Food labels: Informing or misinforming consumers?

It is over the news since 20th October '09 that "The FDA is warning food manufacturers about false claims on food labels that may mislead consumers". Food manufacturers are touting their products for healthy or smart choices using all kinds of colorful logos, symbols to attract consumers.
Even though the primary purpose of these labels is to communicate health related information. Many food companies are using it as a marketing tool.

Labels like American Heart Association's heart shaped logo, Smart Choices check mark and many others appear on the front of food packages that contain large amount of sugar, salt and other ingredients that may be unhealthy.

Busy consumers shop for groceries by looking at the signs and symbols that indicate the food is healthy. Many consumers may not read the ingredients on the package before deciding to purchase the product. As rightly said "the devil is in the details", ingredients, nutritional information from the label would give the consumers better idea about the quality of food inside the package. It pays to take the time to read the label information.
FDA has warned consumers to read food labels before buying food products.

So the next time you go grocery shopping, plan to spend some extra time in the food aisles to look at those labels on food packages before buying them!

Can Cp be used for unilateral tolerances?

When I go through the topic of capability indices for unilateral tolerances in my training class or consulting sessions, I usually get surprised looks from quality practitioners searching for Cp values. The common reaction is where is the Cp index? How come it doesn’t show on the chart or on my capability report?

For unilateral tolerance, Cp does not apply.
Why?
Because, by definition Cp is estimates process capability for a centered process. For unilateral tolerances the target may not be at the center of the specification limits.
The formula for calculating Cp is USL - LSL / 6σ
For unilateral tolerances, we have either the upper or lower specification limit.
That is why Cp cannot be calculated.

So what capability indices can be used for unilateral tolerances?
Cpk, Cpkm can be used. For details on these indices, please download our white paper on capability indices.
Cpk is Cpu for upper specified unilateral tolerance and it is Cpl for lower specified.

How do you track capability of your processes?

Does sample size affect Cpk?

This was a question from one of my training class participants.
I found the question interesting and answered using the formula of Cpk.

Cpk = Minimum of [USL - Overall Average]/3sigma or [Overall Average - LSL]/3sigma
For Xbar-R chart,
Sigma = Rbar/d2
d2 increases as sample size increases.
So for the same Rbar, sigma reduces as sample size increases.

Cpk increases as sigma reduces.
That means for the same overall process average and range, Cpk will change as sample size changes. In fact as sample size increases, Cpk will be larger.

Example

Outside diameter of a pipe has specifications of 9 and 11. Design target is 10

For a dataset, let's say that...
Overall average = 9.3 and Rbar = 0.5

We will now calculate Sigma and Cpk for two different sample sizes - 5 and 7

For sample size 5, d2 = 2.326
sigma = 0.5/2.326 = 0.215
Cpk = Min [ 10 - 9.3] / 3 x 0.215 or [9.3 - 9] / 3 x 0.215
Cpk = Min of 1.09 or 0.465
Cpk = 0.465

For sample size 7, d2 = 2.704
sigma = 0.5/2.704 = 0.185
Cpk = Min [ 10 - 9.3] / 3 x 0.185 or [ 9.3 - 9] / 3 x 0.185
Cpk = Min of 1.26 or 0.54
Cpk = 0.54

For the same data set, sigma and Cpk change based on the sample size selected. As sample size increases, sigma reduces and Cpk increases.
If a smart quality engineer wants to trick the system and project good process capability, he/she can simply do that by increasing the sample size.

What is the sample size you use? Have you tried finding process capability with different sample size?
Drop us a line at info@sybeq.com and tell us about your process and capability calculations. We would love to hear from you.

Top 10 Trends in Quality

Since we are on the topic of pictures and videos, I thought it would be a good time to talk about emerging trends in quality.
Most trends including those emerging in quality are driven by technology and making use of intelligent systems to get accurate information quickly.

