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[D196]Design For Six Sigma

by Douglas Maider, Dou

The three main goals of portfolio management are: -

1. Maximize value: allocate in an organization's resources to maximize the value portfolio of products of the portfolio in terms of some financial metrics, such as long- or services term profitability or return on investment (ROI).

2. Balance: diversify and create a mix of projects by considering project duration, development and commercialization risks, market mixes, technologies and project types.

3. Strategic direction: align the portfolio around a technology or market central to the organization's strategic plan.

Some common development activities to support these goals include cost reduction, process improvement, customer oriented product or service enhancements, new products or services created along existing technology lines and new platforms or services based on fundamentally new technologies.

There are several problems that may arise if the portfolio management process is ineffective. The organization may:

• Be reluctant to kill development activities for ongoing projects.

• Lack focus due to too many projects.

• Suffer from poor profitability due to too many low risk projects or too many high risk projects.

• Not be able to properly penetrate the market due poor link age between development and market research.

The 12-Step Method

DFSS project selection is built on the following 12-step method:

1. Understand the organization's strategic plan.

2. Make a list of the current and future design projects under consideration.

3. Estimate the net present value, development cost, commercialization cost, probability of technical success (standard), probability of technical success (DFSS) and probability of commercialization success for each project. Involve the appropriate finance, R&D and operations managers.

4. Rank the projects based on the change in expected commercial value (ECV).

5. Meet with all stakeholders to discuss the results of the ranking process. Perform a sanity check and rerank the projects.

6. Based on the final ECV results, choose the projects that are the best candidates for DFSS implementation based on value to the portfolio or other qualitative criteria. At the core team level, the steps to identify engineering activities for DFSS application are:

7. Understand the ECV method and the results from the portfolio analysis.

8. Make a list of all engineering activities that must be done before the product development project can be completed.

9. If it hasn't been done already, estimate the probability of technical success for the normal development process, the probability of success for the DFSS process, the development time, the available resources and the cost for each activity in the overall schedule.

10. Rank all engineering activities according to the difference in the probability of technical success versus the cost of the effort.

11. Meet with all stakeholders to discuss the results of the ranking process. Perform a sanity check and rerank the activities.

12. Based on the final probability estimates, costs and other resource constraints, choose the engineering activities that will contribute most to the overall probability of technical success for the development project.

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Six Sigma is a great methodology that provides companies with many tools to bring about improvements in business process, and aims at achieving reduction in defects. Six Sigma is often concerned with the methodologies used to bring in changes and improvements. The beauty of Six Sigma is the large number of methodologies which are different as well as complementary to each other, but are suited to various types of businesses.
DFSS and DMAIC: DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control is basically very useful when the products and services and the related processes already exist. What is needed is just bringing about improvements in these existing processes. However DFSS, which stands for Design for Six Sigma, is mostly concerned with redesigning, redeveloping or designing a new product. Another difference lies in the fact that the DMAIC methodology is mostly the same for all organizations. But, there is no specific methodology that can be attributed to the DFSS approach.
DFSS and DMAIC versus DMADV: DMADV stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Verify, it is, in essence, a variant of DFSS. When implementing DFSS in actual practice, the DMADV methodology is used.
A comparison with the DMAIC shows that the first two steps Define and Measure are the same. The third step is where the differences start cropping up. According to the DMAIC methodology, the Analyze phase involves analyzing the data collected for the current process and analyzing it to find areas, where improvements and changes can be implemented.
In accordance with the DMADV methodology, the Analyze phase differs in that is is a step taken to gain understanding into the shortcomings in the process, and to shed some light on how to implement a new design for the product. This analysis will result in the development of new products. The core goal of the DMAIC is to lower defects and eliminate waste, which is the reason for the the utilization of resources.
DMAIC is known throughout the world as standard methodology. The DFSS is not known as such, and there is not a universal acceptance for a given methodology.

Article Source : What is Six Sigma

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Both Douglas Maider & Craig Calvin are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Douglas Maider has sinced written about articles on various topics from Six Sigma. Douglas Maider -Helped develop & deliver the very first DMAIC Six Sigma Master & Black Belt. For UK SigmaPro |. Douglas Maider's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.

Craig Calvin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Six Sigma, Six Sigma and Six Sigma. Enhance your resume and credentials by acquiring .. Craig Calvin's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.