Cover: Smart Manufacturing by Anthony Tarantino

Additional Praise for Smart Manufacturing: The Lean Six Sigma Way

“China is no longer the low-labor cost manufacturer of the past and must adopt smart manufacturing to remain viable. In the design process and implementation of smart manufacturing, our company fully draws on the knowledge of this book, especially on how to combine lean six sigma tools with smart technologies. It is a rare book that fully and effectively combines production management concepts and practices. This book can be very effective in helping to realize smart manufacturing in the factory to lower cost, improve customer satisfaction, and improve employee morale.”

—Jianfeng Du, Founder and CEO, Millennium Power, China's Leading Hybrid Energy and Battery Storage Solution Innovator

“This book covers topics that are at the heart of our firm's investment thesis. Modern supply chains will have to become fully digitized and required to be resilient and efficient. Just like software has changed the world, smart technologies will change how goods and services are manufactured and delivered swiftly in a fully automated way. The author covers all of the building blocks that will be at the core of the smart technologies wave that unfolds in the next few years. The book is a great reference to have and I strongly encourage you to read it!”

—Najib Khouri-Haddad, General Partner, Sway Ventures

“Dr. Tarantino's newest tome, Smart Manufacturing: The Lean Six Sigma Way, is a tour de force and comprehensive work that will appeal to both readers who are new to the field as well as accomplished experts. In addition to providing fresh perspectives on the latest smart manufacturing approaches, he and his chapter co-authors also expand on several of the most pressing challenges and important issues facing the United States and the global manufacturing economy, including supply chain resiliency, cybersecurity, big data, as well as the rapid adoption of game-changing technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and edge computing. This encompassing volume is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in understanding the state-of-the-art in the rapidly evolving advanced and smart manufacturing landscape.”

—Daniel Dirk, PhD, Interim Dean of Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology

Smart Manufacturing: The Lean Six Sigma Way is a comprehensive and accessible overview of the technologies that are transforming industry. Relevant to both students and practitioners, the book places smart manufacturing in its historical context while clearly bringing across the powerful disruptive potential of Industry 4.0. This is already being felt in the aerospace sector, where a combination of the approaches and technologies outlined in Smart Manufacturing are bringing down development costs and time to market, while reducing entry barriers and enabling a new generation of start-ups with innovative business models. Anthony Tarantino's book provides insight into this emerging paradigm that will be of huge benefit to the reader.”

—Harry Malins, Chief Innovation Officer, Aerospace Technology Institute

“Industry 4.0 is underway. Data analytics, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, collaborative robots, additive manufacturing, and other technologies are already helping manufacturers increase efficiency, reduce downtime, lower prices, and improve service, delivery, and quality. And there's more to come. These technologies are not science fiction. They are being applied right now by manufacturers, large and small, in a variety of industries. However, Industry 4.0 is not merely a matter of connecting machines to the Internet. Industry 4.0 will inevitably lead to new types of work and new ways of working. It will require changes to company structures and relationships between companies. Businesses must understand what they want to achieve and then develop an implementation strategy. This book will help you get there.”

—John Sprovieri, chief editor, ASSEMBLY magazine

“A wonderful book to introduce undergraduate students to a career in operations or manufacturing, a long-overlooked field. The book is easy to read and will allow students to understand the challenges facing those implementing Industry 4.0. Particularly enlightening in describing how smart manufacturing will open up opportunities for women who choose a STEM field for a career.”

—Deborah Cernauskas, PhD, Professor of Business Analytics and Finance, Chair Undergraduate Business (retired), Benedictine University

SMART MANUFACTURING

The Lean Six Sigma Way

 

Anthony Tarantino

 

 

 

Logo: Wiley

To my beloved wife, Shirley, whose continued encouragement and support have guided my writing and teaching efforts over the past 15 years in creating five tomes for John Wiley & Sons and in teaching at Santa Clara University.

Foreword

Narendra Agrawal, PhD

Benjamin and Mae Swig Professor of Supply Chain Analytics
Leavey School of Business
Santa Clara University

It is with great pleasure that I write this foreword for Smart Manufacturing: The Lean Six Sigma Way. I want to congratulate the editor, Dr. Anthony Tarantino, for compiling this impressive volume. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first book that discusses applications of the well-known Lean and Six Sigma (LSS) concepts in the new and emerging world of Smart Manufacturing, or Industry 4.0. I have no doubt that this book will turn out to be a great resource for practitioners, and hope that it will inspire academics to embark on new research opportunities in this sector.

