Page 82 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

Chapter
3

Product Development Process
and Design for Six Sigma

3.1 Introduction
This chapter is designed to be used as an introduction to design for
Six Sigma (DFSS) theory, process, and application. The material pre-
sented here is intended to give the reader an understanding of what
DFSS is per se, its uses and benefits. Following this chapter, readers
should have a sufficient knowledge of DFSS to assess how it could be
used in relation to their jobs and identify their needs for further
learning.
As we mentioned in Chap. 2, Design for Six Sigma is “Six Sigma
going upstream” in the product development life cycle. Specifically,
Design for Six Sigma is a systematic approach to drastically improve
the designed product in terms of its customer value, quality, reliability,
and cost. Design for Six Sigma is very closely related to the product
development process. For many companies, product design and devel-
opment is the most important process because the products developed
here are usually dominant revenue generators. Compared with other
types of processes, such as production process and financial transaction
processes, the product development process is usually a much more
technically sophisticated, costly, and time-consuming process.
Rigidly plugging in a generic Lean Six Sigma approach to product
development process is not appropriate, and it could actually dam-
age an originally effective product development process. One such
example is discussed in a recent cover-page story of Business Week
(Business Week, June 11, 2007). It described how such an inappro-
priate Six Sigma deployment damaged 3M’s long tradition of inno-
vation culture.

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