Improving wooden parts' quality by adopting DMAIC procedure

This paper utilizes the six‐sigma define‐measure‐analyze‐improve‐control (DMAIC) procedure to improve quality through enhancing the measurement system capability (MSC) of a wood industry. In the first stage, the major reported defects at the customer site are identified, and then the performance of the measurement system is evaluated by conducting a gage repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) experiment on a drilling process, i.e. the outputs of a drilling machine. The obtained results show that the measurement system is inadequate and results in wrong classification of the produced wooden parts. Thus, to improve MSC, corrective actions, including operators' training, proper selection of measuring instruments, and improved measuring methods, were implemented. To determine the achieved improvement in MSC, a second GR&R study was carried out under the same conditions. In conclusion, adopting the DMAIC procedure including GR&R study turns out to be an effective method in improving the quality system involving measurements. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.