Minitab Seminar on “Data driven Business toward Excellence”

I attended Minitab Seminar entitled “Data driven Business toward Excellence” (營之以據，邁向卓越) on 1^st Sep 2017. Before the seminar, I took a photo with Ir. Dr. YK Chan (Chairman, Six Sigma Institute (SSI)) in his office for memory. 

In the beginning, Ms. Iza Ng (Business Development Manager, Techmax Information Technology (HK) Ltd.) and Mr. Alex Kwan (Country Account Manager, Minitab) introduced the background on Minitab and guest speakers.

The first guest speaker was Mr. Ming Dong (Senior Technical Training Manager, Minitab Australia) and his topic entitled “Using DOE in Transactional Businesses”. Firstly, he briefed transactional businesses included Banking/Financial, Food and Beverage, Healthcare/Hospitals, Mailing & Publishing and Government, etc.

Then Mr. Dong briefed different quality improvement opportunities in transactional businesses such as Wrong prescriptions in Healthcare, Credit cards service in Finance/Banking, Time for permits in Government and Design of job posting template in HR, etc.  After that he introduced different statistical tools for service quality project use included Hypothesis test, Regression, Gage R&R, Control Charts, Capability and DOE, etc.

Mr. Ming Dong explained the objectives of experimental study.  It aimed to identify the most influential variables that easily collected information and drawn conclusions; to assess the impact of a factor and using simple statistics to interpret an empirical model.  Moreover, Mr. Dong said a designed experiment was under controlled environment that led a cause and effect statements.  But the observation data (or historical data) was able to demonstrate the relationships between factors and the response but not necessary had a cause and effect statements.  

After that Mr. Dong mentioned some applications of DOE such as Customer surveys, Debt collection, Assessing training needs in a government agency and increased efficiency.  Then he demonstrated some example such as the training to be three factors (Content, Speakers and Timing) with two levels, totally 8 combinations (2³).

Using DOE analysis, it could demonstrate which strategy was the best one to perform in next time.

Finally, he also discussed Logistic Regression which was for binary response (two possible outcomes) that model the probability of observing an event.  Lastly, he summarized that transactional businesses were still built on process so as to have many opportunities for DOE application.  Main effects and Interaction plots were useful tools so that it was not necessary to use all of the high-power DOE tools. 

The second guest speaker was Ir. Dr. YK Chan (Chairman, Six Sigma Institute (SSI)) and his presentation topic named “Industrie 4.0 – Transformation and Related Tools”. (where Industrie – German; Industry – English).  The seminar objectives were to share Industrie 4.0 and Made in China 2025, how to implement Industrie 4.0 included Cyber transformation and Management transformation.  

Firstly, Dr. YK Chan briefed the background of Industrie 4.0 from the history of industrial revolution waves.  Now the fourth industrial revolution is coming.  There were different names with same idea such as Make in China 2025, Smart Factory, Smart Manufacturing, Industrie 4.0, Integrated Industrie, Internet of Things, etc.

Then Dr. Chan mentioned the roadmap of Industrie 4.0 from Laboratory Solution (Today) to Isolated / selective pilot installation (~2018~2020), to Broad adoption of standard solutions (~2020~2025) and then Transition to “True Industrie 4.0” (~2025+/~2030+).  The objectives for Industrie 4.0 were Cost Reduction (43%), Sales Increase with New Product (32%), and both Sales increase and Cost reduction (14%) from the survey of 100 top managers.

Implementation of Industrie 4.0 included Cyber and Management Transformation.  For Cyber Transformation, it was interlinking of real (physical) and virtual (cyber) world to form Cyber-Physical System (CPS).  Some tools for Cyber Transformation were introduced including advanced robotics and AI, sophisticated sensors, cloud computing, IoT, data capture and analytics, 3D printing and new marketing models, etc.  

The 6 steps to achieve Industrie 4.0 were stated as following diagram.

And then Dr. Chan described the Management Transformation which started from value driver.  

The 6 steps with relevant tools for Management Transformation were discussed.

Finally, Dr. Chan proposed a new Management Model named “TOCLSS” which integrated “Lean”, “Six Sigma” and “TOC” together to prepare for Industrie 4.0.  Each tools had their specific application as follows:

i)             Theory of Constraints (TOC) – increase system Flow Rate (Throughput) by focusing on exploiting, protecting and elevating system constraints

ii)            Lean Management – reducing Flow Time (Lead Time) of Value by focusing on eliminating wastes (time traps and unnecessary costs) through the value chain

iii)           Six Sigma – improve quality and Flow Rate of Value by focusing and eliminating variations and improve process control throughout the value chain.

Lastly, Dr. Chan concluded the holistic improvement in Flow, Quality and Capacity, as well as, enhancing employee competence through TOCLSS tools.  SSI had provided coach program for senior manager and comprehensive training on TOC, Lean and Six Sigma to assist company transformation.

Reference:

Minitab – www.minitab.com

SSI – http://www.sixsigmainstitute.org/