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Old 1st Apr 2012, 22:21
  #1196 (permalink)  
Turbine D
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Middle America
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PJ2,

I am sorry my mention of Six Sigma and its goal of 99.9966% free of defects has been misinterpreted by some and not understood by others. To somewhat clarify things, Six Sigma is a business management strategy to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and variability in processes. It is not confined to just improvements of manufacturing processes. In the airline industry, there are many processes which in one way or another contribute to the safety aspects of flying, which is very, very good considering the complexities.

Processes usually do not perform as well in the long term as they do in the short term and there are many reasons why this is often the case. Figuring out why is the task and identifying improvements is the goal. To accomplish identification and zero in on meaningful improvements, the Six Sigma process has over 30 management and method tools that can be used. Most do not require a statistician background, just good common sense and knowledge of the process to be improved. For example, the generation of a key list or lists is a tool.

Now pertaining the A-330, there is a memory list for pilots to memorize regarding the occurrence of unreliable airspeed. It defines what a pilot should do if UAS is encountered and as I recall, it emphasizes low altitude critical situations, takeoffs and landings while also mentioning altitudes above 20k feet. It does not mention the words "at cruise" or "high mach". Now in cases of UAS at cruise and high mach, most pilots have figured it out, what to do to prevent LOC, but more recently, not all have done so. Would an improvement to the memory list to include what to do "at cruise" help future situations that might occur? This is just a small example of a Six Sigma tool being used to improve the output of a process. Then one can think about training processes and what can be improved there. People, generally bean-counters, say training cost a lot of money, it does. However, spending some extra money can result in much greater savings if errors can be prevented. GE, a big Six Sigma advocate had reaped over $1B in savings using the Six Sigma process, and that was 9 or 10 years ago.

It is interesting to note that at least two airlines do use the process to some degree with reported good results, Air Canada and Alaska Airlines. Many other companies in the aerospace industry use the process, Boeing, Honeywell, GD, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman to name a few. Even the USAF, USN and USMC are using the tool to improve their processes.

That is what I meant by Six Sigma...
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