Implementing the Lean Sigma Framework in an Indian SME: a case study

Lean and Six Sigma are two widely acknowledged business process improvement strategies available to organisations today for achieving dramatic results in cost, quality and time by focusing on process performance. Lately, Lean and Six Sigma practitioners are integrating the two strategies into a more powerful and effective hybrid, addressing many of the weaknesses and retaining most of the strengths of each strategy. Lean Sigma combines the variability reduction tools and techniques from Six Sigma with the waste and non-value added elimination tools and techniques from Lean Manufacturing, to generate savings to the bottom-line of an organisation. This paper proposes a Lean Sigma framework to reduce the defect occurring in the final product (automobile accessories) manufactured by a die-casting process. The proposed framework integrates Lean tools (current state map, 5S System, and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)) within Six Sigma DMAIC methodology to enhance the bottom-line results and win customer loyalty. Implementation of the proposed framework shows dramatic improvement in the key metrics (defect per unit (DPU), process capability index, mean and standard deviation of casting density, yield, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)) and a substantial financial savings is generated by the organisation

Intelligent Early Diagnosis System against Strep Throat Infection Using Deep Neural Networks

The most frequent bacterial pathogen causing acute pharyngitis is Group-A hemolytic Streptococcus (GAS), and sore throat is the second most frequent acute infection. The immunological reaction to group A Streptococcus-induced pharyngitis results in Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF). A genetically vulnerable host for ARF is a streptococcal infection. ARF, which can affect various organs and cause irreparable valve damage and heart failure, is the antecedent to Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD). RHD, in many countries is Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) refers to a range of conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels, including coronary artery disease, heart attack, heart failure, and stroke. It is important to note that while this approach has demonstrated promising results, further studies and validation are necessary to establish its clinical feasibility and reliability. Further research can also be done to evaluate the generalization of the model to larger and diverse patient populations. The results showed that using Image Synthesis-based augmentation improved the ROC-AUC scores compared to basic data augmentation. The proposed method could be a valuable tool for healthcare professionals to quickly and accurately diagnose strep throat, leading to timely treatment and improved patient outcomes. The experimental findings indicate that the suggested detection approach for strep throat has a high level of accuracy and effectiveness. The approach has an average sensitivity of 93.1%, average specificity of 96.7%, and an overall accuracy of 96.3%. The ROC-AUC of 0.989 suggests that the approach is effective at distinguishing between positive and negative cases of strep throat. These results indicate that the suggested detection approach is a promising tool for accurately identifying cases of strep throat

Seed Production of \u3cem\u3eBrachiaria ruziziensis\u3c/em\u3e in India--Seed Collection Methods and Feed Opportunities

Brachiaria ruziziensis is an important fodder crop suitable for high rainfall areas and soils with low nutrient supply. Though the area under B. ruziziensis cultivation in India is not properly documented, it is widely grown in Kerala (Stür et al. 1996) and in parts of Karnataka and Goa. By virtue of its shade tolerance and adaptability, B. ruziziensis have wide scope for adoption in other parts of India. In India, Brachiaria is mainly planted through root slips as availability of good quality filled seeds is very less. It is known that the proportion of filled to unfilled seeds depends on method of harvest and seed collection method (Hare et al., 2007). Appropriate method of harvest depends on growth habit, synchrony of crop development, standing seeds, fallen seeds, availability of labour and on previous experience. Hence a study was conducted for first time in India to standardise harvesting and seed collection method in B.ruziziensis

P Wave Meson Spectrum in a Relativistic Model with Instanton Induced Interaction

On the basis of the phenomenological relativistic harmonic models for quarks we have obtained the masses of P wave mesons. The full Hamiltonian used in the investigation has Lorentz scalar + vector confinement potential, along with one gluon exchange potential (OGEP) and the instanton-induced quark-antiquark interaction (III). A good agreement is obtained with the experimental masses. The respective role of III and OGEP for the determination of the meson masses is discussed.Comment: Corrected typo

ANTIMICROBIAL POTENTIAL OF BIOSYNTHESIZED SILVER NANOPARTICLE AGAINST HUMAN PATHOGEN PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA AND KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE

 Objectives: The main objective of this investigation was to evaluate the potential of water extract from pteridophytes (Adiantum raddianum, Acrostichum aureum, and Christella dentata) in synthesizing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) through eco-friendly routes and accessing their antibacterial activity.Methods: Water extract from pteridophytes (A. raddianum, A. aureum, and C. dentata) was used for synthesizing AgNPs. AgNPs formation was confirmed from the plasmonic absorbance spectra. Antimicrobial potential of synthesized particles was evaluated against human bacterial pathogens Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus species, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli. The results were statistically validated using two-way ANOVA. Most active AgNPs were characterized using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy to access the morphology and size.Results: Water extract from the pteridophytes is capable of synthesizing AgNPs through green synthetic routes. AgNPs synthesized using water extract from A. raddianum showed a significant activity against P. aeruginosa followed by K. pneumoniae. These AgNPs possessed spherical morphology with size ranging between 10 and 20 nm.Conclusion: Novel bioactive formulations, particularly effective against P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae, can be developed through eco-friendly methods using water extract of A. raddianu

Multiple case-study analysis of quality management practices within UK Six Sigma and non-Six Sigma manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises

This paper examines multiple case-study analysis of quality management practices within UK Six Sigma and non-Six Sigma manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises

Fabrication of cost-effective, highly reproducible large area arrays of nanotriangular pillars for surface enhanced Raman scattering substrates

Development of cost-effective, highly reproducible non-conventional fabrication techniques for anisotropic metal nanostructures is essential to realizing potential applications of plasmonic devices, photonic devices, and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) phenomenon based sensors. This report highlights the fabrication of nanotriangle arrays via nanoimprinting to overcome difficulties in creating large-area SERS active substrates with uniform, reproducible Raman signals. Electron beam lithography of anisotropic nanostructures, formation of arrays of nanotriangles in silicon and the transfer of triangular shapes to polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) sheets via nanoimprinting have not been reported elsewhere. The reuse of silicon masters offers potential for production of low cost SERS substrates. The SERS activity and reproducibility of nanotriangles are illustrated and a consistent average enhancement factor of up to ~2.9 × 1011, which is the highest value reported for a patterned SERS substrate, is achieved.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Error vector magnitude analysis of fading SIMO channels relying on MRC reception

We analytically characterize the data-aided Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) performance of a Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) communication system relying on Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) having either independent or correlated branches that are non-identically distributed. In particular, exact closed form expressions are derived for the EVM in -? fading and -? shadowed fading channels and these expressions are validated by simulations. The derived expressions are expressed in terms of Lauricella’s function of the fourth kind F(N) D (.), which can be easily computed. Furthermore, we have simplified the derived expressions for various special cases such as independent and identically distributed branches, Rayleigh fading, Nakagamim fading and -? fading. Additionally, a parametric study of the EVM performance of the wireless system is presented