Define

I am a Sligo IT student on the second year of a BSc in manufacturing management. As part of my six sigma DMAIC project I have chosen the Q24h process improvement in the organisation that I work. The product is being manufactured in the company for over 20 years and is  labour intensive and has a large lead time. I put forward a proposal to reduce the number of days timing and also the lead time.

The project proposal was accepted by our operational excellence black belt review team and the Finance department. The Finance department evaluate the proposal to ensure it meets the criteria for the particular project.

My project will go through all the phases of DefineMeasureAnalyseImproveControl
Define
We have started the define phase by gathering together a diverse project team which consists of a person from Quality control, Manufacturing processing, Manufacturing compliance, SAP specialist, paperwork coordinator, Process engineer(statistician)   and Validation department.
The team

Process map
In our first meeting we decided that it was important to do a map of the Q24h process. The process is an intricate process and it would be helpful in achieving our goal.

Brain storming
The team also felt it would be an important exercise to brain storm. I was very close to the process and this may affect our judgements. During the brainstorming every ones opinion counts and put forward as many ideas as possible. The brainstorming activity suggested that we should increase the number of timing coats applied on day 1 and this is what our project will focus on.

SIPOC
This was another tool we used in the define phase and it was important to have a look at the Supplier Input Process Output Customer