Better processes make

good eats
Food industry can benefit from lean Six Sigma principles
By Tina Kovach and Rae Cho

The food industry is a huge, collective, diverse

business with a complex network that ranges from farming to tasty process results
production to packaging to distribution. In the United States,
consumers spend more than $1 trillion annually on food,
equivalent to nearly 10 percent of gross domestic product.
Given that food energy is consumed by the world population
on a daily basis, the concept of continuous quality improve-
ment in the food industry is extraordinarily critical. One tool
for better food quality is the reinvigorated philosophy of lean
Six Sigma, which has a proven record for continuous improve-
ment and an ability to boost processes.
Unfortunately, there has been little implementation of lean
Six Sigma in the food industry. But hands-on experiences and
a brief lean Six Sigma case study show the possibilities for
continuous quality improvement in the food industry.
Everybody knows that the customer is always right, espe-
cially when it comes to food. Many companies believe capital
investments are the answer to manufacturing deficiencies.
But first, they should identify the root cause of problems by
looking at the current processes and products used in the
procedure. As shown in Figure 1, it is important to note that
product and process alignment is achieved when elements of
consumer satisfaction, expected quality attributes, process Figure 1. Major Six Sigma elements in the food industry

36 Industrial Engineer
control, equipment capability and commodity specifications
are consistent. When even one is missing, the product will
suffer from consumer complaints/product holds, vague qual-
ity expectations, missing or wrong process checks, high levels
of waste or downtime in production, consistency issues, or
low or declining profitability and/or revenue. Using lean Six
Sigma tools, the processes can be defined, measured, analyzed,
improved, controlled and finally benchmarked through other
facilities and companies throughout the industry.
What will you have?
The three main expectations of consumers are taste, qual-
ity and value. The food manufacturing processes that result
in consumer complaints typically are due to poor design,
improper execution and low capability.
First, design encompasses reducing the number of prob-
lems over the lifetime of the process. This step ensures that a
correct and efficient theoretical design is prepared. These are
the key areas for product development and marketing func-
tions. Second, execution is the implementation of the required
steps of the process; however, in practice, these applications
rarely complete all the steps accurately. This is where plant-
controllable situations need to be monitored, and standard
operating procedures play a key role. Finally, capability is the
extent to which the process can meet the design expectations.
This is where the product is being designed into manufactur-
ing capabilities.
Without the combination of design and execution, capabil-
ity cannot be realized. The end philosophy is to reduce variation
in businesses and make customer-focused, data-driven deci-
sions. Lean Six Sigma will reduce variation, increase profits
and eliminate defects and waste while considering form, fit and
function. This approach will key in on traits that are critical to
quality while using appropriate tools and roadmaps.
Critical dimensions in food manufacturing processes
include reducing variation. There are four major sources of
variation in processes:
1. Insufficient design margins, such as poor design
machinery and operating environments. In the food
industry, most manufacturing equipment is not meant for
how the business is using it. Therefore, the commodities going
through the machinery do not always perform as needed. Extra
labor performs remedial tasks to compensate. Such tasks
mainly consist of component filling performed at high speeds
or in large batches, resulting in inconsistent component dosage
and fill variability. Understanding the different capabilities of
January 2011 37
better processes make good eats
the machinery can reduce redundant labor, rework time and
mechanical downtime.
Poor operating environments could jeopardize processes as
well. For example, many commodities only dispense properly
at certain temperatures. This may require that factories be
air-conditioned below normal temperatures.
2. Inherent variability of any manufacturing process
(the 5 Ms — machine, method, materials, man and
measurement). Any of the 5 Ms could lead to the 7 Ws, which
are waste of overproduction, waste of waiting, waste of trans-
port, waste of over-processing, waste of inventory, waste of
