Page 133 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

108 Chapter Four

The purpose is to establish and maintain a motivated team. The suc-
cess of development activities depends on the performance of this
team, which is selected according to the project charter. The team
should be fully integrated, including internal and external members
(suppliers and customers).
Special efforts may be necessary to create a multinational, multicul-
tural team that collaborates to achieve a Six Sigma–level design. Roles,
responsibilities, and resources are best defined upfront, collaboratively,
by all team members. The black belt is the team leader. A key purpose
is to establish the core project team and get a good start, with very clear
direction derived from the program from which the project was con-
ceived. Projects targeting subsystems or subprocesses are the lower level
of deployment. In the initial deployment stage, DFSS projects, some of
which are called “pilot” projects, are scaled to subsystem level or equiv-
alent. As the DFSS gains momentum, it can be enlarged to program-
level DFSS scale. It is very important to “get it right the first time” to
avoid costly downstream errors, problems, and delays.
Once the team has been established, however, it is just as important
to the black belt to maintain the team so as to continuously improve its
performance. This first step, therefore, is an ongoing effort throughout
the project’s full cycle of planning, development, manufacturing/
production, and field operations.
The DFSS teams emerge and grow through systematic efforts to fos-
ter continuous learning, shared direction, interrelationships, and a bal-
ance between intrinsic motivators (a desire which comes from within)
and extrinsic motivators (a desire stimulated by external actions).
Constant vigilance at improving and measuring team performance
throughout a project life cycle will be rewarded with ever-increasing
commitment and capability to deliver winning design entities.
Winning is usually contagious. Successful DFSS teams foster other
teams. The growing synergy arising from ever-increasing numbers of
motivated teams accelerates improvement throughout the deploying
company or enterprise. The payback for small, upfront investments in
team performance can be enormous. Team capability to deliver bench-
mark Six Sigma quality-level design that customers will prefer to a
company’s toughest competitors will increase as members learn and
implement the contemporary processes and practices suggested in this
DFSS book.
In his/her DFSS endeavor, the black belt will interface with many
individuals with a wide spectrum of personality. In addition to the
technical training, the black belt should have enough ammunition of
soft skills to handle such interfaces. Many companies now have Six
Sigma training programs, allocating time in the training curricula to
educate black belts about the cultural change induced by Six Sigma.