Page 30 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

8 Chapter One

1.2.7 Stage 6: Product/service
consumption
The sixth stage is the product consumption and service. During this
stage, the products are consumed by customers. This stage is really
the most important to the consumer, whose opinion will eventually
determine the success or failure of the product and brand name. When
customers encounter problems in using the product during consump-
tion, such as defects, warranty and service are important to keep the
product in use and the customer satisfied.
For quality assurance in this stage, it is impossible to improve the
quality level for the products already in use, because they are already
out of the hands of the producer. However, a good warrantee and ser-
vice program will certainly help keep the product in use by repairing
the defective units and providing other aftersale services. Usually,
warranty and service programs are very expensive in comparison with
“doing things right the first time.” The warranty and service program
can also provide valuable information to improve the quality of future
production and product design.

1.2.8 Stage 7: Disposal
The seventh stage is product disposal. With increasing concern over
the environment, this stage is receiving increasing attention. Once a
product has been on the market for a while, a variety of techniques can
be used to determine whether it is measuring up to expectations, or if
opportunities exist to take the product in new directions. Executives
and product managers can then determine whether to stand put, per-
form minor design refinements, commence a major renovation, or
move forward to ideation, beginning the cycle for a new product. The
ability to determine the right time to make the leap from an old prod-
uct to a new one is an important skill.
In terms of quality assurance, and according to the definition of
quality, it is clear that the word quality has many different meanings,
and the quality assurance activities and methods are all different at
different stages of the product life cycle. Table 1.2 summarizes the
relationship between quality and product life cycle.

1.3 Development of Quality Methods
The history of quality assurance and methods is as old as the industry
itself. However, modern quality methods were developed after the
industrial revolution. In this section, we review the historical develop-
ment of quality methods and major quality leaders in chronologic order.