The situation
Collector bushings were failing air test and failing in the field.
Ran the Field Wind and Test departments, served as NDT Test Lead for the site and led MRP for Field Wind. The o-ring was ruled out first; the failure was in the fiberglass itself.
3 yrs
Defective parts traced to a supplier process change
The outcome
$1M+
Recovered through back-billing
30%
DPMO reduction
How it happened
- Eliminated the o-ring as the failure mode
- Designed a fixture that pressurized the bushing while exposing the non-sealing surfaces
- Isolated micro-fissures in the supplied fiberglass
- Traced the defect to a supplier process change three years earlier and recovered more than $1M through back-billing
- Air-test and field failures eliminated; created a portable field test
- Production output up 50% while DPMO fell 30%
- Moved from second-shift to first-shift Operations Manager, absorbing MRP and NDT lead responsibilities; GE backfilled the role with three people
- Situational deconstruction
- 5 Why
- 8D
- Process mapping
- Control charts
- Standard work
- Audits
- Kanban
- Poka-yoke