Do you see those dispensing machines of soda or juice? Or do you always make sure that your photo printers dispense the right amount of ink to the jets? If you answer yes to both questions then chances are you have witnessed how Micropump products work.
Micropump is the recognized leader in the design of miniature, sealless positive displacement pumps. The company is the originator of the so-called “leak-free” pumping solution. Not one to rest on its laurels, Micropump continues to innovate, adding new technologies and capabilities every year, revolutionizing the way liquids are moved and dispensed.
In other words, anywhere that it is important to meter precise amounts of fluids consistently a Micropump product may be at work: inside the dispensing device – at home improvement stores, dispensing pigments to tint paint; at fast food restaurants, making sure the orange juice always tastes the same by insuring the right amount of concentrate is dispensed every time; inside some photo printers, delivering ink to the jets, or in a Kidney dialysis machine, assuring proper filtering.
Although the company has been in business for 46 years, management feels that its operations are not moving as effectively as they should be. In 2001, the company needed some revitalization. IDEX, its owner, turned to Six Sigma and Lean calling the program Operational Excellence.
The aim of the program was to provide the framework and philosophy to move Micropump forward. IDEX chose the best and brightest and assign them to be full-time Black Belts. Micropump followed. Micropump had less than 75 employees in Vancouver, and could not afford to let two of its best employees work full-time on Lean Six Sigma, but it did. It was a leap of faith, and it only meant that the Black Belts should deliver.
Despite having the best people there, the company met problems with the several erroneous data. Thus, the Six Sigma team worked first on having clean data in their hands. The initial projects were on-time delivery for customers. On-time delivery data however was not readily available. It became obvious that the team would need a new data acquisition method and that it would need to work with transactional processes as well as manufacturing processes.
Knowing SPC would help them, at least in manufacturing, the company formed a project team to solve the data problem. The team began by developing a list of critical-to-quality characteristics (CTQs) for process data:
- SPC must be used for process control in manufacturing – The company needed the ability to automate data collection and real-time alarms in all of manufacturing processes. The goal was to use existing quality data collection processes wherever possible. But the company wanted better support for automatic gaging, and more transparent data sharing. And process owners needed to be able to respond instantly to process shifts or special cause variation.
- The ability to accurately track transactional process performance – Team wanted to track manufacturing and transactional data at the same time, with the same system. While there clearly are differences between transactional and manufacturing data, there also are many similarities.
- A way to link information from many databases for use in operations – The company already had a lot of data in various databases. It needed a way to bridge these disparate systems.
- One source for process and product data – Once again, regardless of the source of the data, (dimensional, equipment performance, cycle times, defects, product testing), the company needed a way to reach it.
- Mistake-proofing of data – The vision was using current technology to eliminate operator data input errors. The company wanted the ability to use barcode scanning, pre-filled data fields, drop-down lists, etc.
- Real-time information about all processes – With a taste of how real-time data could help certain operations, the team figured it should span all processes.
- Ease of use by operators, supervisors, engineers and Black Belts – The idea was to get rid of a system that was cumbersome and difficult to use, thus making life better for everyone on the staff. Ease of use included having a system compatible with the statistical analysis software used by the company.
- Limited resources required for initial set-up and ongoing system maintenance – Finally, the team knew the company needed a system that required minimal on-going IT support and resources. The company was stretched too thin to place more demands on the IT staff.
This goes to show that building reliable data system—a critical element of Six Sigma—is not a laughing matter at all!
