With lean six sigma method reducing error rates and simulating: Example of milling machinery manufacturing company

Lean six sigma method; It is a production and management philosophy that includes objectives such as increasing product quality, eliminating waste in production processes, shortening production time and reducing all kinds of costs. Today, intense competition in almost all sectors makes applications such as lean six sigma valuable. Businesses focus on providing high quality products by reducing unnecessary waste. In addition, businesses aim to get ahead of their competitors by producing faster. The application part of this thesis was obtained from a production company operating in the Milling Machinery Manufacturing Sector in Çorum. The company in question was established as a small-capital, two-partner business in the 1990s and has made great progress in a short time. The rapid growth of the business world has brought with it the growth of its problems. These problems have generally been issues such as the need for personnel, the need for usage area, the need for machinery and equipment. These problems were tried to be solved with new investments and new personnel employment, but after a point they were faced with the fact that traditional methods were insufficient to solve the problems. After this enlightenment, it was decided to make strategic changes. The company has decided to implement lean production within the framework of these strategic changes and aims to reach the lean six sigma level. In the milling machinery manufacturing sector, it has become very difficult to meet the ever-increasing customer expectations and ever-changing demands, to respond to customer requests and to ensure customer satisfaction in today's competitive environment. In today's global and competitive age, continuous improvement of production processes with lean six sigma is accepted as an important solution to increase the number of satisfied customers and maximize business profitability. With this approach, which was developed to reduce the production errors of enterprises, significant effects were obtained on many organizations. In the study, suggestions were made to reduce the error and waste levels by using lean six sigma methods in the production processes of this business operating in the manufacturing of milling machines. In addition, these suggestions were observed and analyzed by simulating them, and through this case study, the difficulties and potentials in lean six sigma applications for SME-scale enterprises were revealed.