Page 175 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

148 Chapter Five

data, if any. The team needs to list historical breakthroughs in tech-
nology (i.e., technology mutation) and compare their design with
generic design evolution. Therefore, they will relate technological
breakthroughs with evolutionary improvements. Their study of the
type of improvements will assist them in identifying the stage of
development within their project. The relevant information can be
accessed through literature and patent searches* together with
benchmarking of best-in-class, competitive and noncompetitive com-
panies. In addition, brainstorming of how generic evolutionary prin-
ciples apply to the Six Sigma design elements is particularly useful.
This activity involves the study of established technical paths of evo-
lution to anticipate the future. In all cases, the compatibility of
generic evolutionary principles to the project’s applications needs to
be evaluated.

5.5 Generate Concepts
(DFSS Algorithm Step 4)
The DFSS team should develop a matrix to enable the evaluation of
the alternative concepts against the FR array and other criteria
selected by the team. The matrix provides structure and control to
the process of analysis, generation, and evaluation of the project
solutions. The (vertical) columns of the matrix are the criteria for
evaluating these ideas or concepts in a visual and user-friendly fash-
ion (e.g., schematics and sketches), while the (horizontal) rows are the
criteria. The evaluation matrix will be used to justify that the best
concept has been selected and to justify why certain solution entities
are inferior and should be discarded. Conceptual entities should be
detailed with sufficient clarity to ensure consistency in understand-
ing by all team members. Additional clarity may be gained from word
descriptions and modeling. All concepts should be presented at the
same level of detail. Alternatives should be titled and numbered for
ease of reference.
After the array of functional requirements (FRs) has been deter-
mined, different alternatives of solution entity are generated. These
entities represent the physical translation of the functions defined in
the functional domain. Alternatives are formed by the analysis and
synthesis activities. Synthesis in this case means selecting a feasible
structure where a function is physically mapped into a possibly differ-
ent entity. The techniques useful in idea generation and synthesis
include analogy, brainstorming, combination, and evolution.

*TRIZ is very helpful in developing industry-specific patent database for future reference.