We live in the world where abundant data/information is available and users have little time to look at it.
The challenge is to present data in formats that are easy to understand in a short span of time.
These are the key factors driving the trends that are emerging in quality

Based on our experience in the manufacturing industry, the top 10 trends in the field of quality are:
1) Use of Real time systems in Quality is increasing
2) Quality practitioners need accurate data presented in the form of charts
3) Charts should be designed to tell them the story of their process and product quality in a few minutes
4) Practitioners need to be alerted about problems in real time
5) Quality Engineers have to generate reports for customers and management. Systems should have an easy way to create reports as and when required.
6) Managers and executives need color coded dashboards that tell them about the quality of the parts that are being produced/shipped, overall process capability, production losses, downtime etc.
7) Quality professionals analyze data for finding root causes of problems. They need to slice and dice the data many different ways. Systems should allow them to do this in every possible way
8) All information/reports/analysis should be available on the web. That way quality practitioners can access this information from anywhere in the world.
9) Tracking and correlating data about quality throughout the supply chain should be possible.
10) Information should be available not only on PCs but also on mobile devices like phones, PDAs

And a video is worth ten thousand!

A picture is worth thousand words - Part III

Would you prefer reading through the 14 step given below or just viewing the picture of the process?

Picture showing flow of material and information at company "Funplace" that makes toys

Steps describing the flow of information and material in Funplace
1.Funplace electronically sends a 4-week order forecast to XYZ toys. The quantities
are confirmed on a weekly basis and the purchase order is placed.
2.Based on this input, XYZ Toys electronically orders the parts from their
suppliers. XYZ Toys sends a 3-week forecast and confirms the quantity every week.
3.XYZ holds at least 2 days worth of raw material inventory in the warehouse.
4.Production control manually issues finished good quantities required on a weekly
basis. This information is sent to production.
5.Based on the production volumes required each week, the production manager
prepares for manufacturing. He gets his team together and the line leader Nick
plans for production. Per the daily production volume, Nick requests the warehouse
to issue raw material to the assembly line.
6.The assembly process consists of 4 primary steps…
- Gear assembly : putting gears in the plastic body of the toy
- Audio assembly : assembling the audio system in the toy
- Testing
- Packing
7. Everyday a truck shipment of 2000 toys is sent to Funplace.

A picture is worth thousand words - Part II

To convey a message, it is usually recommended to use pictures or diagrams rather than plain words. Are pictures really better than words?

We are used to learning faster with pictures.
Just like small kids learn to read looking at colorful pictures, adults understand better with pictures.

In a corporation, every level uses pictures that make sense to them and communicate what they need to know to do a better job.
Managers look at dashboards giving them information about an area, a location or the overall company.
Staff look at diagrams or charts to track critical process information. People doing the job look at pictures in their work areas as aids to guide them perform a given task.

Pictures enables everyone in an organization get the information they need very quickly. People looking at these pictures only need to be responsive when the picture calls for action.

Do you use pictures for getting critical information about your process, product or service?

A picture is worth thousand words...

I always thought that pictures were more effective and efficient in communicating a message. People around the world come up with more and more innovative ways to present business data as pictures that are easy to read and convey the message quickly.

In the Quality world, I deal with pictures in the form of charts(SPC charts, affinity diagrams, relation diagrams etc) or maps (SIPOC maps, VSM etc). These pictures (charts, diagrams and maps) capture lot of meaningful information about the
quality of the product or service. However, many quality practitioners struggle with proper interpretations of these pictures and fail to take necessary action to improve quality.

Control charts for example are designed to communicate what's happening in the process. They provide signals that indicate the presence of special causes in the process. All we have to do is pick up these signals and act on them!

Rather than looking through paper reams full of data that could take hours, pictures tell us the real story in just a few minutes.
A picture is truly worth a thousand words...but will be effective only if it is looked at by the right people, interpreted correctly and acted upon.

Do quality charts or maps help you find quality problems in your process?
Have you improved a process by acting on signals from SPC charts?

Is my data variable or attribute?

From my training class last week, I had an interesting question from one of my class students who was from the healthcare industry.

The student asked "I measure success of tests conducted by lab personnel. For example, I monitor number of blood tests were conducted every day by each lab assistant. I also monitor how many attempts were required for the assistant to successfully draw blood and complete the test.
I want to plot an SPC chart for the number of successful blood draws in single attempt. Should I use variable or attribute control charts?"

My answer to her was a series of questions..
Question 1: What do want the SPC chart to tell you?
Answer : Number of successful blood draws in single attempt.
Also, success rate of each lab personnel.

Question 2: Are either of the above measurements or counts?
Answer : They are counts.

Question 3: What SPC chart helps chart count data?
Answer: Attribute control charts

My student was able to answer her own question after breaking down her problem in small sections.

