Research theme: Process improvement and Statistical Process Control

A trend across all the manufacturing sectors that we have researched (automotive, packaging and pharmaceuticals) is the increasing use of process improvement methodologies to improve product quality and reduce manufacturing costs. We have seen various implementations of SPC, "Six Sigma" and "Lean Sigma" methodologies. The degree of uptake varies - from relatively little and novel in packaging companies, to ubiquitous and perceived as critical working practice in automotive - but the broad implications for skills needs are common: shopfloor employees, and particularly those at intermediate level (team leaders, first-line managers), are required to participate in process improvement activity, and thus they need to have an appreciation and working knowledge of the mathematical techniques used in process improvement. There is also involved a major cultural shift from previous ways of working in which shopfloor employees were largely instructed to "follow rules" to new ways of working in which they are asked to participate in problem-solving, asking questions about processes and looking for answers in quantitative data.

Learning opportunities within this theme

Statistical Process Control - Process capability

Publications about this theme

Hoyles, C., and Noss, R. (in press). "The meanings of statistical variation in the context of work". in Lesh, R., Hamilton, E. & Kaput, J. (Eds.) Mathematical Abilities needed for Success beyond School in the 21st Century. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hoyles, C., Bakker, A., Kent, P., & Noss, R. (in press). “Attributing meanings to representations of data: The case of statistical process control”. To appear in Mathematical Thinking and Learning.

Noss, R., Bakker, A., Hoyles, C., & Kent, P. (in press). “Situating graphs as workplace knowledge”. To appear in Educational Studies in Mathematics.

Bakker, A., Kent, P., Noss, R., & Hoyles, C. (2006). "Designing statistical learning opportunities for industry". In A. Rossmann & B. Chance (Eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Teaching Statistics, Salvador, Brazil. Voorburg, the Netherlands: International Statistical Institute and International Association for Statistical Education. Available online: http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/C406.pdf (accessed 18 October 2006).

Kent, P., Bakker, A., Hoyles, C., & Noss, R. (2005). "Statistical reasoning in the workplace: Techno-mathematical Literacies and learning opportunities". In D. Hewitt (Ed.), Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 25, 2, . Available online: http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/IPs/ip25-2/BSRLM-IP-25-2-7.pdf (accessed 3 October 2006).