movement, and waste of defect and rework. In order to reduce
the 7 Ws, the 3 Rs — reduce, reuse and recycle — should be
considered. Three critical questions are what packaging could
be avoided, what plastic container could be reused and what
could be recycled or composted. Solutions include buying in
bulk to reduce packaging (such as bulk or individual quick
frozen ingredients), turning off water during washing/
blanching of commodities (ozone), reusing uncontaminated
food (commodities that may drop during dispensing into
sanitary pans), and recycling packaging materials (cardboard
boxes, trays, water/grease mixes).
3. The measurement system’s inherent variability,
which could cause up to 25 percent of the problems and
defects in production. Measurement systems can be the
source of up to 25 percent of the problems or defects in food
manufacturing. Calibration of equipment, preventive main-
tenance and operator checklists can prevent wrong process
checks.
4. Variable products provided by subcontractors and
vendors. Holding vendors accountable for commodities
provided is also crucial. The consumer blames the end manu-
facturer of the product they buy, even if the problem came from
a manufacturer’s vendor. Hence, training suppliers and vendors,
studying compliance analysis and implementing tighter speci-
fication ranges for vendors will ensure that commodities have
the least variation possible.
Control issues
There are many issues and resolutions aligned with consumer
expectations, expected quality attributes, process controls,
equipment capability or commodity specification gaps.
For one thing, consumers expect that the size of the
commodity should match what is listed on the packaging.
One possible resolution is to work with product development
teams in manufacturing, along with vendors, for more consis-
tent specifications of commodities. A major issue in food
manufacturing is that variation in commodity sizes makes
38 Industrial Engineer
dispensing difficult, often requiring manual labor. This can
be fixed by establishing specifications for consistent piece
counts or weights for an individual manufacturing facility
or by benchmarking best-in-class practices between differ-
ent manufacturing facilities. Work with vendors to determine
that specifications are within upper and lower control limits,
allowing for proper dispensing.
In process control, equipment often does not dispense prod-
ucts properly. This problem can be addressed by determining a
proper operating environment, which could include the facility’s
temperature, tempering practices and storage of commodities.
Adding labor on the front end helps eliminate excess labor at
the back end. It also can prevent rework of products. One main
equipment capability issue happens when machines cannot
fill packages with the proper weight of the product or give the
proper amount of coverage to products. Addressing this issue
could include using engineering, research and development
groups to find the right equipment or, perhaps, the right piece
to add to improve the equipment’s capabilities. And calibration
of equipment, preventive maintenance, operator checklists or
measurement systems can help validate current equipment or
justify payback of new equipment.
Case studies
Start a lean Six Sigma case study by understanding the purpose,
importance, focus, deliverables, measures and resources. A
cross-functional map is a key beginning point to see each of the
process steps. This will help determine key inputs and outputs.
It also is a good place to review suppliers and customers to see
where different variations could be coming from.
Viewing customer complaints will help point out key
commodities that are in jeopardy. Do a “voice of the customer”
early to align key processes with customer needs. Customers
are not always the end consumers; customers could include
operators on the production lines. At this point, measure
current practices and map them against goals.
For example, the business may want to reduce labor on
key production lines. Most companies consider removing
labor the easiest way to save. But before removing the labor,
understand why it’s there in the first place, and then fix the
root cause of the problem. In this example, figure out if the
equipment, the operators or the processes are the issue. Using
a Pareto chart will help prioritize cause and effects.
A gage R&R is a great resource for understanding where
reproducibility and repeatability are needed and helps find key
failure modes. Key inputs for a gage R&R should be different
commodities, operators, times in the manufacturing process,
machinery, and how they correlate with each other. Figure 2
 source the problem

Figure 2. A gage R&R can help industrial engineers locate key failure modes.