Have you struggled with data types?
Do you have questions about type of SPC charts you should use?
Please visit our tutorial on "SPC in healthcare" at www.sybeq.com/Tutorial.aspx

Difference between p, percent and ppm

In the Quality world, practitioners may choose to measure quality on different scales. Some may use the p or the proportion metric, others may choose percent or ppm calculation.

What is the difference between p, percent or ppm metric?

There is a fundamental difference between the proportion, percentage, ppm calculations. And that is the base each of these calculations use. The proportion calculation uses a base of 1, percent uses a base of 100 and ppm uses a base of million.

For example, if I had to find proportion, percent and ppm for 5 defective parts found in a lot of 300..
proportion defective = 5/300 = 0.0167
percent defective = (5/300) x 100 = 1.67%
defective ppm = (5/300) x 1000000 = 16666.67ppm

The ratio is the same 5/30, but the multiplier changes when calculating proportion, percent or ppm values for defectives found in a lot.

What metric do you use for measuring quality of your product/service?
Which metric is better - p, percent or ppm?
Please share your views via comments on this blog or email us at info@sybeq.com

Can defects be more than defectives found?

In my training class, I explain the difference between defects and defectives using everyday examples. That way it is simple for the participants to understand these two categories for discrete data.

I had an interesting discussion with one of the participants from my training class last month. He was following well when I explained defects and defectives with examples. However, when we plotted the SPC chart, we entered the number 50 for the quantity inspected. Then we started inputing data for each defect category. We ended up with a count of 54.

This participant raised a question that practically this would never happen. When I asked him "Why he thought so?"
His reasoning was simple!
You cannot have defects more than the number of parts inspected.

After spending several minutes with him I was able to convince him otherwise.
The fact that a single defective product can have multiple defects is sometimes very hard to understand!

Old habits die hard

Most people I meet or work with are from the Quality field and almost all of them hate Microsoft Office 2007. Even though office 2007 is available on their computers, everyone continues to use Microsoft Office 2003 because 2003 is so easy to use.

Initially, my reaction to Office 2007 was the same...it is different and too difficult to use. Using the online help I slowly I started using Office 2007.
The online help was helpful to find out how to use a particular feature, or where it is located at. It took sometime to figure out the new GUI and new features. Once I was comfortable with the menus and tool bar, I liked Office 2007. Now I use Office 2007 to create all my documents/presentations.

The saying "Old habits die hard" is so true.
If one takes the time to learn something new, down the road it helps. Learning something new is time consuming and challenging as it requires one to come out of the comfort zone. But if one has the will to change, old habits can die!

A new way of looking at Six Sigma...

I was talking with my one of my coworkers from the technology field about Six Sigma and 3.4DPMO. He was excited about Six Sigma and how it has a revolutionary impact in the quality field. He followed the concept very well and was happy that he now knew why Six Sigma was so popular.

However, he observed that Six Sigma focused on the number of defects. According to him, this was a negative focus...where the Six Sigma method focuses on the number of quality problems found.
My technology coworker thought it would be nice to change the focus on the positive.
For example at Six Sigma, in a million parts produced, 999996.6 parts are good.
This was an interesting way of looking at Six Sigma and changing focus to the positive side.

Do you know why Six Sigma focuses on defects per million opportunities?

What is Continuous Improvement?

How one company successfully sustained 5S?

It is well known that most companies struggle sustaining 5S. The last S stands for sustain in 5S is the hardest of all because it requires discipline and commitment to sustain 5S.

I always hear people complaining about how difficult it is to discipline their work force.

This company I visited few months ago was using 5S for years and was able to sustain it. Their plant floor was clean, full of light and equipment was within the markings on the floor, tools in their place and product flowing smoothly.
I discovered their secret to sustaining 5S by observing their process.

The layout of this plant was such that production was on the first floor and offices on the second floor.
Operators had 15 minutes to clean up their station before leaving for the day. Just before the end of every shift, the line leaders would go the second floor to observe the operators working on the first floor. They were specifically observing whether operators were following 5S that involved cleaning the station, removing unwanted material/product, putting tools in their respective places.

This simple action ensured that operators followed 5S everyday. Using the power of observation, this company was able to sustain 5S.

Choosing the shortest path

When I explain the importance of the "go and see" principle in lean training, most of the participants nod in agreement about its use. Many participants understand that no matter how much documentation (instructions, manuals) is available at the point where the task is being performed, people will figure out a different way to do the task.
Why?
Because most human beings will find the most convenient way of doing work. This is "their" way and may be the shortest path of doing the job.