What is distinct about the manufacturing environment is the potential for vast amounts of data that can be generated, stored, and analyzed. This data can relate to production processes as well as to the broader ecosystem of which the manufacturing process is a part. When I first started conducting research on issues related to the design of production systems and supply chains nearly three decades ago, my colleagues and I would often find the timely availability of sufficient data at the right level of granularity to be a major constraint. Consequently, we would have to rely on limited data sets, and extrapolate implications based on these results. However, the fantastic developments in our ability to generate, store, and access vast amounts of (big) data at unprecedented levels of granularity, optimize large-scale mathematical models of such manufacturing and supply chain systems at incredible speeds, and leverage cloud computing infrastructure have fueled the convergence of physical and digital systems. The various technologies underlying such developments form the core of Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0. Therefore, deployment of these technologies can lead to improvements in process flexibility, speed, cost, quality, scale, customizability, and responsiveness in unimaginable ways. Since such improvements are fundamental goals of the LSS methodologies, it is imperative for academics and practitioners alike to explore its applications in this emerging world of Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0.

In this book, Anthony and a group of amazing academics and practitioners with deep domain expertise provide insightful illustrations of how LSS principles can leverage a variety of Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0 technologies in a wide range of contexts. I had the pleasure of working closely with Anthony when we jointly advised a major cloud infrastructure provider on several LSS projects, which led to demonstrable and compelling cost savings and process improvements. It is gratifying to see him bring his unique perspective and deep knowledge of LSS honed over a nearly 40-year career in the high-technology industry to this volume. The applications, insights, and lessons contained in this volume are relevant to manufacturing and service industries alike. I am sure that readers will share my great enthusiasm for this book.

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the exceptional efforts of my proofreaders and editors. Besides writing their own great chapters, Deborah Walkup and Jeff Little made valuable suggestions to chapters in related fields based on their subject matter expertise. Alexander Tarantino and Apollo Peng proofed and edited several chapters, making critical revisions to the final content. Angelina Feng is our 13-year-old middle school student with a remarkable mastery of the English language. She spent hours reviewing each chapter, making hundreds of suggested changes. Most remarkable is that her grammatical suggestions were spot on. I believe she has a great career ahead of her as a journalist or author if she chooses to pursue it.

I also wish to acknowledge the support and guidance from my Wiley editors: Sheck Cho, executive editor; Susan Cerra, managing editor; and Samantha Enders and Samantha Wu, assistant editors.

About the Author

Anthony Tarantino received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his PhD in organizational communications from the University of California, Irvine. He started his manufacturing and supply chain career working first in small and then in large domestic manufacturers, including running Masco's supply chain for the world's largest lockset manufacturing facility. He was certified in purchasing management (ISM), materials management (APICS), and Lean in the 1980s. During the same period he began implementing ERP systems and Lean programs for divisions of Masco Corporation at several facilities. After 25 years in industry, he moved into consulting, becoming a supply chain practice lead for KPMG Consulting (BearingPoint) and later IBM. In the 2010s he led 30-plus Lean Six Sigma projects as a Master Black Belt for Cisco Systems Supply Chain and trained over 1,000 employees in their lunch-and-learn programs. He leveraged his consulting experience to create and deliver executive-level seminars in supply chain and risk management in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

He began as an adjunct faculty member at Santa Clara University in 2010, teaching risk management in finance and supply chain. More recently, he created a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt training program that introduced students to continuous improvement tools and techniques. Working with Professor Narendra Agrawal, he created and delivered an accelerated Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program. The most recent program was for a leading corporate client of the university. The five live projects in that program generated an estimated annual savings of $3 million.

Over the past five years he has supported Smart Manufacturing startups focused on computer vision identifying the most attractive industry verticals and accounts to pursue. He has also acted as a client-facing advocate for the new technologies to improve operations, safety, and competitiveness. His work with these startups was the inspiration for Smart Manufacturing: The Lean Six Sigma Way, his fifth book for John Wiley & Sons over the past 15 years.

About the Contributors

Omar Abdon is a product-focused growth-hacker working with successful startups in Silicon Valley with 15-plus years of experience in building and growing B2B4C products. He founded, grew, and successfully exited three startups in mobile software and digital growth marketing spaces across a wide range of industries like manufacturing, banks, telecom, financial institutions, and more. Currently, Omar is the head of innovation and customer success at Atollogy Inc., a platform to connect, collect, and leverage valuable enterprise big data through machine vision (MV) and to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to digitize business operations and achieve the highest possible efficiency and end-user experience.

