IMPROVE STAGE

The IMPROVE in DMAIC is about redesigning the process to achieve improved capability. Prior to the Improve phase being completed, the process must be run with its updated configuration and settings. 

This phase requires realization of the KPI’s that are causing the outcome. 

The activity requires three things: 

1 - brainstorming by project owners and members whose goal is to create a solution that will address the main problem - Proposed Counter Measures from the Analyze stage,

2 - testing the solutions -Measurements Comparison,  

3 - assessing the outcome of the executed solutions - Yield calculation.

This stage will help conclude the amount and relationships of identified variables to the project Y. Most of the time before rolling-out a full-scale implementation, project owners conduct test run on a sample group. This is done to determine the finest settings. It is logical to choose the most effective setting which is also factored on the company’s resources, procedures and policies .

Proposed Counter Measures

Counter Measures which have been identified in the Analyze stage now have been assigned  to the Engineer who will look into the main Key Findings and will make necessary adjustment while investigating FMEA.
FMEA is a system for analyzing the design of a product or service system to identify potential failures, then taking steps to counteract or at least minimize the risks from those failures.
The FMEA process begins by identifying “failure modes,” the ways in which a product, service or process could fail. A project engineer examines every element of a service, starting from the inputs and working through to the output delivered to the customer. At each step, the team asks “what could go wrong here?”

 Measurements

Measurements have been collected after analyzing FMEA process. 

The results are represented below on the same graph, which represents previous months. After implementing all of the potential x's - Counter Measures, it has been established that the number of remeasures rapidly decreased, which represents great results of the project. Although, project team have finished identifying all potential causes, they still have to monitor measurement results and continue stimulation analyzes.

 

 

Assessing the outcome of the executed solutions - 
Yield calculation

In our Yield indicators we can see a significant improvement, as over the three shifts there are Yields which are indicating minimum of 96.6%. These results are satisfying, however we will be aiming to achieve Six Sigma Level of 99.99966%. 

After implementing all of the introduced changes by our team we can see improvement, now in our further steps we might assign IT member to look closely at the MicroVu software, as we are presuming that the measurement problems might also be related with something we didn't look at, as we didn't have an IT Software Developer in our team.