That is why it is important to go and see what's happening in the process. In order to improve a process, we must know how is work being done everyday by direct observation.

Though most lean implementers realize the benefit of the go and see principle, I have seen very few actually practicing it.
Many lean implementers I have talked with say...
- we don't have time to stand around and watch people what they are doing
- our folks follow what is written on the instruction sheet
- it is time consuming and boring to watch people do the same task over and over again

In theory most lean implementers realize the benefit of using go and see principle.
However, applying this principle in practice is another story.

Have you used the "go and see" principle in your lean journey?
Would you like to share a story or an experience about the use of "go and see" principle?

Reading instructions or not...

I find that most people these days do not like reading instructions.
It is much easier to try something on your own or just pick up the phone and call for help. Many times the help desk people at the other end of the line just read from the instructions/documents that came with the product or service you bought.

Whether it is online help for software or instructions for assembling products or using services, most people tend to rely on themselves or the phone rather than reading the instructions/documentation.

I have politely asked some folks that why they chose to ignore the instructions.
Some of the common responses I get to this question is..
- I didn't think of looking at the instructions
- Instructions are for dumb people
- I couldn't read beyond the first few lines on the first page
- Instructions are boring
- Trying on your own is exciting. It is even more exciting if the darn thing works!

The solution that works for me is simply assuming that instructions/documents are rarely read.

Why do people hate instructions/documentation?
Share your point of view - Comment on this post

The snowball effect

After spending years in the quality field, I find every problem starts small then gets bigger. Problems tend to have a snowball effect!

People tend to see only the bigger problems and choose to ignore the smaller problems. That is why when a quality problem first appears, some times quality personnel choose not to do anything about it. Well, this act of taking no action leads to a bigger problem that shows up downstream long after the initial problem was reported (snowball effect).
Now the problem is much bigger to handle and results in a crisis. Coming out of crisis takes longer with a larger price tag. Quality problems that cause warranty claims, product recalls, customer complaints, sorting, rework are costly and may cause poor reputation in the market. The real root cause of these problems may be well before they surfaced.
If these root causes were identified as soon as the problem was seen the first time,
they would get fixed much faster. Companies who choose not the take action on a problem now will have to face the problem on a larger scale later.

Judging capability of processes

Each time I go through the topic of process capability, I get a few interesting questions. Some of them are...
- What is the difference between Cp, Cpk?
- Why is Cpk of 1.33 critical? What does this value tell about my process?
- What index would apply for one sided tolerances?
- There are so many indices, which is the most appropriate index for my process?

For more information on capability indices, please read our White Paper Use of different capability indices.

Most customers today are demanding specific capability indices be reported with product shipped. Some suppliers wonder why this information is so important.

Customers want to know the suppliers process capability. Using the capability indices, customers can judge the capability of the process for producing parts that are consistently within specifications. This gives customers some confidence about the parts supplied.

Show me the money!

It is not uncommon to hear the phrase "Show me the money" from Senior management in today's tough economy. It may seem an unrealistic demand to some. But in most cases you have to come up with ways to save money. And tough times lead to creative ideas of doing so.
Simple things in everyday work routines can help save money.
1) Turning off the lights before leaving for the day
2) Shutting down computers we don't use
3) Working with electronic documents rather than printed copies
4) Request for accessories you really need, not what you want
5) Conserve in every possible place you can

Necessity is the mother of all invention. If you think hard, you will find ways to save. Toyota Motor company has used this fundamental principle for removing
waste. People at Toyota believe that every task can be performed
in a better way. There exists a better way...only I have to find it!

Keep it simple

Most quality practitioners with a few years of experience realize the power of the "Keep it simple stupid" or the KISS principle. This principle is specially useful during the launch of Quality programs. I have seen most managers recommending the use of this principle when rolling out a new program.
However, project champions who are driving the program launch often forget to follow the KISS principle. They get very close to the program and forget to visualize the big picture. This is when the manager or the program sponsor has to remind the champions of the KISS principle.

Track productivity losses

OEE or Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a lean metric that allows you to track the
loss of production due to equipment downtime. An equipment that is not running or is
producing defects or reworking parts already made causes losses on the plant floor.
Losses are due to...
- Poor Quality of parts made (defective parts that have to reworked or scrapped)
- Performance losses (Parts produced or time the equipment runs in a time period)
- Availability (time for which the equipment can run)

Tracking OEE allows floor personnel to determine loss of production due to equipment.
OEE also helps plan for maintenance - planned and preventive.
If used right OEE can guide toward better equipment maintenance.
This may help track tool wear and timely replacements may increase equipment life.
Use SYBEQ's OEE calculator to track OEE of your equipment.

