Investigating the Application of Six Sigma Methodology and Quality Control Tools and Techniques in Sepanhan Oil Company

In developing new products and services, quality is critically important, not only to satisfy clients, but also to help organizations to stand out from their competitors. Continuous quality improvement process demands that the team of quality initiatives as well as company leadership actively use quality tools and techniques in their improvement activities and decision making process. Quality tools and techniques can be used in all phases of production process, from the beginning of product development up to product marketing and customer support. Statistical Process Control (SPC) includes seven approaches: Pareto diagram, Cause and Effect diagram, Check sheets, Process Flow diagram, Scatter diagram, Histogram and Control charts. The primary objective of this paper is to show how quality can be enhanced in the oil industry by Six Sigma methodology and selected SPC tools and techniques. Respectively, potential causes of failures in the Sepahan Oil Company have been found, analyzed and improved. For this purpose, the four liter production line of the company has been selected for investigation. The findings imply that the application of SPC tools has reduced the scraps from 50,000 to 5,000 ppm and has resulted in a 0.92% decrease of the oil waste