Six Sigma Case Studies with Minitab®

Kishore K. Pochampally, PhD, is an associate professor of quantitative studies, operations and project management at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in Manchester (NH). His prior academic experience is as a post-doctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge (MA). He earned a PhD in industrial engineering from Northeastern University in Boston. He teaches Six Sigma courses at SNHU and conducts Lean Six Sigma training at service organizations. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt (American Society for Quality) and a Project Management Professional (PMP®).Surendra M. Gupta, PhD, PE, is a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and the director of the Laboratory for Responsible Manufacturing, Northeastern University. He earned his BE in electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, his MBA from Bryant University, and his MSIE and PhD in industrial engineering from Purdue University. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Massachusetts. Dr. Gupta’s research interests are in the areas of production/ manufacturing systems and operations research. He is mostly interested in environmentally conscious manufacturing, reverse and closed-loop supply chains, disassembly modeling, and remanufacturing. He has authored or coauthored more than 450 technical papers published in books, journals, and international conference proceedings. His publications have been cited by thousands of researchers all over the world in journals, proceedings, books, and dissertations. He has traveled to all seven continents—Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America—and presented his work at international conferences on six continents. Dr. Gupta has taught more than 100 courses in such areas as operations research, inventory theory, queueing theory, engineering economy, supply chain management, and production planning and control. He has received many recognitions, including the Outstanding Research Award and Outstanding Industrial Engineering Professor Award (in recognition of teaching excellence) from Northeastern University and the National Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Advisor Award.

• Introduction to Six Sigma Quality. Quality Analysis and Improvement Tools/Techniques. Six Sigma Case Studies. Confidence Intervals to Assess Variation in Fat Content at a Fast-Food Restaurant. Hypothesis Testing for Quality Control at a Manufacturing Company. Chi-Square Analysis to Verify Quality of Candy Packets. Process Capability Analysis at a Manufacturing Company. Binary Logistic Regression to Predict Customer Satisfaction at a Restaurant. Item Analysis and Cluster Analysis to Gather "Voice of the Customer" (VOC) Data from Employees at a Service Firm. Mixture Designs to Optimize Pollution Level and Temperature of Fuels. Multivariate Analysis to Reduce Patient Waiting Time at a Medical Center. Pareto Chart and Fishbone Diagram to Minimize Recyclable Waste Disposal in a Town. Measurement System Analysis at a Medical Equipment Manufacturer. Taguchi Design to Improve Customer Satisfaction of an Airline Company. Factorial Design of Experiments to Optimize a Chemical Process. Chi-Square Test to Verify Source Association with Parts Purchased and Products Produced.

"This book is authored by experienced professors who have been teaching in the area and have also done several projects extensively. Six Sigma has been the most popular and widely used technique with the manufacturers for ensuring process quality these days. Therefore, the importance of a book for understanding Six Sigma in all its potential is highly welcome. The authors have done extremely well to present it in a simple-to-understand language and bring out the potential of Six Sigma by presenting numerous case studies ... As is well-known that Six Sigma uses a five-step methodology, called DMAIC, namely, Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. The authors clearly demonstrate these steps with each and every case study presented. ... The book is recommended to all graduate students interested in quality engineering and to managers in various companies desirous of improving quality of their products or services."—Krishna B. Misra, International Journal of Performability Engineering"This book is an eclectic mix of case studies representing a diversity of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, airlines and restaurants. The authors demonstrate how to combine the power of Six Sigma with Minitab to analyze data. The book starts with an introduction to Six Sigma quality, providing definitions for important terms with accompanying examples.... The authors follow the define, measure, analyze, improve and control method for each problem by indicating what kind of coverage the reader can expect for each phase. ... The book includes detailed steps and several pages of screenshots for conducting the analyses in Minitab. The contents of the Minitab worksheets are in the appendix and also can be downloaded from the publisher’s website. ... This book is a good reference and will be most useful to individuals engaged in continuous process improvement and Six Sigma, and those teaching, training or conducting analyses using Minitab."—Kunita R. Gear, in Quality Progress (QP) Reviews, March 2016"In the quality management literature, there is no shortage of Six Sigma books. However, many books on this topic take a conceptual approach, describing aspects of the Six Sigma philosophy or management approach in detail while glossing over the intricacies of how to actually organize and execute the analytical portion of Six Sigma projects. The latter information is particularly useful to practitioners and those applying for certification; unfortunately, without a portfolio of Six Sigma projects already completed, this background can be hard to come by. Pochampally and Gupta’s book effectively satisfies that gap."—Dr. Nicole Radziwill, Quality Management Journal, Vol. 21, No. 3"… an excellent tool for both new and experienced Minitab users. This book is a must have for anyone looking to incorporate Six Sigma in their organization."—James Brough, Chamberlain Companies Inc." … provides a breadth of material combined with detailed illustration of its use that will make it valuable for any QA team trying to ensure the quality of their process statistically. … The case studies and the careful step-by-step illustration of the statistical techniques make their practical implementation and their implications apparent. I intend to bring this book in as part of our training and reference material."—Derek Kane, DEKA Research and Development Corporation"This book serves a dual purpose – as a quick reference guide for statistical tools and techniques used in Continuous Improvement/Six-Sigma/Quality departments of several organizations across various industries and as a handbook of Minitab with detailed screenshots that will immensely help readers with no prior experience with Minitab as well as seasoned Minitab users."—Satish Nukala, PhD, Halliburton Energy Services"… a very timely and useful book. I believe industry professional, academicians, and students will greatly benefit from this source."—Elif Kongar, University of Bridgeport"Very well written in simple language to understand application of Minitab for Six Sigma case studies. A good reference book for six Sigma professionals."—Dr. Abdul Razzak Rumane, Dar Alkuwait Alkhaleejia, Kuwait