- o er ere the third most im ortant cause o de ects that resulted in NCPs around 1
These
three ty es o de ects together ul illed the 80/20 rule
As a conse uence o the Pareto analysis, some measures ere urgently ut in lace during this eriod ith regard to the cleanliness
o the aint booth
ith the data collected during the irst our ee s o this hase, deects er million o ortunities ere again determined and the rocess sigma as more accurately valued, ith a uality level o
2
being obtained Accumulated losses o 2, 79 2 ere also calculated during this hase
4.3. Step 3: Analyse
During this hase, the ossible causes
variables o the de ects
in the rocessed arts and, there ore, their non-con ormance, ere
identi ied on the basis o the revious considerations and bearing
in mind the dee no ledge that or team members had o the
rocess
For this, a number o both ormal and in ormal meetings ere held
bet een the or team VOE and o erators in the aint area
VOP Voice o the Process that enabled su icient in ormation to be
gathered to establish the causes
These analyses and the rior considerations that ere ta en rom
the Pareto Diagram enabled an Ishi a a Diagram to be re ared to
classi y the ossible causes identi ied according to the 6 Ms Man-
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
o er, Materials, Measures, Milieu environment , Methods, and
Machines
A Failure Mode and E ect Analysis FMEA
as also carried out
during this hase or Boeing ac age aerostructures that included
all the considerations made during the ro ect regarding the otential causes that ere identi ied and the e ects that they might have
This analysis tool also enabled a list o the most urgent corrective
actions to be dra n u according to the Ris Priority Index RPI
using the roduct o the seriousness, re uency and detection ca ability o the causes o ailure
4.4. Step 4: Improve
As indicated, the FMEA carried out during the Analysis hase enabled the causes or the ailure mode to be determined and
ran ed according to the RPI This as obtained rom the tables in
the FMEA re erence standards Once the causes had been rioritised, the actions that had to be ta en to correct them ere determined, and these are set out in Figure
i ure 5. Corrective actions implemented
4.5. Step 5: Control
The ob ectives o this ste are to validate, veri y and monitor the imrovements ut in lace It see s to ensure continuity as ell as detect and correct any reoccurrence During this hase, hich covered
ee s 8 to 11, data collection as done or all the re erences that
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
65
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
had been rocessed and a -chart as re ared sho ing the roortion o de ective arts in sam les o variable size each sam le
corres onds to the number o veri ications er ee o roduction
The results o the gra h led to the conclusion that the rocess as
under control
At the same time, ollo -u and monitoring o the rocess indicators
during the control hase ercentage o non-con ormance roducts,
sigma uality control level revie ed, costs o oor uality, etc and
the action lans or correction and maintenance established in the
revious hases all continued
Table gives a summary o the ste s in the ro ect, indicating their
durations and rinci al out uts
66
Table 2. Summary of the project steps
STEPS
ESC IPTI
UTPUTS
U ATI
De ne
 rolem description and identi ca
tion o CT s de ects that cause
noncon ormit .
 De nition of current performance.
 De nition of the goals of the
ob ectives.
Trainin o coachin team.
Timetable.
Si Si ma committee.
Pro ect charters oals .
low charts.
Si ma Metrics: initial estimate
3 wee s
1 to 3
Measure
Data atherin re ardin current
situation.
 Identi cation of possile causes.
Data collection plan standardi
sation .
Si ma Metrics: initial assessment.
Prioritisation o causes Pareto .
5 wee s
3 to
Anal sis
 Data-ased identi cation of causes.
 Identi cation of relationships
amon variables.
Brainstormin sessions.
Ishi awa dia ram.
MEA process.
wee s
5 to 8
Improvement
Prioritisation o causes throu h
MEA.
 De nition of improed process.
Assurance o implemented actions.
Corrective actions plan.
Process standardisation.
wee s
to 10
Control
 uanti cation of proect ene ts.
Pro ect closure communication.
Metric assessment o improved
process.
p chart or process control.
Monitorin plan o implemented
corrective actions.
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
wee s
8 to 11
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
4.6. Closing the project and results achieved so far
Once the ro ect as closed, the PIs could be uanti ied and the
Six Sigma ro ect assessed During the 2 months o the ield or ,
rocess er ormance measurements ere conducted on di erent
aerostructure sam les la erons and la s at three di erent times
Table sho s the inal im rovements achieved in the our er ormance metrics that had been de ined and the goals initially set
Table 3. Main results: improvements in uality and costs
MET ICS
1
ESC IPTI
ualit level
2
Rewor total time
3
NCP
Rewor total cost
U IT
Si ma
ours
/month
I ITIAL
G AL
IMP
AFTE
EME T
3.35
.5
3.68
5
10
15
0
10
22.5
3,500
1,000
600
It can be observed that the Six Sigma ro ect can be considered a
success in economic terms
, as the cost a ter the im rovement
is much lo er than the initial goal These cost savings ill be sustained over time and the lo costs o im lementing the ro ect mean
that they ill be recovered in a short eriod o time In this regard, it
is noted that the cost o the researcher ho acted as blac belt as
zero or the com any since he or ed as an intern, and that the cost
o the other em loyees involved as regarded as an investment by
the com any, as it as considered to be a learning ex erience and
training Scheduled corrective actions, such as booth cleaning, ilter
changes, and the installation o nozzles and lights, did not result in
any signi icant costs
It can also be considered a success in terms o time devoted to rerocessing 2 as, even though the initial ob ective set as not ully
met, a considerable reduction as achieved in only t o months Regarding the ercentage o NCP
, e can say that this ob ective
has been met in art, as, although a signi icant reduction has been
obtained, the end result is not as close to the initial target as in the
case o 2 The indicator that has allen urther a ay rom the initial
