Max Porter, GlaxoSmithKline, Ulverston

Are Six-sigma, Statistics and statisticians fit for purpose?

Brief outline of what we are doing within Actives Manufacturing Statistics to support Six-sigma and manufacturing compliance.  Issues with limits setting and process capability as they are presented in Six-sigma training and in most statistics text books.  Some of our solutions.  Can black belts design experiments?  Dealing with real experiments.  Lessons for Statistics and statisticians.

Richard Greatbanks, UMIST

Six-Sigma applications in Manufacturing: Barriers and benefits.

Six-Sigma is becoming a popular approach to process improvement.  The implementation, training and application for several examples are discussed, examining both the barriers and benefits, which can be tangible or intangible. The paper comments on the contribution to improvement in process, product and people, and considers the future of the Six-Sigma technique.

Tony Greenfield, Greenfield Consultants

DoE by computer for manufacturers

Those engineers and scientists in manufacturing industries I know are clear about what they want with design and analysis of experiments.  I shall talk about the history of my program, WinDEX:  why I developed automatic procedure and the choice of approach and design, show real industrial examples in the DOS version and then show how this has changed in the Windows version with a few suggestions about further developments.

John Logsdon, Quantex Research

So where do we go from here?

Statistics in manufacturing and engineering has been the topic of endless discussion yet little progress seems to have been made.  We examine the reasons why such a numerate and potentially useful discipline as statistics is largely ignored by manufacturers and look for solutions that will enable statisticians to become fully involved as well as improving the competitiveness of UK industry.

Powerpoint and Publisher presentations available:

Max Porter's Presentation
Richard Greatbank's Presentation
Tony Greenfield's Presentation
Tony's Publisher notes for the WinDEX program
WinDEX web site
John Logsdon's Presentation