Greg Kinsey, Industry Executive at Hitachi, reveals how creative uses of the DMAIC process with digital transformation are helping factories to unlock the next level of process improvement.

Real-Time SPC provides data collection, monitoring, alerts, and analysis that allow organizations to identify actionable insights immediately.

Almost all organizations set performance targets for departments and/or individuals to conduct their operations and to deliver products and services to their customers. Although managers attempt to ensure their processes can handle all the issues that may arise in their business, in today’s complex world, these processes often fall short.

For most processes, we have a choice of measurement options that vary with cost. Ideally, we seek the most accurate measurement at the lowest cost with the expectation that the result will be satisfactory. When measurements are critical to operations, we should validate these assumptions.

Increasingly, manufacturers are looking at the potential of digital transformation to improve their competitiveness. The benefits in quality management are particularly compelling—offering the ability to optimize product quality and customers’ experiences by streamlining audits and reporting, improving batch and process manufacturing workflows, and synchronizing production centers to improve perfect order performance.

The fundamental goal of automation is to reduce reliance on manpower. Whether for traditional manufacturing or additive manufacturing, it is important to understand the capabilities of supporting post-process manufacturing and metrology for validating that process.

Sometimes adopting lean manufacturing means adding more people to a process. Eric Ethington, a lean product and process development coach, previously worked in the auto supply business. In a pump assembly product line, the typical cell had six operators.

Zeta potential (ζ) is a key indicator of the stability of colloidal dispersions. The higher the magnitude of the zeta potential (that is, highly positive OR highly negative), the more stable the colloid.