6 Sigma at CEL
13/01/2010
In 2002, to align with Caterpillar, CEL actively developed 6 Sigma methodology within all it operations, that a new journey for 6 Sigma has been started. And 6 Sigma Department was formally formed at the end of 2006. Up till now, there were 15 excellent Black Belt cultivated with 6 Sigma methodology, and most of them were roll out to the important role of our operation departments after there Black Belt life.
Sigma is the Greek letter representing a Statistical unit of the measurement that defines the Standard deviation of a population. It measures the Variability or spread of the data. 6 Sigma is also a measure of variability. It is a name given to indicate how much of the data falls within the customers’requirements. The higher the process sigma, the more of the process outputs, products and services, meet customers’ requirements – or, the fewer the defects.
At Caterpillar, 6 Sigma base on Process Management, can be divided into to two kinds of methodology, DMAIC & DMEDI. DMAIC is used to improve existing process, which consists by five steps: Define opportunity, Measure performance, Analyze opportunity, Improve performance, and Control performance. And DMEDI is used when new product or process is need. It also consists by five steps: Define opportunities, Measure customer needs, Explore design concepts, Develop detailed design & Implement detailed design. Then Process Management is the means by which we ensure the improved / created outcomes of 6 Sigma projects continue year over year.
With continually development and enhancement of Caterpillar system, build on the strong 6 Sigma foundation, a new production system, named CPS (Caterpillar Production System) was launched in 2008. CPS is a methodology and a philosophy driving a behavior change to enable Safety, Quality, and Velocity continuous improvement through the elimination of waste. Its ultimate goal is to transform and improve all value streams of product or service that related to customers.
The core of CPS is all about the foundation of the 3 Sub-systems（Operating，Cultural & Management systems）, 15 Guiding Principles（Chase Waste，Pull，Make Value Flow，Drive Standard Work，Even the Load，Validate Our Processes，Put Safety First，Take the Customer’s View，Go, See, Act，Stop to Fix，Develop People，Actively Listen，Make it Visual，Align the Targets，Act Decisively) and 8 Wastes（Unused Creativity / Capability，Defects, Inventory, Over Production, Waiting, Excess Motion, Transportation, Over Processing） embedded into how we want to run our business in the future.
Begin from July 2009, we started our new journey on CPS.