Six Sigma for the Apparel Industry

By Richard Atwell
Manager of Education and Engineering
Textile Clothing Tech. Corp. [TC]²

The trade agreements are passing, the buzzwords are flying, and every manufacturer is
looking for the next certification to use as a badge of honor. And so enters “Six Sigma” to
the rescue. The Superhero is really the mild mannered Clark Kent in Guatemalan
manufactured tights and cape. The “supercharge” comes from computer software that
allows the average apparel engineer or quality manager to perform analyses that
previously were done only by college educated statisticians. Take away the computer and
there is a solid basis of statistical methods that have been in the “bag of tools” for
decades.

The prevailing motto for Six Sigma is “Perfection is Possible”. The subtitle would be
“Even when things go wrong, the product is still good”. There are two major qualifiers to
the concept of perfection. The major concept is that perfection specifically means that the
product meets the customer's accurately determined specification. Therefore perfect
production of a size “large” shirt, which has a specification of 42 inches +/- ¾ inch, does
not mean that all shirts produced measure 42” but rather that all shirts measure between
41 ¼ inches and 42 ¾ inches. The second major concept of Six Sigma is that the variation
of the output is very slight. Thus, when size “large” shirts are produced the measurements
of multiple shirts will be so closely gathered around 42 inches that when something goes
wrong, such as bad cutting or a gauge being misadjusted, the end result is that shirts still
measure within the tolerance.

The rest of the Six Sigma process is understanding the statistics behind the charts and
controls, learning the methods to determine what is working properly, and how to identify
and fix problems that do occur. The concept as a statistical term has been frequently used
since the 1930's and gained popularity in Japan and the USA beginning in the 1950's with
Crosby, Deming, and Juran. However, Motorola is credited, by most, for bringing the
term to the general public in the 1980's. Oh yes, the statistical term. Six Sigma
manufacturing says that the variation in the product is so slight that 99.73 % of the output
falls within the tolerances. Actually, the quality is so good, and multiple measurements so
closely centered around the specified number, that even when the measurement is off by
three times the standard deviation, in either direction, it is still within tolerance. Thus the
measurements fall within Six Sigma or six standard deviations of the mean and the
quality yield is 99.73%.

Because many companies are seeking badges or medals to show to prospective clients,
frequently the managers are disturbed that Six Sigma certification is for individual people
rather than companies. The green belt and black belt designations are awards for
proficiency in using the tools of the program. The Six Sigma methodology is a structured
program for improving quality through a process with the acronym of DMAIC. Define,
Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Portions of each of these steps can be
performed using manual techniques that are found in any statistics textbook. The
computer programs included in many of the certification classes provide much more
powerful tools and the capability of calculating in minutes what might take days to
calculate manually.

Convincing apparel executives to accept the process, other than as a selling tool, has been
a difficult task. About the only agreement reached is that every garment can NOT be
manufactured to the perfect specification. However, the typical manufacturing plant is
producing apparel at about a 3 sigma level with 2.5 to 4 % defects. That is 4 defects per
100 not the 3.4 defects per 1,000,000 produced by a Six Sigma manufacturer. The gap is
wide enough that significant improvement can be made in any such plant. Two financial
facts are important to note. Historical studies have shown overall savings in the $10,000
to $20,000 range for an improvement of just one Sigma. Apparel managers are generally
astounded by the “True Cost of Quality” in their manufacturing facility. Typically, these
costs are hidden in overhead but include inspection and marking, sorting, transport,
reinspection, supervisor time, downstream operator repair, cleaning, and irregulars.
Therefore, any improvement in quality has a triple effect of reducing indirect labor,
lowering total fabric cost, and improving customer satisfaction. Direct Labor Productivity
will normally show a 10 to 15% improvement due to less repair time, correction of
imbalances, and higher throughput.

Within the DMAIC process, the management team must Determine the actual quality
requirement through discussions with the end customer. Such determination must
eliminate the “Give them an inch- they will take a mile” attitude. Record the needed
result, train both operators and auditors, and then hold the appropriate people
accountable.

The measurement and analytical processes use tools and charts that are already available
in many plants. These include some capabilities within basic spreadsheet computer
programs such as Check Sheets, Histograms, Pareto Charts, and Scatter Diagrams.
Flowcharts and Fishbone diagrams are easily drawn by hand.

