No wonder Ford Motor Co. is still successful after all these years. It has Freudenberg-NOK, Inc. tucked under one of its wheels so to speak.
Freudenberg-NOK, manufacturer with a background in chemicals, polymers, and rubber products specializing in automotive, recently awarded a Recognition of Achievement from Ford for its consumer-driven Six Sigma accomplishments.
Six Sigma, which focuses on measuring quality and allowing for no more than 3.4 defects per million parts, is one of the pillars of Freudenberg-NOK’s Growtth program focused on superior quality, service and productivity.
Freudenberg-NOK has 61 Six Sigma black belts on staff and has completed 155 Six Sigma projects to drive superior quality, enhance reliability and help automakers and tier one customers to reduce costs.
Growtth(R) — Get Rid of Waste Through Team Harmony — is Freudenberg- NOK’s company-wide continuous improvement program and the cornerstone of the supplier’s corporate culture.
Launched in 1992, the program emphasizes teamwork and communications and combines lean practices, Six Sigma and other techniques to increase efficiencies in the use of time, labor, materials and space. It has helped Freudenberg-NOK become the benchmark company for lean systems in the North American automotive industry.
Freudenberg-NOK’s Advanced Vibration and Acoustics (AVA) group was charged with optimizing the sealing isolation system and the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) characteristics for a cam cover design. AVA has developed techniques to synergize sealing and NVH, which are typically opposing phenomena. Utilizing Design for Six Sigma techniques, the Freudenberg-NOK engineering team improved the product pre-production, also optimizing cost savings and increasing customer value.
You have another case of the deadly combination of Lean and Six Sigma here. Many successful companies combine lean and Six Sigma to power their process improvement efforts to answer customer requirements.
