Page 45 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Design for Six Sigma Road Map for Service 27

Domino’s Pizza, have created tremendous successes and revenues for these
companies. Chapter 9 of this book will discuss the TRIZ method and its
extensions in business management.

2.1.3 Taguchi Method and Fire Prevention Philosophy

The method of robust design as suggested by G. Taguchi (1985, 1990, 1996)
is also called the Taguchi method. In this method, a good design is one
where products from the design are robust to usage conditions, envi-
ronmental conditions, and manufacturing variation. The robust design is
also based on the idea of “design it right the first time.” The Taguchi
method’s emphasis is on doing a good job in the early design stage so that
you can prevent problems in the manufacturing stage and after the product
goes to market. We can also call this approach fire prevention, instead of
“fire fighting” where fire fighting is the practice of correcting errors and
mistakes; caused by improper designs.

The Taguchi method is an integration of some sound design principles with
experimental design methods (DOE). Ideal function, orthogonal array
experiment, and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) are among several important
techniques in the Taguchi method (Yang 2003).

The techniques used in the Taguchi method may not be easily used in service
industry circumstances. However, Taguchi’s emphasis on doing a better job
in design and on fire prevention makes a lot of sense in the service industry
as well.

2.2 Why Use Design for Six Sigma in the Service Industry?

Nobody in the service industry would dispute the importance of service
quality, customer orientation, and efficiency. There are vast amounts of lit-
erature and case studies on service quality (Ramaswamy 1996). However,
instead of focusing on the millions of customers served satisfactorily and
without incident, the literature often concentrates on the heroic efforts made
by some individual employees to provide extraordinary services during
some special and unique service encounter. The importance of service
product design and service process design is rarely mentioned.

In the service industry, service managers have not paid much attention to
planned and systematic service design. Most often, services are put together
haphazardly, relying on a mixture of judgment and past experience