The actual analysis and improvements come through human interpretation of the
information and a logical thought process. There are two areas within this section that can
be greatly assisted by the newer computer programs available. The first item is the
determination of whether changes observed are statistically relevant, thus avoiding
unnecessary adjustments to a existing process. The second area, with less use in the
apparel industry, is the Design of Experiments capability to see what combination of
changes will give the best end result. Experienced and motivated people given the time
for thought and experimentation are the critical resource for analysis and improvement.

Controlling the change is often a matter of “What gets Measured and Posted is What
Improves”. While computer programs can calculate the control limits required to know
when a process is out of control, the limits have less value in an environment utilizing
human operators. Manual calculations and charting will allow quick recognition of
changes in the average apparel plant.

Should a company have people certified as Green Belts or Black Belts? The answer is
“YES, IF”. If the company needs the computer program, needs a show of management
support for Quality Improvement, or lacks personnel with Engineering or Quality
Management training.

However, any company can reap significant financial benefits from a focused quality
program utilizing the statistical tools that have been available for years. The requirement
is to provide a motivated team of people with a structured process, an agreed upon set of
standards, an expectation of continuous improvement, and then hold them accountable.
Let’s get real
here. Is it
truly
necessary
to go for
zero
defects?
Why isn’t
99.9%
defect-free
good
enough?
Here are
some
examples
of what life
would be
like if
99.9%
were
"good
enough:"

 1 HOUR OF
UNSAFE
DRINKING
WATER
EVERY
MONTH
 2 LONG
OR SHORT
LANDINGS
AT EVERY
AMERICAN
AIRPORTS
EACH DAY
 400
LETTERS
PER HOUR
WHICH
NEVER
ARRIVE AT
THEIR
DESTINATI
THE SIX STEPS TO SIX SIGMA
USING
Step #1 - Identify the product you create or the service you
provide

In other words ... WHAT DO YOU DO?

Step #2 - Identify the Customer(s) for your product or service,

and determine what they consider important i.e.
Customer Requirements
In other words ... WHO USES YOUR PRODUCT AND
SERVICES?

Step #3 - Identify your needs (to provide product/service so

that it satisfies the Customer)

In other words ... WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO YOUR WORK?

Step #4 - Define the process for doing your work

In other words ... HOW DO YOU DO YOUR WORK?

Step #5 - Mistake-proof the process and eliminate wasted

efforts using...

In other words ... HOW CAN YOU DO YOUR WORK BETTER?

Step #6 - Ensure continuous improvement by measuring,

analyzing and controlling the improved process using
DMAIC - (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Contro/)

In other words ... HOW PERFECTLY ARE YOU DOING YOUR

CUSTOMER-FOCUSED WORK?

Step 6:
Ensure continuous improvement by measuring,
analyzing and controlling the improved process
from Step #5
What Is Six Sigma and the 1.5
shift?
The Original Concepts And
Theories
To quote a Motorola hand out from about 1987 ...

'The performance of a product is determined by how much

margin exists between the design requirement of its
characteristics (and those of its parts/steps), and the actual
value of those characteristics. These characteristics are
produced by processes in the factory, and at the suppliers.

Each process attempts to reproduce its characteristics

identically from unit to unit, but within each process some
variation occurs. For more processes, such as those which
use real time feedback to control outcome, the variation is
quite small, and for others it may be quite large.

A variation of the process is measured in Std. Dev, (Sigma)

from the Mean. The normal variation, defined as process
width, is +/-3 Sigma about the mean.

Approximately 2700 parts per million parts/steps will fall

outside the normal variation of +/- 3 Sigma. (see chart #2)
This, by itself, does not appear disconcerting. However, when
we build a product containing 1200 parts/steps, we can
expect 3.24 defects per unit (1200 x .0027), on average. This
would result in a rolled yield of less than 4%, which means
fewer than 4 units out of every 100 would go through the
entire manufacturing process without a defect. (see chart
#3)Thus, we can see that for a product to be built virtually
defect-free, it must be designed to accept characteristics
which are significantly more than +/- 3 sigma away from the
mean.

It can be shown that a design which can accept TWICE THE

NORMAL VARIATION of the process, or +/- 6 sigma, can be
expected to have no more than 3.4 parts per million defective
for each characteristic, even if the process mean were to shift
by as much as +/- 1.5 sigma (see chart #2) In the same case of
a product containing 1200 parts/steps, we would now expect
only only 0.0041 defects per unit (1200 x 0.0000034). This