Automation and training boosts Six Sigma quality levels

A gradual, phased implementation of automated production machines over the last 10 years – coupled with PP Electrical Systems' (PPES) own successful culture change programme and continuous improvement initiatives – have resulted in quality levels increasing from 98% in 2007 to 99.97% in 2010. Company chairman David Fox said that while most manufacturing companies would regard 98 per cent quality as being world class, PPES recognised that it needed to achieve in excess of 99 per cent to satisfy its customers and reduce costs by revealing more of its 'Hidden Factory'. He went on: "This 1.97 per cent quality improvement from 1998 to 2010 may not seem all that much to some people, but the cost savings relating to this have gone straight to our bottom line. We've been able to uncover many of our hidden factory costs, particularly re-work and re-testing. Furthermore, we've saved money by not having to send our service engineers half way around the world to a customer only to find out that the problem with our control panel was down to something minor such as a faulty cable connection, which could and should have been detected at our factory before leaving the gates." Since 2000, PPES has seen its revenues (and profits) more than treble, with revenues set to increase again in 2010. The foundation for this success, said Fox, is not only from introducing automation to the factory, but also from investing a considerable amount of time and effort in training employees and going through the pains of a comprehensive, but ultimately rewarding culture change programme. Also pivotal to PP's success was the setting up of its own Training Excellence School (now a separate division known as PP Business Improvement) in 2000. "The primary objectives of this school were to provide structured learning facilities to all employees, as well as act as a catalyst in changing peoples' attitudes towards change throughout the business, including the gradual transformation from traditional manual wire processing, which represented a relatively large proportion of panel assembly – to semi-automatic and fully automated production machines," explained Fox. This phased programme of automation was seen by PP as a key part of improving the company's quality levels, by removing manual errors from the assembly process and ensuring that all products were manufactured 'right first time', with zero defects, minimal rework and retesting. As Fox put it: "An important part of this transformation process was to automate our wire stripping and crimping process, which is how our partnership with Cablespeed Ltd came about. "Cablespeed introduced us to one of its branded manufacturers, Artos, a leading manufacturer of wire processing machines based in the US. What we liked about Artos was its understanding of Six Sigma and how its wire processing machines could help us eliminate process variation in support of our Six Sigma quality initiative. By implementing Artos machines we've been able to achieve repeatability in production, which has enabled us to attain close to 100 per cent quality." "This phased implementation of automation means that we've been able to increase our quality levels from 98 to 99.97 per cent since 2007, with Cablespeed and the Artos machine making very valuable contributions towards this improvement. The wire processing is now right first time and we've seen massive savings by eliminating rework and retesting. Process variance has also reduced significantly in support of our Six Sigma initiatives," Fox concluded. More information at www.powerpanels.uk.com.