From the other side of the table...

On my first job as a product development engineer for music systems, I was enthusiastic about work as any newbie would be. I had a senior colleague who had spent years developing music systems for the consumer goods industry. He was very successful at developing great music systems within the specified timeline.
Sometimes, he would sit on the other side of his desk and spend few minutes looking at his desk. He would also come to work on weekends and spend the entire by himself in the department. Often I asked him why he did that. He would reply that it gives him a new perspective of the project he was working on. He would go back in with fresh ideas and design better music systems.
I never understood how the "alone time" he spent helped him. When I started working with Lean tools, I realized the importance of stopping or slowing down to get a better handle of the project or to make problems visible.
The concept of andon lights used to stop the line to fix a problem in a lean enterprise explains how this tool can remove waste of scrap, defects and rework.

Seeing is believing

Hand hygiene is one of the topmost concerns of hospitals as it prevents infections in the hospital. Physicians and nurses not following hand hygiene in a hospital can result in the outbreak of serious infections.
Treating these infections may cost the hospital lot of money. And sometimes these infections can result in patient deaths causing lawsuits.
Inspite of the importance of hand hygiene, compliance to hand hygiene is on an average 40% (per Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published on October 25, 2002 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Some methods for hand hygiene are washing hands with soap or using alcohol based rub.
Several studies have proved that alcohol based rubs are more effective than washing hands with plain soap and water.
However, older nurses at this local hospital did not believe this. It was proven by measuring the number of pathogens found on the hands of nurses using soap versus those using alcohol. Only after seeing for themselves, the nurses believed in that alcohol was better than using soap.

Listening to "Voice of your people"

"Voice of customer" is a very common term in the Six Sigma world.
It explains the importance of paying close attention to customers explicit and implicit needs.
But rarely we think about listening to the voice of the people. Most employees in an organization express their views and opinions about their workplace. Many employees have ideas for improving the workplace too. Given a chance these employees will talk about their ideas and in the right environment will even figure out ways to implement them.
However, if managers do not pay attention to these employees, over time they will stop communicating. The managers job is to prevent this from happening as some bright ideas may never see the light of the day. Any idea that brings improvement is a good idea and good managers must capitalize on them.
Listening to the voice of your people is as important as listening to your customers.

Data collection - waste or value?

Every company I visit as the Lean Six Sigma specialist, I see process and product data being collected. Operators on the plant floor check several process and product parameters. This data is recorded in the inspection reports that the operators are supposed to fill out. So much data is collected every day but very little is done with it.

Process and product data provide useful information that can be used for quality improvements. Many times no one even looks at this data. Sometimes the operators who are doing the checks also don't pay attention. So what's the use of the activity of data collection if no is going to take any action on it.

Data is collected for the sake of record keeping. However, in the Lean Manufacturing world, an activity that consumes resources and does not add value is waste.
Data collection causes..
1) waste of time
2) waste of paper if data is collected on paper
3) consumes unnecessary hardware storage space if data is collected electronically.

Unfortunately, very few companies act on the data that is collected. That is why processes rarely improve and few companies have succeeded at implementing Lean.
Sad but true that manufacturers collect Lots of data, but take little action on it!

Is DPMO different from ppm?

There was an interesting discussion on DPMO in one of the Lean Six Sigma seminars I was conducting.
We were talking about the role of defect opportunities and it impact on DPMO.
DPMO is inversely related to defect opportunities. As defect opportunities increase, DPMO reduces and
vice versa.
Moreover, defect opportunities are user defined i.e. the number of opportunities for defects on a single part
are specified by the user. A single part can have multiple defect opportunities.
The defect opportunities however cannot be greater than the total number of defects actually observed.
This led to the discussion among the attendees as some of them were trying to understand this.

Also, some attendees were comparing DPMO with ppm and were asking which is a better metric for reflecting
the true level of quality.
ppm is a straightforward metric that finds the number of defective parts in a million.
DPMO on the other hand is dependent on the defect opportunities defined by the user. The user can impact the
DPMO values by modifying the defect opportunities.
A comparison between DPMO and ppm is given in the article DPMO versus ppm by SYBEQ.