NEXT WEEK
_____________________________________________________
Monday, April
28 - noon
Topic: Six Sigma - A focus on Quality , Barry
Totten, Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge
The survival and success
of a company has always depended on how well it can fulfill the needs and
expectations of its clients. One of the most important aspects of client
satisfaction lies in the quality of its products. Failing to recognize what is
most important to a client, incurring product defects and failing to deliver
what the customer wants can be disastrous. Six Sigma is a process that helps a
company focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services.
Its quality strategy insures that a company's process design and operations
capabilities can meet its customer's needs. It also insures that its operations
are stable so that it can establish a consistent and predictable process, one
that would improve what its customers see and feel.
Barry Totten of the Y-12 National Security Complex at the Oak Ridge will
tell us about the key concepts of Sigma Six and how they could be applied to our
own environment. He says that for Oak Ridge, Six Sigma is an engineering
problems evaluation program that has helped them to focus on developing and
delivering near-perfect products and services. Why "Sigma", you ask? The word is
a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from
perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how
many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to
eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible.
April Invocation Chairperson: Fisher Campbell
Menu:
Sliced baked ham, Cucumber salad, Creamed potatoes, Baked beans, Bread
pudding
OUR PREVIOUS
MEETING_________________________________
Our thanks go to Judy
Driggans for her write-up of this presentation.
Rick Keyser introduced speakers from two of the five senior engineering
design teams at UTC. Students present were Keither Perry, Sam Hamrick,
Amanda Leverett, Chris Ford, Nathan Reed, Matt Brant, James Hodge, Greg Barker,
and Robert Powell. The first team was asked by Miller Industries in
Ooltewah, TN [http://www.millerind.com/], to design a portable test stand
allowing them to simulate road conditions to test their designs of light duty
wrecker bodies. Miller Industries is a world leader in towing and recovery
equipment. They had been experiencing stress cracks near the rear lights
in some delivered designs. They want a way to test them before they are on
the road and in service.
Greg Barker and James Hodge described rollers with bumps and dips designed
to simulate road conditions. The back wheels of the wrecker bodies will
drive on the rollers with bumps and dips. The team designed a test stand
with these rollers to simulate speeds up to 55 mph. They included
hydraulic rams to add torsional stress. The portable test stand was
surrounded by a fence for safety. Their design was under budget ($15,000)
at about $10,000. An instrumentation package will be added by another team
in the fall.
The second team was asked by the Chattanooga Group in Hixson, TN
[http://www.chattgroup.com/], to automate movement of the lower end of a $6,000
medical treatment table. Chris Ford and Keither Perry described how the
team designed the automation of movement. The lower portion of the table
that would hold a person from their belt to their feet should move up and down
at 15 rpm by 15 degrees from any starting position. Thirty pounds of lift
would be needed according to the Chattanooga Group. A spring already under
the table can be adjusted to compensate for patients of different weights.
Their design added about $300 to the final price of the table. An
operating prototype of the automated table movement was shown.
FUTURE MONDAY
MEETINGS_____________________________________
May 5: Power Deliver Issues - Mike Ingram, TVA
May 12: not confirmed
May 19: not confirmed
May 26: Memorial Day - No Meeting
WHERE WE
MEET_______________________________________
Unless we note
otherwise, all of our presentation meetings are held at the Cellar Restaurant in
the Tallan Building, Union Square, Downtown Chattanooga from 12:00 to 1:00
p.m. Out meeting room and luncheon service are open by 11:30 a.m. Lunch
buffet is $10.00 per person (inclusive). No reservation is required.
Free parking is available in the Days Inn Motel (on Carter Street and MLK Blvd.)
courtesy of the Days Inn management. When you park there, be sure to place
a note on your dashboard indicating you are attending the Engineers Club
meeting.
QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS?
______________________________
If you have any questions or suggestions about
program items please call Judy Driggans at 423-751-7616 or email her at
jdriggans@comcast.net. You can
find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web
site:
www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org.
Brad Baucom will return as program chairperson in several weeks.