target set is 1, based on the level o uality sigma variation
The lac o maturity o the or team in Six Sigma ro ects might be
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
67
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
the reason hy all the ob ectives ere not ully met, and this may
be hy over ambitious ob ectives ere set or the uality level 1
and NCP
Regarding the irst, it is a eature o Six Sigma roects that the mean time reuired to raise a uality level from  to
 is usually around a working year with the reuired investment in
im lementing the actions established and the dedication o the team
members involved It ould there ore be o interest to continue collecting data and to ee the action lan in lace in order to see ho
the above indicators develo
5. CONCLUSIONS
68
A ter analysing the results obtained ith the im lementation o a Six
Sigma Pro ect to im rove the aint inal rocess o aerostructures
in an aeronautics SME, everything oints to the high degree o
satis action o all artici ants, hich contradicts the thesis that Six
Sigma is extremely limited in roduction environments ith lo
roduction volumes
Nonetheless, the sector has some characteristics that in luence Six
Sigma a lication to a certain degree Thus, lo re eatability, due
to the reduced volume o roduction, ma es it very di icult, i not
impossible to achieve the obective of  (. dpmo). n addition
the degree o automation is relatively lo , so manual labour, hich
is sub ect to greater variability, has greater eight Ho ever, as this
and other cases have sho n, substantial uality im rovements can
be achieved through Six Sigma
On the other hand, or ers in this sector are highly uali ied, hich
is an advantage given the intense training re uired by Six Sigma
Also, items that are roduced are o high added value, enabling
su icient resources to be allocated to Six Sigma ro ects This may
not be the case in other sectors, ham ering the a licability and
a ro riateness o Six Sigma A urther advantage o this sector
hich avours the a lication o Six Sigma is the high demand or
uality Other sectors here this re uirement is not so high may eel
less need to use Six Sigma
Considering these issues, e believe that SMEs should not rule
out Six Sigma methodology, even i it is initially designed or large
com anies ith highly re etitive roduction rocesses This case
has sho n that it can also be use ul or im roving rocesses in
SMEs, and that the DMAIC cycle is a ractical and easy-to- ollo
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
PEDRO GARRIDOVEGA, MACARENA SACRISTÁNDÍAZ & LUIS MIGUEL MAGAÑARAMÍREZ
guide or its a lication, even hen or team members lac
maturity in the methodology In act, the level o Six Sigma maturity
is not a redictor o success in executing a Six Sigma ro ect Nair
et al , 2011
The ex erience o this study can be used by other SMEs hen
considering hether or not to use this o er ul im rovement
methodology, hich s eci ic tools to use, and some ey actors
or barriers that ould have to be ta en into account The results
o this ro ect suggest that the degree o success or ailure o the
Six Sigma methodology im lementation rocess de ends more
on the ty ical ey actors o any organizational change N slund,
201 than on the s eci ic industrial sector These include team
commitment, the availability o resources, revious training and,
in re erence to certain unsuccess ul revious ex eriences, the
ability to er orm each hase as lanned, ithout any inter erence
Regarding the latter, it is orth noting that there ere certain
coercive ressures rom the customer hile the ro ect as being
carried out These ere related to the decision-ma ing rocess
regarding the initial a roach to roblem-solving and the availability
o resources, hich, ithout a ecting the continuity o the ro ect,
sometimes diverted attention a ay rom the roblem in hand This
is a re lection o the im ortance o one o the critical success actors
mentioned in the literature lin ing to customer and one o the
common barriers to Six Sigma im lementation not re uired by
customer
A uture recommendation that the organisation might ta e into
account is the s illing-u o a or grou devoted to im roving
internal rocesses
hile not being sub ect to external ressures,
this grou should not neglect any commitments to customers It
should en oy greater autonomy in these matters, bearing in mind
the bene its that have been achieved in a sim le ro ect such as
the one re orted here, the nature o hich, moreover, as mar edly
investigative
The conclusions reached are not con ined exclusively to the
analysed com any This com any s ex erience may ell be similar
to that o other SMEs in this or other sectors, and can be re erred
to com anies ho have doubts about the im lementation o Six
Sigma or ho have started its im lementation and ace some o the
di iculties identi ied in the analysed case
UNIVERSIA BUSINESS REVIEW | THIRD QUARTER 2016 | ISSN: 1698-5117
69
SIX SIGMA IN SMES WITH LOW PRODUCTION VOLUMES.
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN AERONAUTICS.
SEIS SIGMA EN PYMES CON BAJO VOLUMEN DE PRODUCCIÓN.
UNA EXPERIENCIA DE ÉXITO EN AERONÁUTICA.
Finally, e believe it is o great interest to highlight the need or
collaboration bet een ractitioners and researchers that is an
integral art o action research, the methodology hich has
su orted this or , in order to achieve a balance bet een the rigor
o academic research and its relevance or irms
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NOTES
1 Corresponding author: De artamento de Economía Financiera y Dirección de
O eraciones Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Em resariales niversidad de Sevilla
Avenida Ramón y Ca al, 1 1018 Sevilla SPAIN
2 The aeronautics industry in Euro e is committed to com lying ith the Advisory Council
or Aeronautics Research in Euro e s ob ectives o minimising environmental im acts
during the 2000-2020 eriod no n as ACARE 2020, their aim is to ma e ambitious noise
and emission reductions: a 0 reduction in CO2 emissions, 80 in nitrogen oxides, and
erceived noise cut by hal ACARE 2050 see s to have the industry commit to reducing
erceived noise by 65 , CO2 emissions by 75 , and nitrogen oxide emissions by 90
Source: ITP 201 : 201 Sustainability Re ort htt ://
it es/
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