Integration of Lean Six Sigma with Internet of Things (IoT) for productivity improvement: a case study of contactor manufacturing industry

In today's era of digitalization and competitive market environment, organizations are more focused on manufacturing quality products at optimum cost to capture maximum business as a variety of options are available to customers for purchasing goods and services. In this scenario, the latest technologies-based productivity improvement can help organizations to achieve set targets of production and ensure the quality of products. In this study, the contactor manufacturing industry has been considered to demonstrate integrated Lean Six Sigma with the Internet of Things (IoT) approach for productivity improvement. A systematic literature survey was performed to understand the concept of Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Define Measure Analysis Improve Control approach and IoT technology. The implementation of the LSS approach reduced the rejection rate of contactors and saved the total production cost (Rs. 51,88,260/-) annually. The annual consumption of grinding wheels has been reduced by 8 quantities to produce the same quantity of contactors. The surface quality of magnets has been identified as a root cause for contactor rejections as it contributes 53.4% of total rejections. The improvement measures are recommended based on the expert's suggestions as grinding wheel dressing must be performed after the completion of a batch of 20,000 parts. The condition monitoring and IoT approach implementation are done by monitoring grinding speed (650–950 RPM), grinding wheel thickness reduction by 0.4–0.6 mm after dressing and dressing of grinding wheel after completion of 20,000 for reducing rejections. This study concluded that industries should implement the Lean Six Sigma approach with the latest technologies and appropriate tools at each stage to set processes to world-class standards and industries should identify opportunities for process and product improvement.