Applying Six Sigma to Tenneco Automotive manufacturing

Abstract

Product Quality, broadly defined as the ability of a company's product to meet specific confonnance requirements as defined by the customer, is the subject of this thesis. Specifically, this thesis will explore how product quality can be improved in the context of Tenneco Automotive's (TA's) manufacturing process. A brief survey of these processes indicate the following: **Quality Gap: Company data suggest internal defect rates as measured by factors such as rework and scrap may be higher than external defect rates as measured by factors such as customer returns and warranty costs. Decreasing internal defect rates could potentially reduce TA' s internal manufacturing cost. ** Benchmark Study: This section reports and summarizes the experiences different Fortune 500 companies have had with Six Sigma. The information was obtained through a series of interviews with people, mostly senior managers, who have had direct experience leading a portion of their company's Six Sigma efforts. ** Six Sigma Models: This section reports the financial and product quality improvement that TA could potentially achieve on both a company-wide and plant level basis through the application of Six Sigma. The two quantitative models that were used to come up with these findings are also shown and explained. These two models, although specifically designed for TA, can be easily broadened to apply to almost any general manufacturing enterprise. ** Six Sigma Integration: This section attempts to identify the major issues and barriers that need to be overcome to successfully implement a Six Sigma program in TA manufacturing.