Six Sigma DMAIC practice in cigarette production process: Challenges and Opportunity

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenge of six sigma implementation to improve the quality of hand clove cigarette products. Systematic investigations are carried out to identify defects. The analytical tool used is SIPOC (Supplier Input Process Output Customer), Pareto analysis and Fishbone diagram. This is a qualitative exploratory study, a single case study research to demonstrate the use of Six sigma, DMAIC and the challenges in its application. Case study analysis shows that there are three defects that occur most in the cigarette production process, namely wrinkle, dirty and incomplety filled. Further analysis shows that incompletely filled defects are critical defects that often occur. After a process improvement has been done, the results are a decrease of 38% defect per million opportunity or from 4,474 to 2,777. The results showed that the use of Six Sigma DMAIC provides an opportunity for companies to reduce defects and produce savings in production costs, increase employee creativity in the production department in reducing the number of defects in the production process. Contribution of this study is the implementation of Six Sigma and DMAIC in a specific case for making hand-rolled cigarette (non machice) in Indonesia. Original values are also obtained by finding improvements to production tools to reduce incompletely filled defects which are critical defects that often occur. Keywords—Six Sigma, DMAIC, Defect, Critical to Quality.