Narendra Agrawal is the Benjamin and Mae Swig professor of supply chain management and analytics in the department of information systems and analytics of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. He has conducted extensive research on problems related to supply chain management in the retail and high-technology industries and conducted numerous management development seminars on these topics internationally. His research has been published in leading academic and practitioner-oriented journals. Previously, he served as the interim dean as well as the associate dean of faculty at the Leavey School. Naren holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the Institute of Technology, BHU, India, where he received the Prince of Wales Gold Medal; an MS in management science from the University of Texas at Dallas; and an MA and PhD in operations and information management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Jae-Won Choi received his BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering from Pusan National University, Busan, Korea, in 1999, 2001, and 2007, respectively. He is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at The University of Akron. He has authored more than 50 articles and secured five patents. His research interests include additive manufacturing, 3D-printed smart structures including sensors, actuators, and electronics; 3D-printed rubbers for insoles and tires; and bio fabrication and low-cost binder-coated metal/ceramic for 3D printing. He is currently serving as an associate editor of the journal Additive Manufacturing and editorial board member of the International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing – Green Technology.

Steven Herman builds useful artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems. He is currently a software engineer at Atollogy Inc., leading the development and deployment of novel computer vision models to solve problems in manufacturing and yard management. He holds a BS in computer engineering from Santa Clara University.

Rui Huang received her BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the North China University of Technology and Syracuse University in 2014 and 2016, respectively. She is currently a PhD candidate in the department of mechanical engineering at The University of Akron. Her research interests include additive manufacturing, 3D printing of ceramic materials, conformal printing, and 3D printing of proximity sensor packaging for harsh environments.

Jeff Little is an electrical engineer with 40-plus years’ experience in design, engineering management, and technical program management. His areas of experience and expertise include CPU design, voice and network telecommunications, software, microcode, power engineering, compliance, systems engineering, and highly reliable systems design.

Companies and organizations he has been involved with over the years include major corporations such as Intersil, AMD, IBM, Siemens, ROLM, Cisco Systems, and Tandem Computers as well as startups such as Procket Networks, Maple Networks, S-Vision, and RGB Labs. He is currently enjoying retirement while occasionally consulting.

Craig Martin is a seasoned operations and supply chain leader with more than 30 years’ experience in the technology sector as the senior executive (VP/SVP) driving global initiatives through all stages of corporate growth. He is currently a senior consultant for On Tap Consulting and an adjunct professor at the Leavey School of Business: at Santa Clara University.

Craig helped establish a new company as cofounder, ramped global operations for a private security firm from startup to a successful IPO, scaling to $800 million, and managed global operations for two multibillion-dollar industry leaders. He has extensive experience in supply chain design and operations, hardware development and manufacturing, managing multiple international factories, commodity management, global facilities, and real estate. Technologies he supports range from simple, high-volume electronics to full cabinets with infinite combinations of highly complex electrical and electromechanical assemblies.

Alex Owen-Hill works with business owners and technology companies that want to stand out in their industries, helping them to create a unique voice for their business that feels authentic to them and attracts the people they most want to work with. He earned his PhD in robotics from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with a project investigating the use of telerobotics for the maintenance of particle accelerators at CERN and other large scientific facilities. His regular blog articles on the use of robotics in industrial settings are often shared throughout the online robotics community. Details of his work can be found at CreateClarifyArticulate.com.

Thomas Paral received his doctorate in mechanical engineering and applied computer science from the University of Karlsruhe in 2003. His career began in 2003 as director of R&D engineering for electromechanics at Aichele GROUP GmbH & Co.KG. After various functions in Germany, China, and the United States, he developed as CTO the Aichele GROUP into a global market and technology leader in its rail and automotive markets. From 2014 to 2018, as director of technology of industry solutions at TE Connectivity, he was responsible for new markets and smart factory technologies with a focus on industrial robotics.

From 2018 to 2020, as executive vice president of strategy and business development and GM of cobots and new markets at Schunk he was responsible for the reorganization and realignment of structures including the robotic gripping components and gripping solutions business units. He successfully established and managed the new business unit cobots and new markets. Since 2020 he has been chief business development officer at OnRobot, the leading robotic end-of arm solutions provider for collaborative robotic applications.

