BAe used to stand for British Aerospace, but since merger with Marconi in 1999, the

company has been called BAE SYSTEMS. BAE Systems is one of the world’s most highly
acclaimed corporations. Underpinned by a desire to be trusted, innovative and bold, the
company has found success where countless others have failed. Founded as part of a $7.7
billion merger in 1999, BAE Systems has continued to grow from strength to strength as one
of the world’s largest manufacturers.

With operations in Australia, India, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and
the United States, BAE Systems is a multinational defense, security and aerospace business.
With a workforce of 84,600 people it works hard to promote and maintain is culture of
innovation and standards of excellence across the globe. On the company’s website it states,
“Our culture focuses not on what we do, but on how we do it. If we focus on the how, the
future that we wish to attain will follow. We have a culture of total performance; a
commitment to the highest standards in every aspect of the way we do business.”

Six-sigma methodology

Developed by Motorola in 1986, six-sigma is a world-class, process improvement and

problem solving methodology. It seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by
identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing
processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and
creates a special infrastructure of people within an organization - Champions, Black Belts,
Green Belts, Yellow Belts, etc. - who are experts in their fields. Those experts help teach
fellow employees, problem solve and innovate processes when required by the business.

Each six-sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps
and has quantified value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution,
reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits.

Lean six-sigma is a combination of both lean manufacturing processes and six-sigma

methodology and was developed by BAE systems in 1997. Six-sigma derives from Total
Quality Management (TQM) and like its predecessor, relies on the use of statistical analysis
and other quality tools to identify and eliminate defects, but provides a framework for using
them. Its focus extends beyond quality to other strategic areas of the organization. Lean
manufacturing is centered eliminating waste and driving efficiency throughout the
manufacturing process.

By combining lean and six-sigma methodologies manufacturers can achieve total customer
satisfaction and improved operational effectiveness and efficiency by removing waste and
non value-added activities, decreasing defects and decreasing cycle time. The concept of
merging lean and six-sigma can be traced back to 1997 when BAE Systems combined both
principles. The company named the program Lean Sigma, its aim being to protect market
share in the aerospace industry. They mixed together the Kaisen team with Black Belts, the
aim being to reducing variation within their processes. As a result the company achieved
substantial improvements in productivity, lead-time, savings and reliability. Since then, BAE
Systems has implemented lean sigma across its business and many argue its this strategy that
allows the company to remain at the forefront of the sector.
The company exposed themselves to Six Sigma and shifts in theory in the procedures are
required to take place. The main Project Engineer decided to make use of DMAIC
enhancement procedure in order to reduce the time of cycle. Each of the DMAIC phases are
considered separately and emphasis was done on each of them.

a) Define: Currently the cycle time was surplus in 1200 seconds having a standard
deviation of 31 seconds. It was decided by the engineer to set a target of 50 per cent to
reduce the cycle time without the negative affect that will cause any sorts of variation;
also, a sigma level of minimum three is set. There were several risks that were taken
in consideration like reduction in overtime, reduced time for assessment and also a
quicker pace for business; a process map was also developed.

b) Measure: Input, process and output are the three metrics that were classified, from the
three metrics there were nine key metrics that were acknowledged. The operational
descriptions were clearly noted and a fresh collection of data technique was put in a
certain position. An analysis of Gauge Reproducibility and Repeatability was
conducted on the new system of measurement which resulted in less than five per cent
in the discrepancy of study. The data gathered was investigated for stability and also
illustrated no presence of special cause variation. Moreover, the sigma value was
clearly calculated for the procedure and the result was a large negative value.

c) c) Analyze: The data gathered in the measure phase, the proficiency of the team
member and also the statistical investigation, four considerable ‘x’ factors were
authenticated as basis causes for a longer phase time. Furthermore, the data resulted in
a prospective of over forty per cent improvement.

d) d) Improve: There were prospective elucidations that were produced by the solution
generation practices and also models of Lean. The elucidations were later positioned
and presented to the organization and then later piloted. The methods of statistical
validation were utilized to demonstrate efficacy of the particular solutions. In addition
to, the control charts represented the stability of the new procedure while descriptive
statistics illustrated a sigma value in excess of five. Also, a reduction of twenty per
cent was resulted in the number of steps of the procedure.

e) e) Control: The old documents were updated and a new document was developed
along with a new procedure map. As part of the solution implementation, training
plans were developed as well as implemented. The potential difficulties were
identified into three categories that are techniques, environment and human factors.
The control plans were put in place in order to supervise the hazards