AUTHORS: SRUJIT BIRADAWADA, LAWRENCE OSEI
INTRODUCTION
The Smell and Taste plays a major role in our life. From early days people has been working and struggling for food. There have been many wars that took place for food. There are multi varieties of food each having its own importance for smell and taste. Now there are many food industries especially famous for their smell and Taste.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In this study DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) is used to enhance the Smell and Taste for the food products in the industries and also explaining the importance of E-Noses and E- Tongues in the food industries.
The confidentiality and security is very important for the food industries who really want to launch a new product. For such companies electronics is playing a vital role and helped many food industries by inventing E-Noses and E-Tongues.
The E-Noses and E-Tongues are playing a vital role in the Plastic Insulation and Pharma too. They are also playing a crucial role where anyalytical measurements cannot be depended but the thing is we need to teach the E-Noses and E-Tongues the taste and smell and then the process starts.
DEFINE PHASE
After the issues related to team and champion involvement, the main reason for the project failure is wrong understanding of voice of customer and concentrating on wrong CTQ’s. Using these E-Noses and E-Tongues the right CTQ’s can be fulfilled. The sweetness of a product can be measured on the scale of 1-10 with the help of human data the E-Noses and E-Tongues will have the best results.
MEASURE PHASE
The problem of todays business getting data in an efficient and fast means. Though we can data but its also taking time to get the right one. There are many advantages of using the E-Noses and E-Tongues like
- Reproducibility
- Repeatability
- Lower data acquisition cost and
- The results are 80-90 percent right
ANALYZE PHASE
These Smell and Taste attributes are not like Weight and Distance to measure and are not that easy too. The E-Noses and E-Tongues provide the raw data and with the help of Principal Component Analysis and Discriminating Factor Analysis the results are translated to odor or taste maps and with this “within” and “between” the quality of the products can be defined and known
IMPROVE PHASE
Once the data is acquired and analyzing is done then it can implement quick- wins and develop solutions over the problems. The Design Of Experiments is made with the relative feasibility and optimal process conditions are found. The benefits are noted and the cycle time and waste is reduced in changeover situation. The quick wins will help the team to keep the momentum of its project in the early phases while the DOE will help the team to find the optimal conditions on a long term.
CONTROL PHASE
One should do a thorough analysis in the Analyze phase as it is important in solving over the problem and to win in this control phase by maintaining the entire Phase Simple and Robust.
E-noses and E-tongues give the team simple control techniques such as soft independent modelling class analogy (SIMCA) for good/bad discrimination, partial least square (PLS) models for quantification as well as statistical process control charts (SPC) for monitoring the process over time. In a situation where the company would only know the problem based on customer feedback or through lengthy human panel process, the best a company can be is reactive. Statistical process control based on the E-nose enables the company to take charge, be proactive, and better serve its customers.
Critical Review
Link to Strategic Imperatives
The strategic imperative of this case is HIGH. The look into the future problems and solving them ahead is the key principle of an organization success. Each step the organization took for the future problems made the company to step into the success of project. The way the industry kept the confidentiality, security made us think that it has got the Link to Strategic Imperatives Criteria. The project has a very great impact on the key metrics for the organization. It is very important to maintain the grip over strategic drivers of business as it ensures that leadership remains engaged during the long run improvements.
Application of six sigma tools
The industry used E-Noses and E-Tongues instead of not depending the human resources from outside to maintain the confidentiality, security. The industry also used various bar plot graphs and especially Principal Component Analysis, Discriminating Factor Analysis, soft independent modelling class analogy (SIMCA) for good/bad discrimination, partial least square (PLS) models for quantification as well as statistical process control charts (SPC) for monitoring the process over time made us think that the industry is using the right tools and in the right direction. So, I would give it High.
Active sponsor engagement
I will rank it HIGH because there is active sponsor engagement in this project to guide the project to the right direction to achieve major business goals. We even saw the top managements completely involving in the project. They have identified the issues earlier and stepping towards solving the problem
Team actively engaged
I will rank it HIGH. Team members are proud of being part of the team and they see themselves as part of the team. The team has a clear understanding of the overall goal of the process. There has to be team participation for the successful project we can see that the team is maintaining a better understanding and each one playing their role effectively and actively.
Broad organizational awareness of the project
The entire organization is aware of the project and they are all involved in the six sigma project. Every member of the organization is aware of the project and has a clear understanding of how it will impact their area of responsibility and plays an active role in communicating the project. I will rank it HIGH.
Project delivered anticipated results
The project delivered the anticipated results. Everybody in the project is aware of the project changes, results and outcome. I will rank it HIGH, because the project delivered the anticipated results.
Project Completed on Time
The project was completed within the stipulated time. I will rank it HIGH. Completing the project within the specified time period indicates a sign of success. If a target has to be reached successfully there should be a time period to be set. Finishing a project within the time period is a signal for the starting of success. Short project duration boosts the morale of the team members and long duration projects make team members lose focus
Successful Transition of Ownership to Process Owner
I will rank it LOW. A process owner has not been identified.
Improvement Sustained Over Time
This is HIGH because the improvements attained has sustained over the period of time. The results have been sustained and showed that changes have been adopted by the organization. The performance during the process is far much better as compared to the project start date .The team has embraced the changes and the manager was efficient in managing the time and team efficiently.
Replication of results
I will rank it HIGH. The team has developed a thorough plan to show how the improvement would be duplicated. Changed management has been put in place for successful continuation.
Improvement
A project never gets finished it just takes another stage in a cycle called Improvement. It moves from one stage to another stage in a cycle. It enters into the stage called Improvement where changes are made to the plan and implemented again for better results
Improving the measurement system allows a Six Sigma team to focus on the right issue, increase its chances of project success or simply provide day-to-day operations with a tool that helps them in continuous improvement effort. What is measured gets done.