Chapter One
High Performance
Manufacturing:
Just Another Fad?
ROGER G. SCHROEDER and BARBARA B. FLYNN
Tony Salvatori gazed out the window
of his plant office in Milan, Italy, as he contemplated the events of the past
few days. An American consultant had just left his off ice after having recommended
that his plant adopt a Six Sigma quality improvement approach.
With great passion the consultant told of companies in the United States
that had achieved great success with Six Sigma, including such giants as
Motorola, General Electric, and Seagate. While Salvatori saw the merits of
this approach, he wondered if it would fit the personality of his plant.
Would his engineers and managers accept the statistical methods that are required
to implement the seven tools, process control charts, and design of
experiments? Would these techniques actually help to improve processes in
his plant? And was his plant ready for Six Sigma? Of course, the consultant
had not addressed these questions but had argued that everyone should be
using Six Sigma in a modern plant such as Tony's. What worked in the
United States would work in Italy, too.
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