Amy Schmitz
(315) 443-3834
In today’s tough economic environment, organizations are being forced to do more with less. That means cutting budgets, but in order to really save money, organizations need to constantly refine their processes while at the same time improving their products or services.
To meet this ambitious goal, Inficon, a Central New York-based high-tech manufacturing company, learned and employed a process improvement tool called Six Sigma, presented by the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in cooperation with the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY). Six Sigma is a statistical tool that eliminates process variations in order to reduce costs and save companies money. Six Inficon employees went through the online Six Sigma training and saved their company in excess of $650,000 on various projects—including manufacturing cycle time reductions and product first pass yield improvements.
“The Six Sigma program has been a great success for Inficon,” says Adam Gadway , continuous improvement engineer at Inficon. “We selected a variety of projects from transactional to mechanical to demonstrate the potential of the program in all areas of the company from order services to operations, and through shipping logistics. In each instance, the end result was the same—clear, concrete improvements to the target process and many secondary benefits to surrounding areas.”
In addition to Inficon, 30 other companies over the past five years have been through the Six Sigma course and have saved a combined $6 million. Six Sigma is one of the most effective problem-solving methodologies for improving business performance. Designed for large and small organizations, the tool is applicable to any type of organization from government services to manufacturing.
Inficon’s participation in this program was facilitated through MACNY’s continuing partnership with Syracuse University to offer training programs at a reduced cost. Through additional funding from the MACNY Greater Syracuse Workforce Training Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, Iinficon was able to save $5,520 in training costs.
“The Six Sigma program at SU is a well kept secret in Syracuse,” says Patrick Penfield, assistant professor and director of supply chain executive management programs at the Whitman School. “Year after year, the return on investment from this training is phenomenal.”
For more information, visit http://case.syr.edu/rd/six_sigma.php or http://macny.org, contact Penfield at (315) 443-3428 or pcpenfie@syr.edu, or contact Steve Maloney, director of training and workforce development at MACNY, at (315) 474-4201 or smaloney@macny.org.
June 05, 2012 The program, designed in collaboration with the Casting Society of America, was developed for casting students, including key professional components and core courses with fellow Tepper students.
Read more
August 24, 2012 Natalie Teale, a senior Earth sciences and geography major in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, spent the summer as part of an immersive research experience in the cloud forest of Costa Rica.
Read more
September 13, 2012 Syracuse University today announced that it has surpassed its goal for the most ambitious fundraising effort in the institution’s history.
Read more
September 10, 2012 Civil engineering professor Cliff Davidson had a breathtaking view of the City of Syracuse from a rooftop garden recently. But it’s the possibilities of that prime location that made the experience memorable.
Read more
September 10, 2012 Trauma, psychiatric medications, family therapy, nutrition and systems reform are a sampling of the topics experts from across the country will discuss at the Children’s Mental Health Summit, September 27-29 in Syracuse.
Read more