go, be cautious, stop

shows a gage R&R that includes six samples, two operators,
two machines and the correlation of each.
The p-value of 0.143 for the sample multiplied by the opera-
% Study # of distinct
tor shows that the interaction is not significant, which is the % Contribution variation % Tolerance categories
information wanted from the study. The sample varied in
9% 30% 30% 5
this study, which was what was expected because six differ- 1% 10% 10% 10
ent types of products were used. In the actual gage R&R, the
reproducibility is 0.85, which seems to be sufficient.
The repeatability is 1.61. The variation should be reduced Figure 3. What part of the traffic light your gage R&R results
match can give your business direction.
from the repeatability. If the repeatability is too high, the data
gives just one distinct category. The percent contribution from
part-to-part (97.54) is larger than that of total gage R&R (2.46). tion is due to differences between parts. The components of
The part-to-part percentage contribution of 97.54 shows that the variation chart also show that there is low noise to high
much of the variation is due to the difference between parts. signal. The gage R&R is the noise variable, and the repeatabil-
The total gage R&R accounts for 15.68 percent of the study ity plus the reproducibility make up the total gage R&R. The
variation, which is acceptable, but it can get better. The stan- part-to-part is the signal.
dard deviation of the gage R&R for part-to-part is 16.9464. Since there is so much variation in the measurement of the
The noise component in this situation should be minimized. parts, this organization should find a commodity that has less
Ideally, the end result should contain no noise. variation. Then, the normality of the new commodity should be
In the components of variation graph (upper left corner of measured via paired T-test hypothesis testing, which will test
Figure 2), the percent contribution from part-to-part is larger the difference between the commodities. The commodity with
than that of total gage R&R, telling you that much of the varia- less variation should be used and tested for degradation over

January 2011 39
better processes make good eats
is capable (a value of 1 is
metrics considered acceptable).
The Ppk value of 0.88
could improve (a value of
1.33 is considered accept-
able). The PPM total is
the number of parts per
million (4,266.32) that
have characteristics of
interest outside the toler-
ance limits. This means
approximately 4,266 out
of 1 million pieces do not
meet the specifications.
Finally, when improve-
ments have been put in
place, a control plan needs
to be populated. Improve-
ment measurements need
to be taken continually to
Figure 4. Capability analysis results ensure consistent prog-
ress. A control plan needs
to contain the follow-
time. Quadratic trend models are a good source for this type ing information: process improvement, process steps, inputs,
of testing. Once the proper commodity is used, put proper outputs, process specifications, Ppk data, measurement tech-
operating practices in place. Maintenance, calibrations and nique, percent R and R or product tolerance, sample size, sample
operator procedures must be monitored before any type of frequency for continuous testing, control method, reaction plans
equipment or commodity is purchased. and key completion dates. Personnel must be held accountable.
Figure 3 shows a summary of gage R&R studies based on The proper lean Six Sigma methods allow a true represen-
a classic traffic light (green means go, yellow means proceed tation of projects with lasting and controlled improvements.
with caution and red means stop). The percent contribution The food industry — as well as the rest of the world — can be
is the variability because of equipment, parts and operators. changed by using just a few key techniques. d
This identifies sources of variation during the measurement
process and should be 1 percent or less. Tina Kovach, a certified Six Sigma master black belt, is a continuous
The percent study variation is the percentage of the varia- improvement manager at Dawn Foods. Her responsibilities include
tion of the gage R&R study to the specified tolerance range. conducting training and improvement programs using Six Sigma for
Ten percent or less is considered ideal. the baking industry. Prior to joining Dawn Foods, she worked at Nestle
The percent tolerance represents whether a part is in speci- Prepared Foods as a Six Sigma product/process design specialist. She
fication. If the gage R&R tolerance is 30 percent or greater, the received her B.S. in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering
gaging system needs further analysis to find the sources of from Ohio University.
measurement error.
As you can see from Figure 3, a gage R&R chart must have Rae Cho is on the industrial engineering faculty at Clemson University.
at least five distinct categories for an adequate measuring He received his master’s degree in industrial and systems engineer-
system, although 10 or more is ideal and moves the organiza- ing from Ohio State University and his doctoral degree in industrial
tion into “green light” status. engineering from the University of Oklahoma. His research interests
Once the improvements are made, capability analyses are in the fields of quality engineering, reliability engineering, Six Sigma
should be taken to view short-term and long-term goals, and design of experiments. He is an editor-in-chief of the Interna-
shown in Figure 4. The Cpk value of 1.02 shows that the weight tional Journal of Quality Engineering and Technology.

40 Industrial Engineer
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