Since 1923, Bally Ribbon Mills in Bally, PA has been involved in the design, development, and manufacture of highly specialized engineered woven webbing, tapes, and specialty fabrics. These products are designed for aerospace, defense, medical, safety, automotive, commercial, and industrial applications. Since 1991, Bally’s engineering team has increased their efforts to meet the growing demand in the composites industry with woven preforms and 2-D and 3-D structural fabrics.
“Our Six Sigma work has reduced internal rejection rates by as much as 92%.”
– Mark Harries, Vice President
Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM), an industry leader in the design, development, and manufacture of highly specialized engineered woven fabrics, sought to assess process performance with Six Sigma statistical representations. In parallel, they also hoped to stay abreast of the trends and emerging technologies that could impact their manufacturing operations going forward.
Solution
BRM began its MRC-led Six Sigma Green Belt/Lean Master implementation with projects known to be highest priority in terms of risk of failure, the highest waste costs, or the greatest disruption to the manufacturing area. In that context, BRM’s quality assurance teams hoped to perform statistical analysis on all hypotheses about failure causes and solutions; this way they aimed to narrow the roster of workable potential fixes that would reduce variation in final products.
“Well-trained, QA teams knowledgeable in Six Sigma methodology can use the same data that most manufacturing facilities already collect,” the company says. “Yet they still get to a better confidence level, lower material use, less waste, lower lead times, and reduced overproduction compared with other QA methodologies,”
In addition, the company relies on MRC for frequent training and certification events. From cybersecurity, safety leadership, and the evolution of 3D/Additive Manufacturing, BRM’s involvement with MRC enables them to stay up-to-date with these important but rapidly changing topics.
“Customers are beginning to require adherence with specific NIST standards relative to cyber security,” says BRM Vice President Mark Harries. “The MRC Cybersecurity breakfast was the start of our efforts to become complaint in that area.” Similarly, the company has turned to MRC Lunch & Learn events to brush up on 3D/Additive Manufacturing. A Lessons from Safety Leadership session, meanwhile, helped BRM and their long-standing safety committee stay abreast of key issues.
Results
- Bally recorded a 30% overall reduction in waste during the first two years of the Six Sigma training program implementation.
- Reduced rejections by 80%
- Reduced the internal rejection rate by 92%.
To learn more about Bally Ribbon Mills, please visit their website at www.ballyribbon.com