Quality Turn Around

Our Challenge

 
Improve a high failure rate on the flagship product, a fault tolerant controller based on a Triple-Modular Redundant architecture.
 

Solution

 
Employed Six Sigma based methods to investigate issues surrounding the problematic assembly process and discovered workmanship and component specification issues. Root cause analysis also revealed that the rigors of product testing were inducing failures as a result of excessive stress inflicted on the hardware.
 
Control measures to remedy the failure rate related causes included:

• Standardization of the assembly operators and test engineers training program
• Addressing component design issues resulting from lower specification tolerances than what was required
•  The development and implementation of a data reporting system anchored by a complex algorithm designed to identify trends in the failure modes of the assembly process

Result

• Lead times were reduced from 16 weeks to 6 weeks.
• 12% reduction in cost savings yielded an annual savings of $18M
• 57% decrease in testing cycle time
• 20% overall cycle time reduction
• Product flow doubled through final assembly phase resulting in a 25% increase in output with only 10% increase in resources
•  This initiative enabled the company to achieve a 45% increase in sales, 20% of which was gained   through an increase in efficiency alone