This study is focusing in the use of Quality Tools and Lean Six Sigma methodology in composite material manufacturing hand lay-up process improvement. Hand lay-up is a process in which individual layers of prepreg are laid up on a tool and then cured. Hand lay-up is a manual process that resulting in numbers of quality defects such as voids, delamination, warpage and the Foreign Object Debris (FOD). This study exclusively deals with the FOD quality defect. In this study some suitable quality tools along with Lean Six Sigma improvement process DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) approaches are applied on the hand lay-up process to provide a way to the company on how to reduce the numbers of FOD quality defects of composite panels to get high quality components which ultimately fit in the aircraft. The focus of this research is in demonstrating how to use quality tools and Lean Six Sigma improvement process DMAIC in practice. The potential FOD on the composite material have been studied. In order to validate the manufacturing system’s current state, statistical tools such as Pareto chart and histogram were used. To ensure that all the decisions were as heavily based on actual data as possible, the data collected had been analysed through Fishbone diagram and Failure Mode Effect analysis (FMEA). As the result of this research, the main source of the cause of the problem is identified and some solutions were purposed. These solutions included, Kaizen, Standard Operation Process and SMED. With the application of quality tools and lean six-sigma approaches it was found, the composite material manufacturing company was able to reduce the number of FOD defect and improve the overall performance of hand lay-up process.
