Everyone who has faced a production problem with a need to solve the problem by using production data can relate to the notion of a brain teaser. The brain teasers presented here are based on real-world situations that are encountered by workers in manufacturing environments. The brain teasers have three parts: (1) the situation, (2) available data or other supporting information and (3) questions that various workers want answered for continual improvement. Recommended solutions follow in the next issue and on the Web at Quality Online (www.qualitymag.com).
Situation
Felix works as an engineer at an automotive supplier company and has been promoted three times in the last year--from materials manager to quality manager to production manager. He was also put in charge of the company's lean manufacturing initiative. A customer is complaining that the "lean" initiative has not eliminated quality problems, so now Felix's company is under pressure to launch a Six Sigma initiative. Felix and two other engineers were selected to train as Six Sigma Black Belts.