Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1433652
98 SMT007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2021 Editor's note: Indium Corporation's Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. Why was Patty scowling? Patty had just received a phone call from Mike Madigan, CEO of ACME Electronics and her former em- ployer. She still consulted with them. Madigan had previously ex- pressed to Patty that he suspected a vendor was averaging Cpks from two partial lots to get a higher overall Cpk . It seemed to be happening again. Mi ke rememb ered t h a t t h e s c h e m e looked like this: T h e v e n d o r h a d many comp onent s that did not meet the required Cpk, for example, 1.0. e vendor would sort some components and form a partial lot that had a resulting Cpk of 1.5 and the remaining parts in the original lot might have a Cpk of 0.8. e vendor would The Power of Pareto then recombine the components and claim the Cpk was 1.15 [(0.8+1.5)/2 = 1.15]. Mike remembered that this approach was wrong, but couldn't remember why. Patty had written a report 1 on this type of dishonest scheme and was now looking it up on her computer to send to Mike. Bottom line: you can't average Cpks. Doing so is meaningless. Two weeks later… Patty was waiting expectantly in her spac iou s of f ice to meet with the Benson Electronics (BE) team. She knew they were working hard on improving productivity and first pass yields, and she was anxious to see the results. Maggie, John, Chuck Tower, and Frank Emory entered the office. " P r o - ," M a g g i e star ted, then said, enthusiastically, "Patty, I mean, it's so good to see you." "I've been on pins and needles waiting to hear how you made out with all of your im- provement plans," Patty said to the group. Maggie Benson's Journey by Ronald C. Lasky, INDIUM CORPORATION