A Six Sigma Approach Towards Improving Quality Management in Manufacturing of Nutritional Products

Abstract

Achieving the desired quality standard is crucial in manufacturing of nutritional premixes such as infant formulae. Issues of out-of-specifications and presence of foreign matter and/or bacteria are unacceptable in the industry. Six Sigma is a renowned approach for improving quality management through eliminating variation. The main objective of Six Sigma model is to highlight the critical processes that need controlling to attain the required quality for both, internal and external customer. This paper aims to showcase the development and application of Six Sigma framework in improving quality management through the use of appropriate tools in a medium-sized premix manufacturing facility in Auckland. The company is experiencing quality issues in terms of meeting standard specifications of ingredient contamination within end products, leading to late deliveries and impacting business reputation. The proposed framework standardizes the Six Sigma methods Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control for food manufacturing business. Using this framework, the study optimizes the manufacturing process around the blenders: loading, mixing blenders leading towards packaging. The results describe the improvement in meeting specification standards, on-time deliveries and reduction of rework. The research outcome provides a guidance for small- and medium- sized food manufacturing enterprises to effectively adopt a Six Sigma framework to enhance quality management through eliminating variation in the production processes.