The engineering team plays a key role in a product development process: it is their responsibility to make information on the latest design level available to all other teams (suppliers, manufacturing, finance, purchasing, logistics, etc.). When the design achieves the production level, it is then considered released for production. For the release process to be complete, two categories of information are needed: the CAD related information (geometry, dimensions, etc.) and the management information (in which product the components will be used, how many of them are needed for each product, etc.). At Ford, the CAD information is stored in a database system called TeamCenter Enterprise (TCE) and the management information is stored in the World Wide Engineering Release System (WERS). Unfortunately, these two systems are not yet able to communicate to each other.This article presents the results of a Green Belt project conducted to identify and to reduce the discrepancies created by the lack of communication between WERS and TeamCenter Enterprise.The scope of this article is the electronic release process for 3D models used at the development of a vehicle at Ford, specifically for body components of the Fiesta and Ecosport programs. This paper intends to show how this process was improved using the 6-Sigma methodology, hence minimizing the risk of having wrong information being used by different teams, which could lead to serious cost and timing issues.
Improving the Electronic Release Process for 3D Models using 6-Sigma Methodology
Sae Technical Papers
2004 SAE Brasil Congress and Exhibit ; 2004
2004-11-16
Conference paper
English
Using the Six Sigma Methodology for Process Variation Reduction
SAE Technical Papers | 2007
|Establishing a Process for the Validation of an Electronic Control Unit Using Six Sigma Methodology
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2007
|Establishing a Process for the Validation of an Electronic Control Unit Using Six Sigma Methodology
SAE Technical Papers | 2007
|Establishing a process for the validation of an electronic control unit using six sigma methodology
Automotive engineering | 2007
|