New York Air Brake: The Quest for Quality
New York Air Brake (NYAB), located in Watertown, NY, has the most technologically advanced air brake manufacturing facility in North America. NYAB manufactures products related to the railroad industry, including freight car and locomotive equipment. They produce pneumatic and electro-pneumatic brake system components, including control valves, hoses and fittings, brake cylinders, load sensing equipment, and reservoirs, as well as supply items such as brake valves. The Watertown facility, which employs approximately 475 people, is the home of the engineering "Center of Excellence" for North America, which includes a state-of-the-art engineering research test lab and the Center for Train Control Products. NYAB is part of Knorr-Bremse AG, Munich, Germany.
NYAB began its Six Sigma journey in 1997 when they were invited to participate in Six Sigma training by locomotive manufacturer General Electric Transportation Systems (GETS). The timing was ideal; the NYAB plant had been recently remodeled and streamlined and the manufacturing processes were stable. According to Six Sigma Black Belts Gerald DeFoe and Luann LaLone, "We saw Six Sigma as a tool to help us step to the next plateau. Last year, within the Six Sigma program, we targeted a $120k reduction for 2000 from 1999 levels. That includes scrap, rework, retesting, customer returns, and process improvements. Any time a Six Sigma project is undertaken it is expected that we see the defect rate reduced by 50% as a direct result of the project."
Brake assembly and test area
NYAB's implementation strategy involves providing all employees with a brief introduction to Six Sigma. Each year they also train one or two Green Belt classes (of about 10 people per class). Green Belt training includes all the tools of the Six Sigma methodology and uses Minitab for capability studies, graphing, Gage R&R, DOE, and control charts. DeFoe, who splits his time between Six Sigma projects and training, explains, "The training is project-based and includes a midterm, a final report, and a presentation, which brings visibility to both Six Sigma and the use of Minitab at NYAB. We also have a Six Sigma board that is updated monthly with completed project examples, a Six Sigma 'term of the month,' and project status reports. In addition to Six Sigma methodology for continuous improvement, NYAB has a very active Kaizen program."
NYAB recently contracted with Minitab for a week of on-site training for 20 of their employees. DeFoe said, "The training was much needed and valuable on multiple levels. The courses not only provided information on how to operate the Minitab software, they also provided a 'quick' lesson in statistics. The instructor was very knowledgeable in both Minitab and the practical application of statistics. The materials were good and are still used as a reference; the hands-on computer time and examples were very beneficial."
One of NYAB's recently completed Six Sigma projects involved eliminating a rust problem that occurred on brake cylinders during hot and humid storage conditions. The estimated annual cost of the defect caused by the rust was $52,700. DeFoe described Minitab's role in the project saying, "We used Minitab extensively in the DOE and its analysis. The DOE was the only way we could sort fact from fiction. We were able to evaluate main and interaction effects of brake cylinder corrosion protection CTQs (factors that are critical to quality), develop corrective a action plan, and implement new controls in our machining and assembly processes. The DOE Response Optimizer is a great time saver for analysis of DOE results; it eliminates manually writing out the formula based on the result tables and using trial and error for the best result."
In other projects at NYAB, Minitab has been used for proportions tests, Chi-square testing, tests for equal variances, ANOVA, t-tests, Mood's Median test, and Mann-Whitney tests. "We also use the correlation, regression, and fitted line plots during analysis when we are looking for clues," said LaLone. "Minitab's new Project Manager and ReportPad help eliminate switching between programs to accomplish different tasks. Overall, what I like about Minitab is that it makes statistics and statistical analysis 'easy' - especially for the non-statistician."
DeFoe and LaLone offer the following advice to companies considering implementing Six Sigma: "Be committed and don't expect overnight success. Also, don't attack Six Sigma half-heartedly."
One of the Six Sigma class participants receiving a certificate and shirt for a successful project. Pictured from left to right are: Paul Morgan (President of NYAB), Gerry DeFoe (Six Sigma Black Belt and Trainer), Ozgur Ismail (Design Engineer), and Ajit Patil (Director of Quality).