Aaron Pompey received his PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles. With several years’ experience in executive management across both the corporate and public sectors, he has leveraged smart technologies to achieve efficiency, satisfaction, and growth with major brands across multiple industries, including education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, quick-service restaurants, and transportation. Aaron is based in the Bay Area and currently leads the Pan America region of AOPEN Inc., a global technology company specializing in small form factor hardware solutions for commercial, industrial, and medical environments.

Frank Poon is an enterprising and intuitive business and product leader with over 20 years of experience in growing both multinational companies as well as startups with successful exits. His focus is on business strategy, growth hacking, general management, product strategy, business transformation, operations strategy, and supply chain management. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago and master's and bachelor's degrees in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan.

Miles Schofield is a professional engineer, dancer, musician, speaker, teacher, designer, artist, entrepreneur, and IT specialist with 10 years of experience in application engineering for the semiconductor industry in metrology, where he wrote qualification and control procedures for a number of processes in addition to integrating unique optical and phase imaging tools into global production flow. He has 10 years of application engineering experience in global hardware and IoT computing solutions for leading brands in retail, healthcare, hospitality, and transportation.

Vatsal Shah leads the management and engineering team as co-founder and chief executive officer of Litmus. He has extensive experience with industrial engineering, electronics system design, enterprise platforms, and IT ecosystems. Vatsal earned his master's degree in global entrepreneurship from Em-Lyon (France), Zhejiang University (China), and Purdue University (United States) jointly and his bachelor's degree in electronics engineering from Nirma University in India.

Bowen Shi, aka Randy, from Santa Clara University received dual BS degrees in Mathematics and Sociology in 2016 and a MS degree in Business Analytics in 2019. In 2016, he spoke at the 43rd Annual Western Undergraduate Research Conference with his Witold Krassowski Sociology Award winning research Success of Digital Activism: Roles of Structures and Media Strategies. Published in Silicon Valley Notebook Volume 14, 2016, the data analytical research investigated how different forms and purposes of digital campaigns affected their success. His expertise is analytics in IT, finance, and manufacture world. He initiated a series of successful analytic projects as the Sr. Data Analyst at Atollogy, Inc. and he is currently a Business Intelligence Analyst at Intuitive Surgical, Inc as of 2021.

Bahareh Tavousi Tabatabaei received her BS in biomedical engineering from Azad University, Isfahan, Iran, in 2014. She is now a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Akron. Her research interests include additive manufacturing, 3D-printed sensors, and biomedical application.

Maria Villamil has a bachelor of science degree in computer information systems from Woodbury University and is a Certified Scrum Master. As senior vice president of WET Design, she is responsible for the planning, construction, and maintenance of the multibuilding WET campus, which includes everything from science labs to state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities consisting of capabilities like sheet metal, welding (manual and robotics), CNC machining, vertical machining, precision machining, tube bending, metrology, vacuum forming, injection molding, surface mount technology manufacturing, additive manufacturing, and powder coating facilities to computer server farms. Maria is in charge of the acquisition, installation, and ongoing maintenance of WET's scientific and industrial manufacturing equipment.

Maria began her career at WET in IT (which she now leads), and which at WET includes high-performance computing, enterprise networking, software development, animation rendering farms, and support for computational engineering systems. She is WET's governmental liaison, in which role she deals with issues ranging from regulatory compliance to the hosting of community and state leaders for events at WET's campus. Maria has led the recent launch of WET's line of PPE products to help the world deal more safely with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deborah Walkup holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Iowa State University. She began her career designing circuit boards and enclosures for military and space applications at Texas Instruments and Boeing. For the bulk of her career she has worked in solution engineering, teaming up with sales representatives for enterprise software companies in the supply chain space. Her sales career began with a reseller of HP Unix workstations and mechanical CAD software used to support design engineering. She works and lives in Silicon Valley and survived the internet bubble and bust of the early 2000s. Other companies she has worked for include i2, FreeMarkets, Ariba, E2Open, GTNexus, and Infor. Deborah is an avid traveler and scuba diver, having visited all continents except Antarctica, with over 400 hours in the water.

Allison Yrungaray has 20 years of experience in high-tech marketing and public relations. With a bachelor's degree in communications from Brigham Young University, she has written hundreds of articles and achieved media placements in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, and many other leading publications. She currently leads marketing communications at Litmus, a company with an Industrial IoT Edge platform that unifies data collection and machine analytics with enterprise integration and application enablement.