Engine crapped out today.

[x5_48i_VA]

Originally Posted by Penguin

> they use the 6 sigma approach which means, they will have 3.4 defects in every million products.


Six Sigma sound quite impressive. But one can do better. Did you realize that if the aircraft industry settled for six sigma there would be one plane crash every 3.4 days in the United States?

Seriously, when is the last time you heard of an engine throwing a rod under warranty for any manufacturer?

I believe you cannot have any better than six sigma (If I am not mistaken) The japs follow it religiously and they have their ways of implementing quality control since they use a PULL (Just in time) system. Way better than the US/European mostly operating PUSH (MRP). And it is in regards of every product they make, they have their ways of knowing how to catch a defect too so I think the 3.4 day theory is far fetched.

It is not just about the six sigma approach. It is the whole manuf. system. There was this incident with Boeing where in a production batch of 3 airplanes they had overworked their workers in over time as to meet their deadline. And what do you know, one of the planes crashed (the other crashed too but it was ruled out pilot suicide, the third was grounded until they fixed the defect.

So who knows, the worker on his x5 might of messed something up because of a simple reason like that.

I like European cars the most, I just hope one day they will learn something from the jap. manf system as a whole.