Apr-Jun.12 - the Nitie

Increasing Bottom-Line Through Six Sigma Quality Improvement Drive:
Case of Small Scale Foundry Industry
Darshak A. Desai *
Keywords:
Analyse-Improve-Control (DMAIC), Small-scale industry,
Foundry industries, Indian industries.
* Department of Mechanical Engineering,
G. H. Patel College of Engineering and
Technology (GCET),
Vallabh Vidyanagar 388 120,
Anand, Gujarat, India
E-mail: darshak301@yahoo.com
Introduction
In the era of globalization, producing better quality
castings as per the international standards needs
multidirectional competitiveness. Indian foundry
industries are continuously on the alert to gain a
competitive edge. Yet, the focus is deviating from overall
operational excellence. Meeting customer demands
them through quality and productivity improvement.
To compete globally, foundry men have to move ahead
from the slogan of “Satisfying Customer” and adopt
and rigorously endeavor for “Customer Delight.”
Gaining competitive edge is the constant quest for
the Foundry Industries world wide. For that they are
using many tools and techniques that have long been
innovative ways of producing castings and providing
services, there remain one basic constraint, that is,
organizations that produce better quality castings and
services than their rivals beat the competition time and
again. For global competitiveness, foundry industries
are trying many techniques such as Quality Circles,
etc. All these techniques are well capable of producing
the desired results but the darker side of the coin is the
issues related with their implementation and longer
hour is to strike global optima and not to waste time,
men thus need a break through strategy, which can have
To compete globally the basic commitment of
foundry men should be to continuously pursue overall
organizational excellence. Meeting the customers’
Vol. 36, No. 2, April-June, 2012
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